I used to have a thing about skirts. I could never explain it, but while I thought they looked pretty, they never felt right on me.
Entering my junior year of high school, health issues contributed to my decision to switch to online school. Suddenly spending a lot less time leaving my house and feeling like crap all the time ended up in losing a sense of fashion that I’d always identified with. Comfort took priority.
Reckoning with other parts of my identity, combined with the pandemic, strangely inspired a renewed desire to experiment with fashion and girliness. I realized that my former sense of “fashion” had never really been me, and I started experimenting with more accessories, namely fun dangly earrings.
Jeans are an iconic fashion staple, but I need a certain tolerance threshold on any given day to put a pair on. And especially at the time, having a bad health day only compounded that. At some point, I realized that I could avoid that discomfort and still feel like a fairy princess (or grandma, depending on my mood) with a skirt. The first in my collection, and still one of my favorites, is a sage green skirt covered in yellow and pink flowers that I fondly refer to as my grandma skirt. With its stretchy waistband and poofy, long length, I can feel lovely and enjoy breezy comfort simultaneously.
I’ve since collected countless more skirts and am now in the process of gathering more dresses. Probably my ultimate favorite item in my wardrobe right now is a vintage maxi dress that is both the prettiest and comfiest thing I own.
Wearing a pretty outfit always guarantees I’ll feel a tad better. On rough days where I otherwise wouldn’t be able to fathom wearing anything other than sweats, I instead get to wear a flowy dress and enjoy swishing around like a medieval wench. And that makes the hardest of days a tiny bit more bearable.