I Copied Someone Else's Street Style For a Week, and Guess What? I Didn't Love It

Just like you, I can click through street style shots for inspiration all day. But how many women actually challenge themselves to re-create the looks they admire that get photographed on the street at Fashion Week? Could this be an easy task to take on without shopping at all? I had to know.

After NYFW wrapped in September, I browsed through shots of editors, influencers, and models and chose outfits I liked that I could actually picture myself wearing. I stayed away from over-the-top, avant-garde dresses or outerwear that didn't feel like "me" and arrived at six Fall ensembles I could make my own. I didn't try to match up everything perfectly. After all, I was going about this without purchasing new pieces for my closet.

Instead, I took away certain little hacks (like wearing embellished socks with Mary Janes or layering a wrap dress over jeans) and pulled them off my way. Ultimately, I came to two conclusions: the first is that I have so many clothes I never wear! When I saw Farfetch's Yasmin Sewell in her pink blazer, I thought, "Wait, I have a pink blazer too, albeit slightly different in shade, that I haven't worn since 2014!" And I'm sure that if you dared yourself to copy these looks, or any looks for that matter, you'd find yourself reaching for old jackets and skirts you forgot about too.

Related:

I Wore This 1 and Done Outfit 5 Days in a Row Because It's Easy as Hell

But I also realized something else: I feel most proud to wear a combination I dreamed up myself. I think it's awesome to find that two different women can take on the same trend in two very different ways, don't get me wrong. But as I stepped out of the house each day, I sort of felt like I was flaunting someone else's great discovery. When people gave me compliments at work - they loved that I paired my graphic-print dress with the aforementioned '80s vintage blazer, for example - I thought to myself, "Uh-huh, that was Yasmin Sewell's idea."

I didn't expect to feel this way, trust me. But this experiment reminded me of the reason I fell in love with fashion in the first place: fashion allows YOU to be the inventor; to be a creator, even if you aren't an artist, per se. I enjoy the process of picking out something I like at the store, trying it on, bringing it home, and welcoming it into my wardrobe to be coordinated with whatever the hell I'm in the mood for. I want to call the shots. When someone tells me they like how I styled my look, I want to feel good about taking all the credit.

That doesn't mean that I didn't have fun trying to emulate the gorgeous ladies ahead, and it also doesn't mean that you won't like to get dressed with a "Pinterest board" of sorts. In fact, sourcing street style might be the perfect way to get ready in the morning for some of you. There is, of course, room to reinterpret what you see and make it work for you. Plus, this tactic is definitely a time saver in the morning when you're staring at your closet and you don't know where to start, I won't deny it.

Let me show you how I went about my daily routine each morning, all starting with one snapshot and the clothes I already owned. My outfits might not be 100 percent original if you want to be matter of fact about it, but at the end of the day, what is fashion if not one big cycle of trends that are refreshed and reinterpreted by us all, season after season, day after day?

Related:

I Wore POPSUGAR at Kohl's Every Day of Fashion Week and It Was, Like, Too Easy

from POPSUGAR Fashion https://ift.tt/2OXNzmt