Dress like YOURSELF! - Marya Javed (NO FOMO)

Going through my childhood photos the other day, I realized that I was raised in much simpler times. I had two pairs of shoes, one for school, the other one to go with EVERY other outfit. I had three to four outfits in all; but all that I loved; a mini skirt (inspired back then by Steffie graff), a parrot colored shalwar kameez (not the prettiest if I look back now, but I loved the color), a red gota frock (that I insisted on wearing everyday) and a pair of jeans. I didn’t get my brows made until I was 18 and I wore white socks under every outfit; but… I was always confident, never doubted how I looked and the clothes I had were my identity and hence made me happy. I didn’t care about how many times I had worn the outfit before, or if my legs looked fat in this outfit or is this my color? Times have changed now. They tell you how to dress for your body type, what is in fashion and what’s not, to not repeat clothes, to wear this with that or that with this… and amongst all this noise, the joy of wearing clothes as your identity is lost. Everybody is trying to fit a mold; the result of which is that wherever I look, everyone dresses the same. Hence, very few around that you can truly call stylish. Don’t get me wrong, I love the idea for having an outfit for every occasion; but if you go through the closets of some of the world’s most stylish people, you will find some staple wardrobe essentials and a few statement pieces. The idea is to never wear the same outfit, the same way twice! To exercise your creativity. To use clothes, not to fit in, but to stand out… to express yourself, as a unique individual. So let’s return to simpler times, where we don’t judge an outfit by how many likes it got on Instagram, but on how it made you feel while stepping out! Lets’ wear that red gota frock to the market, if that’s what you need to do to feel like a million bucks.