I know my style has changed a lot since joining YLF. I've become much dressier and more daring in my fashion choices and I've started wearing heels much more often. I really do feel fab and happy with how I look and all the compliments I'm getting. But a couple of comments have me feeling kind of unsettled. The first one was when I posted my Before and After pics and shared the link on the fashion thread on my mommy board. Someone (who lives in my area and who I'd offered to meet up with before) commented that she would be more comfortable hanging out with the old me in fleece and mom jeans and Merrell mocs and that she would be intimidated by the new "fashionista" me. I don't think my personality has changed...I'm still the shy and nice fleece and jeans me, but maybe my clothes are giving off the wrong impression? I don't want to intimidate people!

Then this is the one that really bugs me. The other day we were driving in the car and I was wearing my big Coach sunglasses and my husband was staring at me and I was like, "What? What?" and he wouldn't tell me. But then later he admitted he was thinking that I was starting to look like my mother. Gah!

I love my mom and she's incredibly smart and talented and caring, but I've never aspired to look or dress like her. She is on Team Overdressed and wears lots of sequins or animal print and always looks like she's off to another gala. She prides herself on looking young and the best compliment for her is when someone says that she looks like she's my sister instead of my mother. Her clothes are often a little too tight/revealing and too young looking (one Halloween she even dressed up as a Playboy bunny!). She started bleaching her hair. She never leaves the house without her made-up "face" on and her hair styled. When we were young she was always trying to put blush and lipstick on us ("You need some color on your face!") and then my dad would see it and wipe it off ("Take off that makeup! It's too bright!") She wears lots of jewelry. She has bad bunions from a lifetime of wearing high heels. Once she was going to trek Macchu Picchu and I had to instruct her how to shop at REI and buy hiking clothes and shoes because she was just going to bring her gowns and heels. And she's always been into fashion--in the 80's she was totally into the trends like parachute pants and the Dynasty look.

My sisters and I don't dress anything like her and we've never been into fashion much before. I don't wear lots of jewelry or do my hair and rarely wear makeup. But now I'm worried that maybe I am becoming her because I've started dressing up and becoming interested in fashion! Two things made me worry about this recently...one when I was posting my 70's look and realized that I was wearing a loud print very similar to what she wore when I was a baby. Then yesterday when I was picking my MOTG outfit, I was debating between ballet flats and my 3.75 inch heels and picked the heels because they matched my top. OMG that's totally something my mom would do...wear impractical heels everywhere. Also I had a hard time realizing that my style was bombshell because in my mind, my mom dressed bombshell and I didn't think that I dressed anything like her...although I consider myself more of a demure bombshell though.

So I'm feeling a bit weirded out. I don't think anyone likes to be told by her husband that she is starting to look like his mother in law, right? On the other hand, I found some old pics of my mom from the 60's with my dad where she's wearing a yellow mini and brown lace-up go-go boots and I wouldn't mind wearing that if I had the chance. Maybe I should just aspire to be more like her in a more natural, less made-up, less blingy way?

So am I too overdressed? Do I look intimidating? And am I turning into my mother?

ETA: Thanks for the comments. I don't think it's only that mommy board person in particular...she seems nice enough. But I was posting on the board trying to arrange a local get-together and several of them were commenting that "I'm interested, but I don't have anything fashionable to wear!" like they were feeling pressured to look nicer because of the looks I had posted previously. That's why I was wondering if I was intimidating them.

Also, I agree with Vix (very insightful!) that my mom definitely loves the spotlight and likes to impress people. She's always introducing me to people as "this is my daughter, the doctor" which drives me crazy! Definitely some of my shyness/fashion avoidance could have been a reaction to her. So I guess I'm kinda sensitive when my husband says I'm looking or acting like her. For example, I'm usually not a big party person and not very social in big groups (unlike my mom who loved to throw lots of big parties at our house when we were growing up) but we've had large birthday parties for the kids at our house before and I do like to plan everything and I'm always running around trying to clean up beforehand and inevitably my husband complains that I'm acting like her and showing off and trying to impress people. I definitely do not like to show off or call attention to myself, so it's very strange to me that now I'm gravitating toward attention-grabbing clothes like bright red corset trench coats and leopard print heels!