I’ve been thinking about fashion a lot lately. Well that’s not a new thing, I guess.
This has been different though. A little more cerebral. Bear with me…


In my mind, there are two types of fashion blogs out there – personal style blogs where women take photos of themselves wearing fashionable, trendy, creatively put together outfits and style how-to blogs that break down the latest trends, show you how to put outfits together and give you shopping guides on where to find the latest trends reasonably priced. This blog is the latter.


When I started taking photos of my outfits and posting them here a couple of weeks ago, I started to feel this weird juxtaposition. I started to feel like I wasn’t fashionable enough to hang in the ‘personal style blog’ world. Especially with stuff like this floating around the Internets (funny…and I get where they’re going…but like the first commenter on the Refinery29 article, it just seems a bit elitist??).


My insecurities made me start reevaluating what we’re doing here. I had lots of questions…
Are you still fashionable if you wear something from Old Navy?
Can I call myself a fashion blogger if I share big box store items with you?
To be fashionable, do you have to do things like wear a necklace as a headband or shorts as a shirt?
Is this blog not on-trend enough?


This article helped. Particularly the ‘Beth and Christian’ segment. Beth’s before photo is totally on-trend. Oxford flats, tights with shorts, boyfriend cardigan…she looks like something from a personal style blog. And she works in the fashion industry to boot. But, I REALLY like the way her boyfriend styled her. She looks far more put together. So, that made me think…


And then I started looking to the people around me. REAL people who read this blog. And I realized a personal style blog that pushed the limits of a wardrobe and took risks with fashion wouldn’t be helpful to them. What most women need and want is help on how to look stylish and put together. It doesn’t matter if it comes from Neiman-Marcus, the hippest vintage store or Wal-Mart – they just want to look good (actually, they’d prefer it come from something as accessible as Wal-Mart). After seeing stylish models and celebrities in magazines and on TV, they’re looking for something like this blog to tell them how – in a REAL way.


They’re two entirely different things, really – those two different types of style blogs. Most people will look at the personal style blogs for inspiration, but never really feel like they can pull off the looks themselves. It’s an unattainable, not-for-me exchange.


What we do here on Ssasy Chic is inspire, instruct and make trends accessible so you leave feeling confident enough to wear them.


Does that make this any less of a style blog? Nope. It’s just different.


So, I’ll continue posting the how-tos, the what-to-wears and the where-to-finds. And, I’ll keep working on the what-I-wores, too. ‘Cause it sounds like you want to see how to pull it all together…not just in theory – how to ACTUALLY do it.


Glad we got that cleared up. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming…