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I think if I had to sum up my sense of style, it would be ... I like to do both.
I like to have an air of androgyny.
A little bit of an air of utility.
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I think a lot of that comes from growing up.
I actually was always a big fan of GQ Magazine because men's fashion made a lot more sense
to me because it was so simple.
You know?
A tailored suit is a tailored suit.
And it's going to look good on you regardless of what size you are, regardless of what type
of body you have.
And so men's fashion just made a lot of sense to me, and I loved it's simplicity.
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I'm not very in tune with what the latest trends are, but at the same time, of course,
eventually the trends make their way to me.
I'm just the last person to know about them.
So, I'm still out here rockin' a belt bag.
And I'm gonna probably be rockin' a belt bag for a minute, because at this point now for
me, it's actually not about being on trend with the belt bag.
It's actually that it's really convenient and I remembered how much I hate carrying
a purse.
So, belt bag has been a saving grace for me in 2020.
A lot of what I wear, too, is also based on the fact that I'm filming things.
I need to be comfortable but also relatively clean looking.
You know?
I can't necessarily be walking around in full heels, or in wedges, or something like that
because I'll probably be carrying gear.
I always have my camera with me.
I always have a backpack with me.
So, I think my style is also influenced by that.
Women's fashion, of course, is a lot of fun.
But there's so much you can do, there's so much you can do, there's so much you have
to keep in mind when you're thinking about different body shapes.
Women: we come in all different shapes and sizes, and so what works for me might not
work for you, and so on and so forth.
And so, I found myself gravitating towards men's fashion, quote unquote, because it was
just simpler.
The rules were pretty defined.
And because they were so defined, I knew how I could break them.
I've been meaning to make this video, I guess, for a while.
But, it's been kinda hard to figure out how to explain how I've moved into whatever this
style is.
Partly because I don't really think it's a style.
A lot of my style and fashion sense is based off of, "I don't really wanna think about
this too much."
I would rather think about other things.
I don't pull joy from putting an outfit together.
You know?
That's not really where I'm at.
But at the same time, of course, what I wear is an expression of who I am and how I want
to be perceived by you.
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And I think the big thing for me is I want to be perceived as calm and comfortable.
Because when I think of being comfortable, I pull confidence from that.
If I'm comfortable, I'm confident.
How can I combine function, comfort and then be a little, and then kinda just, and then
be on that fence of what is feminine and what is masculine?
And why is this feminine and why is that masculine?
You know?
I think my general style tends to ask that in a very calm, in a very subdued way.
But it does tend to ask that a lot.
I've learned to just kind of lean into my body type as well, with the type of clothes
that I gravitate towards.
So, I have very broad shoulders.
My shoulders are broader than my hips, and I love that.
I love how broad my shoulders are.
I love how much my clavicles you can see.
I used to get made fun of when I, as a kid for having such predominant clavicles.
And so, when I'm looking for jumpers or rompers in the summer, I do tend to gravitate towards
spaghetti straps, or no straps at all.
And then, what I really love to do is to make sure that whatever kind of romper or jumper
I wear is cinched at the, right at the waist a little bit because my body type, I do tend
to have a shorter torso.
And so, I find for me, the big thing with everything I wear is making sure people can
see that I do indeed have a waist, and that it is just higher.
And I'm okay with the fact that my waist is higher up than probably most ... than I guess
what the average, balanced waist is.
I lean into the fact that my torso is small and make sure that my, whatever I'm wearing
has either a high waist, but for me it's really just actually where my waist is.
I find that sometimes the best thing you can do is just throw a little spark of something
in there.
For me, maybe it's a very feminine jumper and overall the look is very feminine.
And then I'll just kind of throw in my Red Wing boots.
Just to mix it up.
Just to like add that little bit of utility.
Add that little bit of, but I could climb a tree if I needed to.
You know?
I know a lot of women, I feel like we all kind of go through these phases in our styles
and, and what we like, and what we don't like.
And, I know for me, I definitely went through a few phases.
Growing up Christian, black church, you know, cover up, be very modest, don't be fast, leave
something to the imagination.
All those problematic terms.
All those problematic sayings.
I had them all said to me.
And for better or worse, that has shaped how I dress, period.
You know?
I can't deny that that has an influence on me.
At the same time, early in my, in college, when I was, I would say, at my most conventionally
physically attractive, I did experiment with tighter clothing, more revealing clothing
because I'd never done it before.
And I was curious to see how ... would I like it, would I not, would I feel empowered by
it?
And, of course, peer pressure.
I mean, it's college.
We all clubbin', you know.
And I found that for me, and again, this is not for all women, for all people for that
matter.
For me, I found that I didn't gain much confidence from revealing my body.
And I think a lot of that for me was around the type of attention I was seeking.
I could tell that I didn't actually like the attention I got.
It just wasn't for me.
Please do not come into the comments, talkin' bout, "That's right, Hallease.
You tell them how to act," no.
Women can wear what they wanna wear.
Free the nipple, amen.
I am here for it.
I just found that for me, I didn't really gain much confidence from it.
But at the same time, I'm all for shakin' up some patriarchy, every day all day.
Ain't no type of underwire in my bras.
Ain't no type of cup-age in my bras.
I been livin' in bralette land, happily.
My d's are just out.
I care not for shape-age.
And that's the thing, you know, there's so many ways to exist in style.
There's so many ways to exist in clothing.
The best thing you can do for yourself is just try.
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Or the only way that I knew that wearing revealing clothes actually wasn't really for me was
because I tried it.
And even with that, some days I feel more feminine, and some days I feel more like showing
off my body for some reason.
And, I can't really explain why.
I just feel it, and so I do it.
The big thing I wanna project out with my sense of style, is that I'm comfortable.
Because to me, I am my most confident when I am comfortable.
I have a few dresses, very simple dresses that I love, and have had for years, and I
mostly wear them to special occasions.
And I love these dresses because I would say my style is minimalistic.
It's pretty simple.
But the clothes I do have, especially the dresses I have, they're all very sentimental
because, again, since my general style is comfort over ... whatever, I tend to, my dresses
tend to hold a lot of sentimental value.
The pink dress that I own, I've had it for years, and years, and years.
My mother actually bought it for me, and I wore that dress to my sister's wedding.
I wore that dress when I first started getting scholarships for college and there were special
events that we had to go to, ceremonies.
So, that dress has traveled with me through so many different parts, different phases
of my adult, budding adult life, official adult life, so on and so forth, married life.
And I just love that I can still fit into it, although it is gettin' a little tight.
I'm gonna link to a few women that I follow here on YouTube as well that are strictly
style, fashion folks, and I love their look.
I love that they, I would say that they tend to more focus on sort of traditional French
... Parisian street fashion where everything's fitted, everything's tailored.
I really love that.
I really do.
I think that's the coolest thing.
Even though I'm out here wearin' a swoop-y, swoop-y, droopy sweater half the time, I love
that they're just over there like, "Everything needs to be tailored."
I'm here for it.
I hope you enjoyed this video.
In the comments below, let me know, what was a phase of style that you went through that
was questionable at best, but at the same time kind of led you to where you are now,
which I'm assuming is better.
I'm always curious to hear what folks used to vibe with.
Like, they just felt they were lookin' so good.
Like, this is me now.
Let me know in the comments below and I'll see you when I see you.
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