It was everything I wanted, but nothing at all. The suburbs of Illinois were a great place to grow up in, a place that supplied me with the comfort of knowing all of my friends since before pre-K, but a horrible place to grow out of. Judgment in high school due to the way I dressed led to my feelings of unfamiliarity and distrust in myself. Small towns can be hard if you find yourself being the lone ranger that watches Dior’s spring/summer runway shows during your lunch hour, or that obsesses over Valentino’s effortless silhouettes. However, I have always known that my love for fashion would develop from playing dress up with my mom as a little girl, to collaging my favorite trends from Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar onto notebooks, to taking other peoples negativity towards the way I expressed myself and using it as an inspiration to help me discover the things that truly inspire my style and spark my interests. Essentially, I have always know that fashion is the lifestyle I want to dive into for all my future endeavors, and these occurrences have only encouraged me to pursue my admiration for fashion to the fullest.
A path of self-discovery over the past year began when I moved out of the suburbs and into the city of Chicago to study at Loyola University Chicago. I found my courage in a change of scenery. The city allowed me to push out of my comfort zone and step outside of myself, further advocating my lust for fashion and desire for discovering new trends. With this, I uncovered my love for both men and women’s street wear, my own take on grunge, an interest in designing and creating my own clothing and an ever-increasing obsession with cameras and photography.
With these passions, I am more than ecstatic to be a Style Guru for CollegeFashionista and to share a common interest with so many other people.
On a typical day, you can find me writing in my leather journal as I am whisked into the city via the L embarking to class, rummaging around Ragstock, drooling over every storefront down Oak Street in Chicago, playing Valerie by Amy Winehouse on my ukulele or daydreaming about traveling to India while listening to either MF Doom, Toro y Moi, Mac Demarco, Jimi Hendrix or The Doors (can you tell I’m a little in love with music, too?) through my LSTN headphones, with my yellow polaroid camera in hand.
So, like Biggie Smalls once said, “I’m living everyday like a hustle,” in order to get to where I want to be and to find my place. With a big welcome from myself to all of you Fashionistas/os out there, hi, I’m Carly, it’s been a pleasure talking to you and I cannot wait to get some articles out there for you to enjoy.
