Personal Style Evolution

New month, new week, new goals! Happy Monday my loves! Before I begin, I wanted to make a few announcements regarding my editorial calendar. If you follow me on Instagram, these are reminders for you since I talked about these on there already:

1. Starting today, there will be a new blog post on CCB Diaries every Monday,

2. #CCBgoeslive (Instagram live segments) will be on Tuesdays. I may not do them every Tuesday if there’s nothing to discuss but I will always let you know either way, and

3. #coffeedatewithCCB (book club) blog posts will be every Friday.

Okay, now that the housekeeping is out of the way, we can get to why y’all are really here: my personal style evolution.

The other day in my Instagram DMs, one of my long time readers asked me something that really got me thinking. She said she noticed my personal style has changed since I left New York about a year ago and was wondering if living there had an effect on my personal style. Great question, right?!

The short answer is no. I still dressed the same in New York as I did here. I just had less people giving me side eye in Manhattan for wearing so much black. What I will say that my time there had impacts on are my layering game and my ability to do more with less. The brutal New York winters really made me step my layering game up. For survival. This California girl was not used to cold like that. Even though my first winter there was incredibly mild, I still needed to get used to it. Dressing in layers helped me stay warm without compromising my personal style. Oh, and my faux fur coat saved me from having to buy a parka the entire time I was there. Money well spent.

The other thing it forced me to do was do more with less. I didn’t have a lot of closet space when I was there (even for the clothes I brought with me from California) so I didn’t shop a lot. And when I did shop, I focused on making sure I had good essentials that were versatile. Thermals that looked like long sleeve tees, sweaters, coats, boots, and winter accessories were what I bought most. I had everything else I needed already and if I didn’t have it on me, I made sure to grab it from storage whenever I came back to California to visit my friends and family or I had my parents ship it to me.

However, I do feel like my personal style has evolved over the past year. And I’ve embraced it. A lot of it has to do with transitioning my career from finance to fashion. The way I dressed before was because of the more conservative and business casual work environment in finance. Now, I work in fashion where creativity is encouraged. I can dress how I want to dress instead of worrying about a strict dress code. Also, I’ve made new friends along the way who have inspired me in ways I couldn’t have imagined. Because of them, I’ve tried things that I don’t think I would have (my Topshop yellow plaid coat, for example).

But regardless of where life takes you, your personal style is always evolving. I definitely don’t dress the same at 32 that I did at 22. I was still in college at that time and I lived in Abercrombie tees and hoodies, jeans, and either flip flops, Uggs, or slip-on Vans. Cringeworthy. At the end of the day though, it’s up to you whether you embrace the change or run from it. Fashion is merely what you buy but style is how you make it your own. And who cares whether it’s “in” or not? As long as you feel confident in it, that’s all that matters. Do YOU. All ways. Always.

xoxo, CCB

Photography: Sissy CCB

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