playing dress up

 

i don't know if you have really studied the above photo, but there are many layers to that rocking ensemble that i am sporting. please note the now popular felt, bowler cap, accompanied by a matching shirt/skirt duo, with cow print leggings, a turtle neck in a similar hue as the top, cardigan and yes, even boots. not just any boots, but puffy, moon-style, snow boots - the kind 

with the foam on the bottom. 

okay, the point of this post isn't to point out my obvious fashion sense that i had as a yougin' but rather to bring up an entirely different topic.

when did dressing up stop being dressing up?

i was talking with a friend over dinner and she was asking me about how i get dressed. and it is a hard thing to define. not in the smart-ass way, but in the whole, "what am i going to wear way?" and i know that there are more than a few arguments over this sort of thing, but talking to her made me realize that the whole idea around dressing up as a little kid disappears at some point and becomes centered around putting on formal clothing - ie: is this a "dress-up" kinda thing (come on, you know you have said that too).

so when describing to her how it is that i get dressed and how i put together outfits, i told her that i had recently decided that i was going to start getting dressed up the way i used to as a little girl. i enjoyed the experience in itself, because heck, that was half of the fun of whatever game i was inventing anyway. so why, now that my closet (dress up box) isn't reduced to what people have passed down, but rather the things that i am drawn to, would i dress up any differently?

yes?