Style Evolution: Steff Metal’s Personal Style

As you all know, this week we’re discussing fashion and personal style, and I’ve written far too much on the subject … close to 10 000 words of posts for week. For the fellas who don’t think any of this really matter, I’ve got Heavy Metal Fashion: How to Win Girls and Influence People coming your way tomorrow, as well as a deeply personal article about Negative Self-Image: How I Learned to Stop Caring and Love My Weird Face.

Today, I thought I’d demonstrate how personal style is directly linked with your personality, and how changes in the way you think and feel influence the way you dress. Even my husband, as un-fashion-conscious a person as ever you could meet, has gone through style changes that reflect his evolving interests. Before he met me, he wore more coloured t-shirts, especially in blue-greens – colours that reflected the ocean – because he was heavily into diving and underwater archaeology. Now, since he got back into drumming and metal, he wears pretty much exclusively metal shirts.

I am going to be using myself as an example, because my style changes over the years have been quite drastic. Yours might be much subtler then mine, but I’ve no doubt they exist. Please be kind :) And thank you to Mother Metal who scanned in all these pictures for us!

Jelly beans!

A flower girl for my uncle's wedding. I felt like a princess! Mother Metal made my dress :)

My style evolution begins as a little girl who loved frilly dresses and dressing up, putting on costumes and creating pretend worlds for herself (and her sister and her poor, long-suffering family cat). One of my favorite dresses was covered in jelly-beans. When I entered primary school and discovered pretty dresses were uncool, I developed a love for the atrocious patterned 90s leggings and big tunics trend, so I had me some beautiful red tartan leggings (kind of awesomely punk rock, now I think about it) with a matching sweatshirt showing an appliqué of a red tartan Scotty dog. I had some floral leggings and even some leopard-print ones, which I think would be totally trendy today.

After this period, for the first couple of years in high school as was attracted to the hippy aesthetic, which went along with a fascination with witchcraft. I used to visit this shop filled with bright hippy clothes. This was the period my high school chums refer to as the era of the “mustard coloured pants”.

I loved those pants. Made of comfortable velvet, color of mustard, flared, with white flowers embroidered around the hems and up the sides. I knew people thought they were hideous, which was part of what made me love them so much. See, I was destined to never fit in!

This is probably the worst photograph of me I will ever post online, ever. And it is probably one of the best from my youth. My friend did the makeup (I don't wear makeup and didn't even then) and my eyes always go like that in photos.

After the hippiness, I discovered Goth, which I actually discovered after metal, believe it or not, but having never met another “metalhead”, I didn’t really realize there was a metal fashion, apart from my metalica t-shirt. So I started wearing black, lots of black, so much black. I still liked being humorous, so one day a friend and I went around the local op shops and I brought a collection of garish men’s neckties for about $3, and I wore one of these every day. This was just before Avril Lavigne hit the big time, and, as I was a fan, a lot of people accused me of copying her.

random photo shoot back when I was attempting to learn the guitar so I could form an all-girl black metal band called the "Eldritch Sons of Lucifer". Note the tie.

In my first year of uni I had a brief obsession with punk music, where I totally admired the punk aesthetic. I spent up large at the army surplus store and, while I didn’t quite get around to sticking safety pins through all my clothes, I did wear a collection of spikes cuffs on my wriests, every, single, day.

Spiky wrist cuffs ahoy!

At my ex-boyfriend's house. We used to smoke cigars on occasion to celebrate epic good fortune. I think I had just aced all my exams first semester.

After the punk thing I kind of relaxed into the beginning of what has become my defining style – a mixture of metal shirts and gothic elements drawn from different historical periods, metal, and a love of garish patterns and loud colours. I conducted a few experiments – getting dreadlocks in my hair, and after cutting them all off, wearing black feathers clipped in my hair to add body whie I grew it out. I still love the feathers. I”ve got a few photos.

With some old friends.

Studying Ancient Greece in ... well, Greece. You would have to be an Ancient Greek Geek to know that's the Dipylon Amphora, and I'm standing beside it, and that's cool :)

Black feathers - I used to wear them in my hair EVERY DAY.

In more recent developments, I’ve given up my habit of buying already baggy pants a size too large for me, and have embraced skinny and straight-legged pants. I’ve been wearing more short skirts, and even brought a pair of short shorts in Europe, because I have the confidence now to wear them well. I’ve toned down my cuffs, but have recently started wearing more jewelry, which is cool.

See if you can spot me. This photo appeared in several papers across New Zealand, and is one of the only photographs of me with dreadlocks. If you're wondering why I'm screaming, it's because Metallica have just taken the stage.

Taking pictures of viking forts in Denmark. Orange shorts courtesy of shopping in Oslo. Most of the rest of this set of photographs is CDH taking pictures of my bottom

Trends I embraced

Flared pants, bootleg crushed velvet pants, hippy aesthetic, mild-skater fashion, shirts with pictures of watermelon on them, wedge sandals, mini backpacks, being a fashion-blogger who loves Jeffrey Campbell.

Trends I Never Adopted

Those bootleg pants with the skirts sewn over top, pedal pushers, dandals that laced up your leg (I loved them, actually, but when I tried them on I looked so silly). Yoga wear and trackpants as clothing, those high-heel Pulp sneakers, ugg boots, Wearing knee high boots OVER jeand, those balloon dresses.

With my gorgeous sister and our friend Alison's Breasts

What is my personal style?

My external style is, as you can see, heavily influenced by my personality and interests. When you look at me, you can normally tell the kind of music I like, you can guess I’m a little odd, and you can probably see a definite cultural anachronism coming through. You can see humour mixed with a bit of a tough-girl thing. You can (hopefully) see someone who is confident and comfortable in her own skin.

Within our subculture, there ARE certain looks, and they are stereotypes – applicable equally to everybody, and nobody. I like to belong but also look different. I don’t buy a lot of the BIG name “goffick” clothing – lip service, hot topic, heavy red, demonia, etc. That’s a definitive look. I mix my metal shirts with other random clothing – military styles, Victoriana, etc, to give a different look. I try to incorporate other colors while still retaining my dark aesthetic.

Because I am color-blind, I love to play on this in a humorous way by clashing colors and wearing things other people wouldn’t consider appropriate. I love making people smile.

I try not to buy too much clothing, and to only buy pieces that elicit some kind of emotional response from me – whether it’s awe at their beauty, a smile at their humour, or a feeling like I could work that piece with confidence. I rarely buy jewelry (most of mine is given to me) and when I do, it’s to commemorate a place I’ve been that’s spoken to me on an emotional level.

Just chilling out in Cappadocia, Turkey

Some of my favorite items of clothing: My Tripp NYC bondage trenchcoat, my new steampunk couture pants, my Wacken t-shirt, my H&M orange shorts and red jacket, my Gallery Serpentine green corset and my GLP pleated skirt. I love both my pairs of shoes – my work boots and my Jeffrey Campbell wedges – equally. I love my

The Future of Fashion

As I travel more and become more influenced by local cultures (and the culture of Germany, where we intend to live) I expect I’ll. I’ll include even more remnants of ancient history and more talismans of the best days of my life.

What about you? How has your personal style evolved over the years?

If you laugh at my horrible photos or my old tortoise-shell glasses, I’ll kill you
love and kisses