I Miss Working at Forever 21

I have plenty of reasons to wax sentimental about my 2 and a half years spent working in retail management.

I, of course, miss my coworkers...a few of whom I formed what I hope are lifelong friendships with.

I miss the team environment there. I thrived on that and don't get as much of it at my current job.

Even though I know I wasn't the best in the world, I miss being a manager...I like working hard, leading a crew. Doing that really brought out a side of me I don't think I would have found otherwise.

I liked being super busy. I did like helping customers. Most of the time. Sometimes I want to go back, because I think I'd be even better at it now.

I miss the music. Yes, a lot of it was annoying, but it fit the mood of the store. I liked to do my runway walk to the beats when no one was looking.

But this post is not about all the sappy reasons I miss working at the mall. It's about how I want to wear gloves like this:

I want to pair that shirt with these pants and my denim jacket.

I guess this jones-ing for wardrobe experimentation came at me full force at the mall the other day when I was looking around at Claire's and tried on a headband like this:

So cute, right? And now my hair is long enough to wear things like this.

To my surprise, Mike actually liked this on me! I think I might buy it next time I'm at the mall.

Which brings me to answer the obvious question, "why can't you still dress up?

First of all, I go to work at 2 in the morning. I sleep in as late as possible. Show me someone who wants to spend a ton of time getting ready at 1:30 am and I'll show you an 80-year-old who knows who Snooki is.

Second of all, a woman dressed to impress a man, and a woman dressed to impress other women are 2 completely different things. I would assert that we females do the latter much more often than we realize.

My man (and I'm going to assume most guys are this way) seems to prefer me in simpler, more classic clothes. Minimal accessories, hair down, good jeans, and a well-fitting t-shirt or nice top. Dressing slutty seems to go over well too. I took him in New York and Company and it was all, "you'd look nice in that...I like that..."

I like that stuff too, don't get me wrong. That's probably the direction my wardrobe will be moving in considering my current career path.

Getting dressed for work at the ol' F21 every day made me feel like a rock star. I wanted to represent the store well; the company is very fashion forward. I could experiment...That was dressing...mainly for myself...but for other women. That's who I was trying to sell clothes to.

And my favorite girls loved to experiment with their style too. There were days I'd look like one of our crazy-lookin' mannequins and feel perfectly comfortable in the store...then as I was walking to the food court I'd feel all eyes staring at me.

"I'll be honest...there were days you'd get ready for work and I had to try not to laugh," Mike has said.

He's a dude...he doesn't get it.

I loved to mix really girlie pieces with rock-n-roll or tomboy style things: Ripped jeans with a dressy top; a nice dress with a leather jacket; a graphic t-shirt with a cardigan.

I was always trying to find new ways to wear my cowboy boots.

I loved big earrings, chunky necklaces and rings.

Layering...plaid shirts, vests, sweaters.

Fun patterned tights.

Scarves...I freaking LOVE scarves...turns anything into an outfit...I feel like celebrity when I wear a scarf!

I like winter clothes much better than summer duds (layering obsession? Finally relevant again.) So maybe I'll start sprucing it up again.

I'd be much more motivated to do so if I worked during the day, though.

I'm definitely buying that feather headband.