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The Role of Fun in Adult Fashion
NEWSLETTER
4/9/20262 min read
What is the role of fun in our style when we’re adults? I think of this question frequently and it came up this weekend again over easter.
As the easter bunny’s representative in our family, I got myself two colors of eyeliner for my basket - one purple, one green.
I felt a bit like a kid as I kept them hidden in a plastic bag all Saturday, and as I put them in the basket late Saturday night I thought “I can’t wait to try them out tomorrow”. I felt a little giddy about opening them up the next morning.
Over the past 6 months I’ve entered a refreshed relationship with makeup. One that reminds me of early teen years. I’m confident enough in who I am (that part is NOT aligned with early teen years) that I don’t feel much of a NEED to wear makeup, which allows me more room to WANT make up.
I first wore a “fun” color of eyeliner about 6 months ago when I got a baby blue sparkly eye pen in a makeup subscription box. When I first pulled it out I thought “Ugh, light blue eyeliner, who do they think I am? I can’t wear this. I’m a full grown pale woman”.
But after several weeks of avoiding the blue eyeliner, I decided to try it. I hate wasting products and it was already there. I put it on. I felt ostentatious. I felt a bit silly. But I also felt a bit playful. A few hours later going to the bathroom I saw myself in the mirror again and I thought “I feel like Jack Frost”.
I started experimenting with it more. Mixing it with other eye makeup. I didn’t go for it every day, but I liked having it as an option. The eyeliner was such a small little change in my style - but it added excitement. Newness. Joy.
As adults joy is often missing from our wardrobe. It feels like something we’ve been ordered to leave behind. Something that is for youths. Young children dress with joy so intuitively. Over time we’re silently taught to leave this behind. That to be taken seriously our wardrobe needs to convey only serious, grounded feelings.
But we flock to others that radiate joy in their style. And that is what joy in fashion does. It radiates. It easily sparks the attention of passersby and captures us when we see it.
It’s a strange paradox, to have an experience that we so clearly enjoy seeing from others, but diligently avoid in each of ourselves.
Even for the few of us that have broken through the odd cultural expectation of stifling joy, the fun doesn’t always feel accessible. For example, many of us want cultivate a wardrobe we can keep for decades, but if excitement and newness is one of the ways we can cultivate joy in our wardrobe how does that jive?
I think this is exactly why the eyeliner worked so well. It was something small and still aligned with longevity in my wardrobe. I’ve found a similar experience with a new hairclip, pairs of socks, headbands, new earrings. Or even just mixing together two pieces of clothing that I’ve never worn together before.
Perhaps the key is an experience of exploration that’s just for ourselves. Like children who are so unaware of their surroundings when playing dress up, aiming for only the fun in it and forgetting the outside world for awhile. If we’re lucky, we can live in the words of Kate Spade when she said “Playing dress up begins at age 5 and never truly ends”.
