Given that I spend a lot of time deciding what to wear, I want to periodically write about my thought process when I pick out my clothes and also when I make purchases.  I want others to learn from my mistakes.  One recommendation is to cultivate your personal style before making major clothing and accessory purchases. 

Soon after I college graduation, I moved out to New York City and was floored by how different everyone dressed.  Polished and put together, while I felt like a slob.  I felt pressured to dress better - and so I went to stores that were not completely out of my price range (when shopping the sale racks).  Banana Republic, Gap, Ann Taylor, etc.  I then dressed *well* (by my standards at the time) but looked like every other corporate New Yorker ...minus the paycheck.  Something with my new wardrobe didn't click though, and I never felt quite like myself in what I wore, minus a few items here and there.

Fast forward a few years later, and I moved back to good ol' Jersey and eventually switched jobs, only to spend time in NYC on the weekends.  Or at night running to/from grad school, which doesn't count.  I soon felt uninspired with my surroundings (and still do, but that's a whole other story), and realized that the best part of New York was the people.  You saw all walks of life and it seemed that no one was afraid to be themselves.  And that was extremely inspiring!

Not knowing that the world of style bloggers even existed, I googled "street fashion" and stumbled onto Lucky Style Spotter out of curiosity.  Some pictures were interesting, but one person stuck out over the others.  Jessica of What I Wore had a personal style that spoke to me - and still does!  From there, the rest is history... I've been following a number of personal style blogs ever since.  


Long story short (wow, didn't mean to write this much!), poke around these blogs, read some fashion magazines, and see what speaks to you.  I can't really label my personal style, and I feel that I'm still cultivating it a bit, but now I can easily pick items off the rack that are ME :)