Why You Should Give Your Girl Fashion Freedom
Fashion freedom is the opportunity to let your girl experiment with the kinds of clothes she wants to wear. Developing one’s fashion sense allows women to be comfortable and confident in presenting themselves to the world.
I stand by the idea that a woman’s closet is one of her greatest treasures. Looking and feeling good in what you wear can change the way you go about your day. I know there have been times when I was completely uncomfortable with what I was wearing, which led to low self-esteem.
By allowing your daughter to experiment and invest in her closet, you can nurture her self-esteem, confidence, and moods. However, starting this new journey with her might be intimidating, which is why the following points offer ways you can enable your daughter’s fashion freedom and encourage her to shop thoughtfully.
Developing Sense of Style
One of the great things about fashion freedom is watching your girl develop her sense of style; even if it completely changes and shifts throughout her life, she will have the confidence to express herself fully. And the best way for her to develop a style is to explore.
For older girls, create a Pinterest board and add pictures of outfits or pieces that she likes. Another helpful social media tool for creating a style inspiration mood board is Instagram (make sure you remind your girl about how advertising works and talk with her about healthy body image). Allow her to follow fashion gurus/influencers to find her sense of style. She can even save posts and organize them in an archive specifically for fashion inspiration.
From there, she can begin searching for similar pieces online. Before embracing trendy purchases that are often seasonal, start by filling her closet with some basics. Look for some quality T-shirts, tank tops and bottoms.
Plain black, white, and beige T-shirts come in handy more often than not, and it’s helpful to have them in her closet. It’s also great to get some plain pants (no holes!) of different styles and colors. That way, once she starts filling her closet with seasonal pieces, she can mix and match them with the bottoms that she already owns.
Some popular styles are bell-bottom jeans, straight-cut jeans, palazzo pants, patchwork jeans, and even personally customized pants. Thanks to social media, it is easier than ever to discover trends and styles.
How to Thoughtfully Shop
Recently, I have learned about how to shop thoughtfully. It’s become apparent that for years American society treated clothes shopping as something that we must often do. We don’t need to, though, if we are practicing sustainability consciously. Our clothes should last us a few years, instead of one season. Before purchasing anything, your daughter needs to ask herself, why is she shopping? If the only reason to shop is to keep up with current trends, that may not be entirely sustainable.
When we shop, we should be thinking about longevity:
- How long will these clothes last?
- Is it quality material?
- When new trends appear, will I still wear these?
By asking these critical questions, we approach shopping from a new perspective. Thoughtfully shopping liberates us from the idea of having to consistently shop and spend more money than necessary on clothes. Practicing sustainability consciously doesn’t mean that we must stop shopping altogether. Instead, it challenges us to think about why we are shopping.
Expanding the Closet
Once your daughter starts filling her closet up with clothes that she’s passionate about, she can begin to put outfits together and find her sense of style. During this time, it’s important to encourage her to be confident in her choices and learn how to express herself healthily.
Fashion can be liberating for young women and offer them a creative outlet for their individuality. Fashion can also be a safe space for experimenting if they don’t yet know their sense of style.
There is no set number of outfits that she should have; instead, she should have enough individual pieces to mix and match to create multiple looks. For example, one shirt can be paired with various pants, skirts, and shoes. Another great reason to stock up on the basics is that she will always have minimal pieces to fall back on.
Fashion Freedom is Important
Fashion freedom is more than having the power to wear what you want. It’s a long journey of self-discovery, confidence, and raising your self-esteem. A great thing about fashion freedom is that there are no age limits. It is never too late to help your girl start nurturing herself and find her style. With the rising popularity of thrift shops, vintage and secondhand stores, fashion freedom has become more affordable for those who do not want to splurge on a whole new wardrobe.
It can be intimidating to begin this journey if you’ve never paid much attention to the types of clothes that you were buying either for yourself or your daughter. Now you have helpful pointers to embark on a joyful experience together.
Written by Mia Bustillos
Top image by Anna Shvets from Pexels
Second image by Zen Chung from Pexels
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