Baby's First Blogger Conference

A few months ago, I signed up for the What She Said Seattle Style Summit, a convention for Seattle's fashion blogger community. Part of me anticipated that when I walked in I'd feel a bit like Cady Heron from Mean Girls on the first day of school. If you haven't seen Mean Girls (whaaaaat!?), I'll explain:

Cady Heron is a teenager who spent her childhood in Africa with her scientist parents. She returns to the U.S. late in her teens, and attends her first public high school. Obviously, she's a fish out of water. Luckily, she meets Janis and Damian, two outcasts who befriend her and educate her about high school cliques and customs.

Now, to be clear, I'm not saying that I thought all fashion bloggers would be the equivalent of The Plastics (the cool girls in school). I just thought that I might be the equivalent of the homeschooled-in-another-country girl walking into a culture I knew nothing about full of people that were better dressed than me. Luckily, I did just fine, even without Janis and Damian to guide me.

Here we go!

THE EVENT: The What She Said Seattle Style Summit at the W Hotel in Bellevue

THE BROKEN RULE: Black and navy don't match. (I've really clung to this rule. You may remember that I spoke about it here, too.)

Can someone teach me how to pose!? Good Lord.

Really, I'm asking for a friend. I'm horrible at it. Exhibit A: my claw hand in this photo because I was actually falling over.

THE OUTFIT: I struggled choosing this outfit. In my mind, my outfit was the ambassador for my blog. It should enthusiastically and obviously represent my aesthetic. But how do I represent an aesthetic when that aesthetic is experimental!?

Eventually, my spiraling got exhausting and I went back to experiment basics: what did I want to wear?

Easy. I love this color block skirt. I added this silky navy top, another favorite, and finished the outfit with navy booties, a patent black belt, and my little black Kate Spade bag.

I topped it off with that Glossier red lipstick that I'm newly obsessed with (read about that here!), and even curled my hair. Feelin' fancy.

THE EXPERIENCE: I had no real assumptions about how this day would go, but even so, it was better than I anticipated.

The day was split into three panels, one small group session, and a keynote speaker with a lunch break in the middle. While I learned quite a bit from the presentations, I enjoyed talking to other people the most.

Blogging itself is pretty solitary. (I am alone as I write this.) And while there are plenty of women supporting women on Instagram and Facebook, it's entirely different when those people are in front of you. I loved getting to hear about what these women were creating because they wanted to and because it lit them up inside.

My small group session was with other first-year bloggers. Our conversation quickly turned to topics that weren't fashion related, but rather our experiences as women and how to portray that experience on our specific platforms. How validating! Often in this experiment, I've found that it's not just about clothes. How you portray yourself and take care of yourself can effect all parts of your life. Having this experience mirrored back to me was just what I needed.

We finished the day with cocktails (how else?) and mingling. I left with a few new friends and a renewed fire to write about what matters to me.

If I could, I'd just go loiter there during the day and stare at all of the art.

THE CONCLUSION: Full disclosure, this outfit wasn't as easy breezy as I made it sound:

I didn't intend to wear this belt. That morning, I attempted to super glue a different broken belt back together. That didn't work, and I nearly got super glue all over myself.

On top of that, the zipper in this skirt has a mind of it's own. I assumed I'd just pin it down. That didn't work, either. I walked around all day with what looked like a pointy growth on the side of my thigh. Lesson learned. I shouldn't attempt to mend my clothing the morning of a fashion event where it'd benefit me to look stylish.

But wardrobe malfunctions aside, I had a great day. I'm feeling pretty jazzed about who I met and what's next!

See you on Friday for the next blog post. I'll be attempting to appease the cosmos with my clothing!