Using Fashion as a Stress Reliever

The most stressful time of senior year falls right when Fall begins (pun intended). Trying to raise your C to an A in that one class so you don't destroy your GPA and writing seven essays about yourself just so one college can accept you are just a few things that make my favorite season a terrible time. A lot of my older, college-bound or even out of college readers don't want to look back at that tragic history, but I know many of my audience is in the same boat as I am. People who say that senior year is the easiest are definitely incorrect in their assumptions, and I would like to prove them wrong by showing them my impossible schedule filled with college apps and studying and even managing two jobs. I don't want to use this blog as an outlet to complain about my miserable life, but you should understand by now that I'm not having the best senior year. Even for the people who are younger or older than high school seniors, two months into a new year can be difficult for everyone. I only bring up my stress to prove a positive point -- that there's always something good to replace the negative. In this wonderful season, I get to use the abundant choices I have for autumn fashion to almost "get me through" such a stressful period. Yeah, I'm that fashion dweeb who gets excited when I get to put new looks and ideas into outfits for the new season. It makes me think of all the opportunities I have for Fall fashion, and even if I have a C in AP Lit, at least I'll look good while having it.

One of my favorite things to do in fashion is to "solve" a fashion dilemma by creating something beautiful out of it. Of course one of the common app essay prompts says something along those lines, and because I currently live and breathe college apps, I would use it to help me with fashion. With fall, these problems are easier to solve because you can layer more items on top of each other, while in the summer, that can be really tricky. The issue I had a few days ago was that I wanted to wear a dress, but it was slightly too short in the back to wear on its own. I could have worn the dress with leggings, but I wasn't going for that kind of style. I also had another issue on top of the first one. I wanted to wear a sheer, collared dress (that is no longer a dress on its own because it's too short on the sides), which I wore here last spring, but I didn't want to wear it in the same way as that last post. I simply combined the two problems, and a solution came out of it. Although the collared dress is too short, the back is longer, and the back of the other dress is too short, so the combination of the two made the outfit an appropriate length. Not only did this solve a measurement issue, but it also created a unique outfit consisting of flowing layers, additional collars, and a classic black-and-white color scheme. Hence, the "something beautiful" was created. 

I solved the issue, but I also wanted to create something more with the outfit, so I layered my denim jacket over it to give it a casual feel and to also create the double-collar look (and you thought one collar was enough). And maybe you're still asking: why did I bring up that first story in the beginning of this post? Maybe it wasn't necessary, but I do like connecting my posts to my personal life, and creating this outfit actually did make me feel better about this stressful time (I don't care how strange that sounds, I know I'm not the only one). Fall shouldn't be a stress-filled season, at least in my perfect world, so I'm making it better by playing around with fashion ideas. With all bad comes the good, and even with something as minor as this, every little thing counts.

Both dresses by Urban Outfitters. Jacket by Juicy Couture. Shoes by Steve Madden.

Photos taken by me (which will, from now on, be done on my Canon EOS 40D).