5 Things Vintage Means to Me - Individuality

Dear Readers,

How are we on this lovely day? I'm continuing on with Blogtober and the second part of my 5 part series focusing on what vintage means to me; individuality. Now this is something I have touched on in the past when I wrote about my thoughts on reproduction vintage. I feel the pro's and con's to wearing reproduction vintage is pretty evenly weighted for me so to read more about my thoughts on that then pop over here to read my original post. Just to warn you there are a number of embarrassing, pre-vintage pictures of me coming up, that's how much I love you.

One of the main reasons I got into vintage in the first place was out of a desire to express my individuality. I was very emo when I was in my teens but as I got to my early twenties, while I still liked alternative style, I felt like it made me appear younger than I was. So I went high street for a period of time in the attempt to be "grown up" but this didn't work out for me either. I just couldn't stand blending in. I've always been outgoing in many ways; I'm a gregarious person who will befriend you purely based on mutual hair appreciation and I love to make people laugh. So when I blended in with everyone else on the high street I felt like I was pretending to be another person.

After a little bit of searching I finally came upon vintage and I knew I wanted to look like that. It was bold and different while still feeling adult and mature. Red lips and perfectly coiffured hair gave me the striking look I was wanting because I'm basically the polar opposite of a chameleon; physically incapable of blending in with my surroundings.

One of the side effects of looking different means that you naturally draw the attention of other people which can at times be positive and sometimes negative. Overall I have to say though that I have had a very positive response from other people to my look. It's actually a real conversation starter and people will randomly come over and speak to me about it. Sometimes it's little compliments which I absolutely love and other times it's actually blossomed into amazing friendships which I never would have made otherwise.

On the flip side one of the negative things I have experienced is that occasionally a lot of people stare at you. I have had people actually adjust their chairs in restaurants so they can get a better neb and children crane their necks out of windows to stare. Not often but every now and again someone will take a sneaky photo on their phone which does rile me a little because they don't ask and I have very little control over my face so 95% of the time it's very unflattering. I don't purposefully wear these clothes to attract attention; I do it to be an individual but I understand that being different will make you stand out.

Some people have said to me that they admire my confidence to wear what I do. At the time I was really bemused by this because to me it's a no brainer - of course I'm going to wear the clothes I like! But on reflection it does take confidence to stand out; though to me the ability to outwardly reflect my inner self is far more important than the negative reactions I may receive from a small handful of folk.

What do you think folks? Have you had any reactions to your style? How do you express your individuality?

ttfn!