STYLE GURU BIO: Kylie Klein

Hello fellow Fashionista/os! My name is Kylie Klein, and I am going to be a sophomore this coming fall at Charleston Southern University. I am a starting middle on the NCAA Division 1 Buccaneer Volleyball team there. I am a Graphic Design major with a minor in Fine Arts and Business.

My volleyball career brought me to my new adventure in Charleston, South Carolina, which is about 27 hours by car or six hours by plane from my home in Denver, Colorado. I may be an athlete, but I am constantly thinking about fashion. Whether I’m sewing my Halloween costume (I was Meg from Hercules this past year!) or sewing my latest dress design, you can find me playing with my sewing machine. In addition to physical fashion design, I simply adore drawing and all forms of art. Pencil sketches, inked drawings, acrylic paintings, watercolor paintings and color penciled artwork litter my dorm room walls. This summer, I will give you a taste of both Denver and Charleston fashion with my new Nikon camera!

Everyone will (or should) agree with me when I say style is a daily thing. I hate laying out an outfit the day before because how am I supposed to know how I am going to feel the next day? Caitlin Moran says it best: “When a woman says she has nothing to wear, what she really means is ‘there’s nothing here for who I’m supposed to be today.'” I prefer to wake up in the morning and let my fingers run along my clothes until I am inspired to be someone. I start with my anchor piece; this might be one of my many leather jackets or a metallic crop top. Depending on the day or the occasion, I will dress up the outfit with a rustic meets edgy necklace and one of my pairs of high heels—perhaps my oxblood Prada pointed-toe pumps—or I will put on some structured black leggings and my leather high-top Converse.

Whatever the day may bring, you can be certain I will fall into one or many of my personal favorite style categories: “punk rock,” “bohopeless romantic,” “classicly chic,” or “glam diva.” My cropped three-quarter sleeve leather jacket, metallic crop top, high-waisted GUESS black shorts, golden gladiators and Coach cross-body bag would definitely fall under my “glam diva” category!

Fashion is a world language. Your style is your personal translation. There are many rules in the fashion world; like your mother tries to tell you and her mother surely told her, you can’t wear white after Labor Day or god forbid you mix black with navy. “Fashion rules” are an overstatement. They are more like guidelines. They are meant to be played with and even broken when done superbly. Take it from a daredevil Fashionista, the worst you can do is try it on! If you never try the unlikely pairings, you’ll probably never strike fashion gold. And what girl doesn’t like a little sparkle?

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