Hey Fashionistas/os! I’m Ashley Peterson, and I’m a returning Style Guru from Northwestern University. I am a Journalism major on the Integrated Marketing Communications track in the Medill School of Journalism. After taking a break from writing my personal posts to get settled in my sophomore year and interning in CollegeFashionista’s office in Chicago, I couldn’t be happier to be back writing for the rad new site.
Ever since I’ve come to Chicago, my style has been continuously evolving. Although I have been fervently interested in fashion my entire life, a childhood of Catholic school uniforms including polos and wool uniform skorts didn’t exactly prepare me for the vast freedom of expression that subsists on a college campus and in a big city. Last year I found myself panicking when I realized that people here were much more in tune with trends than people back home and that my style was way more conservative than I wanted it to be.
As I went to pick out my outfit everyday, I found that I didn’t own a lot of wardrobe basics that everybody else seemed to have. I started to observe the street style around me and took note of pieces I liked when taking pictures for my blog posts. Now that I finally own a pair of black booties, black pants and a brown leather purse, I have a wardrobe that makes it easier to get dressed in the morning. My style is still preppy and colorful, but it is quickly becoming more minimalistic and city-like. Although I’ll still wear a blazer, tall leather boots or my brightly patterned Lilly Pulitzer vest, I now also occasionally wear moto boots, a leather jacket or a faux fur vest .
Look out for my posts on Wednesdays, and we can become even more inspired together. Your style is the way that you present yourself to the world, and that’s pretty important. The upside to the pressure put on this impression is that college is the time to experiment with your style before heading out into the real world. Who cares if you wore an embarrassingly ridiculous outfit to a party once or don’t own a pair of black booties yet? NOW is the time to mess it up, figure it out and get it right, whatever that may mean for you.
