Express yourself!

Epic win and Epic failure.

Do you want to have your own style? Do you want to be fashionable? Do you want to be trendy?

So, let it be! Express yourself!

We are leaving in a time where everything is allowed (almost).

I come from a culture that gives a lot of importance to fashion and appearance. For instance, I will never go out without some make up one, and still, if I want to be comfy, I’m going to wear some joggers and a hoodie, but I will not choose them by chance. Everything must fit, everything must have its own reason.

It is quite wrong to give so much importance to appearancel, and this is why stereotypes of beauty start influencing our way to be. You have to be skinny, you have to wear branded clothes, you have to be on a diet, you have to work out, so that you can reach success. A typical example in Italy are "Le Veline" from the Tv Show "Striscia la Notizia".

This is an epic failure! It’s not true! Fashion is a mean trough which people can really express who they are! You don’t need to spend a lot of money to create your own style. You have to look around, see what you like, decide what fits better for you and be creative!

Of course, you might also have to like shopping, because the research for the perfect look could be long, disappointing and not easy; but at the end it will be an epic win!

Usually, I like to look on Internet or on some magazine (Vogue, Comsopolitan, Vanity Fair..) what is going on in the fashion field. Must have and, what to expect from next season, which outfits stylists are creating, which I would like to wear, and which one I would never wear! So then I get a precise idea of  what I’m gonna search, who Camilla is gonna be this fall, the upcoming winter, next spring and summer.

I can not say that I’m fashionable, in a posh stylist way. I prefer to experience styles, change them, mixed them, be myself.

I don’t like people who just dressed up to belong to the mass, or because they are part of a specific group that needs to follow certain “style rules”. For example, why going to buy an expensive pair of jeans or shoes because you want people to think that you are rich, that you can afford it, that you are cooler than anybody else?! You can spend the same amount of money for a trip or in just more than a pair of jeans. Moreover, in Italy you can quite distinguish people from how they are dressed: what they are studying, what their job is and where they are living or come from. Let’s say that you are studying law, you need to be elegant, posh and so “in”, you need to go to every cool party or bar where other people can see you. On the other hand, if you are studying Sociology, you will have to hate every brand, your hair will have to be messy, but in a cute way, you will have to be kind of hippy style.

I’m not saying that this is the rule, but it’s quite real. I used to be a bit like that, I used to want to buy well-known brand, such as Prada, Calvin Klein, D&G, Lacoste etc.. Now I get you can find a compromise and be trendy anyway!

I must say I like how Americans dress, I don’t know why but I was expecting different or at least more unusual. Probably, it is because of my past in the UK, fashion is strange there: the shorter the better?! But they are so much forward than us because they just don’t care. You can go out, dressed as you want, having nothing that match, wearing a pink wigs and they will not look at you judging you! You can go at the supermarket wearing your pajamas and that is fine. I love that, as I love all the different styles you can see there, some can also be "fashion crime", but you get inspired there, it’s the world where everything can be and everything can be found. 

I used to love shopping in the UK (it was also quite cheap!), and you have to go to Camden Town, once in London! You will love it! Let's get crazy let's go Punk Rock!!
But the best place to shop for me remains Italy.

I will accept any suggestion though, about where to have great shopping here! And I will let you know very soon which are my favorite brands and where I usually shop!

The confession of an Italian shopaholic.. 

Xo Xo Camilla