Bust out your Juicy Couture tracksuits and your high school club tees – it is home clothes season.
As you pack to go home next weekend, there is a strong likelihood that you will forget not only a toothbrush (mom always has a spare) but also enough clothes to make it through the week.
No worries, though, thanks to Home Clothes. Just reach to the back of your childhood dresser drawers and pull out whatever troves you may find: a T-shirt from your orthodontist, a track jacket from your marching band days or a pair of mom jeans you never threw away.
Whatever your choice, you are bound to come to the same unfortunate reality of "I can’t believe I used to dress like this in high school."
Obviously, change is natural. The human body is physically built to evolve, so coming to college surely meant you went through a few changes both personally and sartorially. And since we all are going through these changes together, it does not feel so strange to shed our past selves as we grow.
Well at least it is not so strange until we come home and spend time with the people we used to see in the places we used to go doing the things we used to do. Then, all of a sudden looking back at our changes does not just feel nostalgic but also out of place.
Sure, we know the lines we are supposed to say and the steps we are supposed to take, but they do not feel like our own anymore. With the passing of time, it is simple – you have evolved.
But what about your clothes? Shrugging on that track jacket probably will not feel like it did a few years ago, as your taste surely has matured since then. This begs the question, what is the catalyst that evolves our style?
There is no genetic code that made us shell out a ridiculous amount of allowance money on UGG boots or told us an Abercrombie logo was the perfect wardrobe staple. We cannot blame science on that awful eighth-grade haircut or even when we layered white tees under our camisole tank tops.
Our taste made those decisions. Back then, it was bad taste. But still, a carefully curated taste informed us what to like, what to dislike and what to style with a Mossimo tank.
Thankfully, since then our tastes have grown. With new experiences, travels, lessons and people, we have expanded them – not because of genetics but because of our own doing.
In a few years, we will become fully mature, we will stop growing on a physical level. But as for our tastes, we can expand those horizons for decades to come.
From clashing prints to bold haircuts and glamorous living, we have the agency to continuously evolve our style in any way we see fit. While this does not mean I would necessarily jump for the Juicy Couture today, it does mean that I can come home, look at some crazy changes in my closet and know that I am moving in the right direction.
