It's Time

As an introduction, I will simply tell you that I am a 30-year-old woman who has spent her entire life not feeling quite right in her clothes, making fashion errors, spending too little or too much, and hardly ever achieving the classic style I have sought. Every time I am in public, I see women dressed in outfits that make me drool - the way their pants fall gently from their hips, with hems right where they should be. The crisply pressed shirts, untangled soft hair that stays in place, the dresses that look so natural you'd think they were designed with the specific wearer in mind.

My hippie upbringing —with its focus on the natural and its general disdain for focus on one's appearance—aside, I stand ready to admit to the world that finally, at 30, I am ready to look good.

This blog will chronicle my efforts to learn about fashion/style and implement the knowledge for my own appearance. So far, my resources are www.fashionista.com (which I started reading for work purposes, and which is largely responsible for this new quest of mine), Vogue (subscription should start with the next issue!), and my own eyes, which have been analyzing style and fashion for the first time these last few months.

I am 5"10" tall and of slim/athletic build with some exceptions. In the last 6 months, I have begun exercising regularly for the first time ever (well, since high school field hockey, I guess), so I am feeling pretty good about the way I look, but I have always had a proportion problem because of my wide hips. There's been a pleasing decrease in the noticeability (is that a word?) of that proportion problem since I started exercising again, but it's probably always going to be an issue for me. I like to highlight other areas, but my awkward feelings about my general proportions have had me looking awkward much of the time. It's time to get over it! I think finding the right clothes (and tossing the ones that don't work) will do me a lot of good.

So, here on Fashion Virgin I will let you know about my daily (or close to it) experiments in improving my appearance, and maybe we'll all learn something.