Decade Challenge. Fashion and Memory.

Its called fashion Susan…look it up.

[image description: Photo of the author taken in 2008. They are brown skinned, short and chubby. They are wearing a grey sweater vest, black cropped pants and black lace up boots]

In the way back long ago, in the 90s I was a teenager with a lot of feelings about fashion. I remember looking at people and having this image in my head of how I wanted to dress. I have loved fashion as self expression for as long as I can remember. I played serious dress up with wigs gifted to me by my drag queen babysitters, I remember being at the hair salon with my Mom while she got her hair done and quietly spending however long trying to emulate make up looks seen in magazines and photos. My sense of my own aesthetics and how I’ve wanted to express them has always been strong and usually a little weird.

I remember a time when I was in the fourth grade and all I wanted out of life was to wear black leggings and a black sweater. My first baby Goth moments and my mother was absolutely against it. I begged. I pleaded. I cried. I sulked and was denied my entry into gothdom. I waited. A few years later, for picture day in the sixth grade I was allowed to wear a chunky knit scarlet off the shoulder sweater, black leggings and my mom crimped my hair. I even snuck and put on some shiny lip gloss and I felt like a little baby deity.

Many of my memories are tied to victorious moments of feeling like I’ve presented myself to the world exactly as I wanted to. The denim top, black lace flounce skirt…