Bonjour les beautés! I’m Déborah, and I am so excited to be a Style Guru for CollegeFashionista this fall! I’m a junior majoring in International Business. I was born and raised in France, one of the leading country of the fashion industry. During my junior year of high school, I moved to Russia. I also spent my sophomore year of college abroad in D.C.
Living in those three different countries and meeting people from all over the world allowed me to acquire a broader view of fashion and trends—growing up as an individual, getting to know myself and others better, becoming more self-confident and mature. But we’re here to talk about heels/hills and skirts, right?
This year abroad in the United States also helped me become more confident. In fact, I was not able to go out without wearing any makeup or having my hair done. But, when you live on campus, at some point you have to. Your skin needs to breath, you can’t wear those lenses 24/7 or straighten your hair over and over. At some point, people will see you without any tricks. You don’t want your friends to have a heart attack if they showed up in your room in the middle of the night. Well, what I want to say is that living on campus surrounded by so many people all the time empowered me so much. I started going out one Sunday without makeup and the next one without even doing my hair—and this girl is a Style Guru, gosh. It was just easy to walk around campus without any makeup or with random clothes and just feel good about myself. I was feeling good, happy and I started to care less about what others could think or the way I looked, as long as I felt good with my body and as long as I was surrounded by the people I loved.
That’s when I started to be interested in fashion. Living abroad made me question myself a lot about the person I was and the person I wanted to be. When you’re away from your point of references and family, it is sometimes hard to know who you are. It is truly a way for you to make the most of yourself, build yourself as a person and discover your inner self. Fashion became a way to express who I was.
I have often heard that you can start wearing makeup when you actually don’t need to wear any. I feel the same way about fashion. I started being interested in fashion and spending hours online to look at look books and outfits, when I became confident enough to go out dressed like a walking mess.
So my dear Fashionista/os, never forget that your smile is your best makeup and that feeling good inside will make you look so beautiful outside.
