Our evolving personal styles

My friend S wrote me an email about her style change over the years: she has been more drawn to simple looks and she can no longer take much pinks and pastels. It's funny how the designers have returned to minimalism at the same time, and so my lucky friend S is right at the front of the new trend. Is it just a coincidence? What exactly causes our personal styles to evolve over time?

I rarely wore any colors but black when I was in college studying architecture design. Black is cool, sophisticated, and more durable in a studio full of glue, knives, and water colors. My years in graduate school were the low point of my style: when I had only four to six hours of sleep every day, jeans and t-shirts were the only outfit I could think of.

I, like every other twenty something girl, faced a personal style crisis once I started working: I panicked and I filled my closet with Banana Republic and J. Crew. Looking exactly like everybody else riding the subway, I was bored of the preppy style soon after I gained better knowledge about fashion. Armed with all the major fashion magazines, I started my fashion adventure. I mixed Marc by Marc Jacobs with my pretty outfits to introduce a little twist in my working outfits, and I also wore some pinks and pastels occasionally influenced by the ladylike outfits shown on the runway. I found myself shopping for better made clothes to match with my J Crew basics recently, and I shop all over the places from H&M to Chanel and from Ann Demeulemeester to Hermes. My personal style is now highly mixed with cheap and expensive, avant-guard and classic. My outfits are also so moody that people see a rebellious Jing today and a lady like Jing tomorrow. For me, fashion is emotional and fashion expresses my feelings; the designers, at the same time, bring me new tools season after season.

Some designers express their social concerns with their clothes, and others look forward trying to provide new looks. Designers don't necessarily control our personal styles but provide choices for us to make the outfits "us". Designers set the trends in certain degree yet it is us who decide what to wear and how to wear them. At the end of the day, no matter if we are trend followers, classic chics, or the moody dressers, we all need designers to provide us with new elements to assemble our looks. Our personal styles then constantly evolve with the trends, with our life changes, and with our knowledge on fashion.

I can't help but wonder how my beloved readers' styles have been evolving. Let me know and leave your comments.