Coming Out of My Shell With Fashion

By Jillian Snapp 

Hey Strut Stars! For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Jillian, House of Strut’s in-house videographer! Although my time with House of Strut is just beginning, I want to take a moment to acknowledge how far I’ve come since my first day strutting through the shop doors. 

I grew up in a small town just outside Atlanta, Georgia, and as you can imagine, small town fashion is not as extravagant or vibrant as some of the pieces you can find on the shop floor. A simple pair of denim shorts and a plain t-shirt was the extent of my styling skills while I was growing up. Even though I was a young artist with a strong creative drive, I never thought about using fashion as an outlet to express myself.

As I’m sure some of you can relate, I spent most of my school years feeling pretty insecure about my appearance, sticking with the most basic outfits from my school wardrobe, hoping to blend in with the crowds and avoid unwanted attention from my peers. 

However, as I started to begin my life as a young adult, I realized a lot of change needed to happen to my wardrobe. As some of you may know, Savannah is home to the Savannah College of Art and Design, a lively, colorful community of art students. Being a student of SCAD myself, I was quickly thrown for a loop when I realized my fashion skills were in desperate need of some guidance.

Thankfully, with the help of my fashion major roommate (who also works at House of Strut), I started to dip my toes into the world of standing out. I traded in my old sweats and graphic tees for bright colored patterns and fun new textures. It was one of the first times I’d really experimented with color in my wardrobe, and for those of you out there who love to stick with black, this was terrifying for me.

But, like everything, you have to learn to trust the process. Over time, I started to develop my own sense of style, and I began to discover how much of a creative outlet the world of fashion could be for me.

I learned that color theory is not just something meant for drawing or painting; it can be applied to my everyday wardrobe to help elevate my self expression. Soft pastel colors (what I’ve been obsessed with recently) are what I feel best express my personality as I’m generally pretty quiet, shy, or soft-spoken. But I always like to have a pop of color somewhere, to show a sense of boldness of strength. I discovered that I prefer slimmer fits when it comes to tops, because they make me feel my most confident self, like this gorgeous pastel blouse.

I spent years struggling with my confidence until I discovered that the right outfit will give you all the confidence you need and more. Finally, I wasn’t worried if people were staring at me, because now I was giving them a good reason to stare. You can achieve anything when you feel and look your best, which is a life lesson I learned almost immediately when I started interning here at House of Strut.

I hope more people can fall in love with fashion the way I have, and who knows, maybe House of Strut can do for you what they did for me. :) 

Keep on struttin’! 

Jillian xx