Sporty? Classic? Romantic? Who Cares?

When I was in my teens I spent hours pondering fashion quizzes in Seventeen magazine. You know the ones I mean, the quizzes that asked multiple-choice questions to figure out if you were sporty, classic, romantic, or trendy. Xtabay attracts a lot of women who have a firm grasp of their style, but other shoppers, like me, still spend time pondering the style quiz we keep in our minds. We hold up a dress, look at ourselves in the mirror, and say, "It's nice, but is it me?"

After working at the Xtabay a few seasons and spending more time with clothing and talking to women about style, I think I've even drifted further from a cohesive "look". Last week I dragged up from the basement two boxes of summer clothes. I emptied a box of Hawaiian print dresses on the bed and refilled the box with plaid wool Pendleton skirts. How is that for consistent style? The lumberjack hula dancer.

But what I've lost in consistency I've gained in love for a wide variety of styles. I'm just as likely to wear a 1940s sage green linen suit as an early 1960s kelly green shift. Around my neck could be a 1970s Vera scarf or maybe a mid-1950s strand of Austrian crystals. Somehow my friends are still able to pull a coat from a rack in a thrift store and say, "This looks like you." Go figure.

Now when I see a woman turn in front of the mirror trying to decide if a dress is her style, I ask her, "Do you love it?" That's really all that matters.

--posted by Angie