... and it's that I didn't really need a radical epiphany!

I have been lurking here a while, as I have been feeling for some time that I was in a rut with the way I dressed and presented myself. I felt like I was buying the same outfits over and over from the same shops and my wardrobe felt like a uniform from which I could not escape.

As I started to want to break out of the straitjacket, I started to use Pinterest to get new ideas. I gave myself permission to pin absolutely any look, from anywhere, that I liked to a board, no matter how different the model was from me in terms of age, colouring or body shape. 100+ pins later, I looked at what I had chosen and found that in terms of actual basic garments and looks, my dream look is really just an edgier, slightly more feminine, more colourful, but above all more *deliberate* version of what I already wear. I think that I've fallen into the way I want to dress almost without really thinking about it, and now I just need to sharpen it up. If my old style felt limiting it's because it was a blunt butter knife when I want it to be a scalpel.

I feel really good about this realization. It's given me some specific things to work on -- I need to think about shoes and accessories; I need to incorporate some more traditionally feminine items like skirts into the mix, recognizing that I've matured out a lot of my uncertainty and discomfort with being the only woman in a hugely male-dominated field. I love menswear looks, but I also love my legs -- no reason not to show them off a little in a professional way. I also really need to indulge my love of saturated deep colours and not be so dependent on black as my standby for all situations.

I haven't really been present here on this board in any tangible way, but I do feel like just lurking and watching has been a really useful experience. So, to a dozen people who don't know me at all: thank you, you've inspired me!