Decorating My Life: A Reflection on My Decora Fashion

01.18.25 // 11:19pm

It feels weird to write a fashion blog without pictures of my fashion, so I’ve scattered this post with some selfies. I reserve the right to delete them if I get too embarrassed!!!!!!

I am edging closer and closer to thirty. It’s weird, being this old and still into nerd culture. I’ve been on the internet since I was 9, and I remember finding it strange that people as young as college were on roleplay forums or MMOs—but thirty? Now that was insane. Thirty-year-olds were moms and teachers. Thirty-year-olds had their lives together, and they definitely weren’t writing fanfiction or watching anime.

And now, here I am. Thirty. Still nerdy, still on the internet. I’ve aged alongside it. Its golden age is long past, as is mine.

…That’s what I feel like I should say, anyway—but, just like Neocities has revitalized aspects of the old web, I feel more revitalized and energized than ever. I am more confident in myself and my appearance, personality, hobbies, style, etc. than I ever was growing up. I shrank away from who I was for so, so long, but I now have the conviction and strength to love every aspect of myself loudly and vibrantly for everyone to see. And, in my case, I channel that obnoxious love for myself through what I wear—that being obnoxious decora fashion.

Cybr.grl is such a decora inspiration!

Up until I graduated college, I did not have a sense of fashion. I wore jeans and a t-shirt every single day. I had a rudimentary understanding of it—I owned a couple pairs of thigh high socks, some fun Ocean in Space shirts with anime girls on them… but I didn’t have a lot of eye-catching pieces in my wardrobe. The reasons behind this are twofold: I didn’t have a disposable income to buy the clothes I wanted, and, of course, I wasn’t confident in myself. I didn’t want to be perceived. I didn’t consider myself “girly”, much less “into fashion”. As a child, I identified as a tomboy, and in college, a butchish lesbian. Fashion was for girls, for femmes. It wasn’t me.

Then, something changed. I reflected upon this in my gender blog, but I pinpoint that shift in self perception to the death of my father. When a sudden change rocks your world, you start to reevaluate yourself and your life. You ask yourself, “What if I died tomorrow? If I did, could I look God in the face and say that I died happy?” And at the time, I don’t think I could’ve said yes. I didn’t feel like I was true to myself—I was hiding who I was behind veneers of pessimism, of irony. I remember that, during those haunting, horrible hours after leaving the hospital, I promised myself and my dad that I would live life true to myself. I would be me, no matter what obstacles stood in my way, and I would live life as happily, creatively, and vibrantly as I could.

Of course, back then, I didn’t really have a word for the type of style I wanted to encapsulate. I made itabags with busy colors and designs, but they were relegated solely to the bag. I went on to dabble in retro kidcore; specifically, I really vibed with colorblock 80s/90s fashion featuring primary colors.

I was really inspired by Cool Shirtz’s “Play Cool” line. I own three pieces from this set: the Very Cool Corporate Sweater, the Play Cool “Sportsball” jersey, and a simple color block tee. None of these appear to be on the site anymore, save for the corporate sweater. I still really love this line of clothing, and I desperately wish Cool Shirtz will return to it someday.

I get so many compliments on this shirt. Kinda small on me now, though.

And yet, despite adoring these clothes, I felt like they were missing something. They were bright and colorful, but they had a heavy emphasis on primary colors: red, yellow, “green”, and blue. Great colors, yes! But missing something. Two somethings: orange and purple! I wasn’t satisfied with just colorblock: I wanted the full rainbow.

I still didn’t have a word for that, though, and it affected my ability to look for clothes. Cutecore? No, too pink. Clowncore, kidcore? No, not enough colors. Maximalism? Close, but a little too basic. It wasn’t until a random, pivotal conversation with my boyfriend wherein he mentioned offhandedly that I might enjoy decora fashion that I finally had the descriptor I was looking for.

Bear expressed that he had been into decora fashion years ago, and he shared with me a couple of photo inspos. I instantly fell in love. This was the style I had been looking for! It was bright, loud, and unapologetic. It featured every color of the rainbow in a crazed slurry of whimsy. It proclaimed proudly: why choose? Why fight between pieces you want to wear—wear both! Wear everything you love on your body all at once: wear your favorite keychains, your childhood toys. Wear hairclips you got twenty-five years ago at Claire’s, wear the trendy Labubu you liked before it was cool. Decora is a love letter to everything you are for all of the world to see. It rejects subtlety and minimalism in favor of embracing cringe. It encourages you to don your favorite possessions in new and unique ways, to think up creative ways to repurpose childhood and nostalgia into fashion.

I wore this outfit to Painted Desert Fur Con. The paws and ears are from scopermonstar. They were a Christmas gift from my mom!

Since getting into decora, I’ve been doing a lot of crafting. I’ve made a frankly alarming amount of kandi bracelets and hairclips. People often come up to me and compliment my outfit, and every time they do, I pull a bracelet out from the aether as thanks. I’ve bought a ton of beads for these projects, yes, but I’ve also found myself repurposing lots of toys I’ve had since I was a child. One of my favorite projects was turning Pokemon pencil toppers I used to play with all the time into beads. I also turned childhood toys into keychains, small plushies into hairclips. I feel like I see the world differently now: those toys I was too nostalgic to throw away have now blossomed with new life. I’ve never considered myself a very handy or craftsy person (despite really wanting to be), but in the past couple of years, I think I’ve really forged myself a new identity—and that feels awesome. I hope to someday be able to learn how to sew, too!

I have made so many bracelets. I see bracelets in my nightmares.

I see people criticize decora influencers (my favorite ones of which are cybr.grl, the pioneer of the fashion in the west, and atomic.laundry—a personal inspiration as a masculine decoguy) by saying that decora is an unapologetic adoration of cybr.grl. I can kinda see how some people might presume this on the face, and they might even have a bit of a point. It does kind of involve consumerism… and, admittedly, I kinda like consumerism. I am not immune to Sanrio propaganda and wanting to buy needless plastic knick-knacks just because they have Kuromi on them. They’re cute. I like cute. Every item I’ve ever purchased, though, is well-loved: I display, wear, or hug every cute thing I’ve ever bought. Some people don’t have this relationship with stuff: some people buy a Labubu because people are talking about it and then donate it to Goodwill three months later. Some people overconsume to the point of gluttony. I don’t think that’s common, though; social media might lead you to believe that, but many, many influencers succeed solely on overconsumption-based ragebait, and they shouldn’t be treated as the norm.

Decora is about repurposing and creating. You might look at cybr.grl, for example, and wonder how much money she’s spent on all of those accessories. That’s a misplaced question—cybr.grl has regularly stated that most accessories she has are either made or gifted. They’re from all sorts of different shops. When you buy one hairclip at a store every couple of months over the course of many years, you’re going to wind up with a butt ton of hair clips. I have made or otherwise repurposed probably about 80% of my accessories—and most of the other accessories I have were gifts I’ve kept over the years. That’s decora: it’s displaying every gift you’ve ever gotten over your arms and your heart. It rejects fast fashion and consumerism by directly challenging it: “That 2-cent plastic ring I got at an arcade as a kid? I still have it, I still love it, and I still wear it.” Every piece of plastic, every scrap of fluff I’ve ever loved, I still love.

I wore this Keroro Gunso hat I got at AZ Matsuri 12~ years ago… to AZ Matsuri last year!

I’m sure some people, especially young people (I’ve noticed that nearly everybody who excitedly comes up and compliments my “decora outfits” tends to be young), might feel driven to overconsumption in order to succeed at this style. Kids tend not to have a lot of stuff yet, so they might ask for or purchase a of stuff because they think you have to have stuff in order to be decora, only to realize that they didn’t really connect to that stuff—and then throw said stuff away. I don’t think they can be blamed: kids are still figuring it out, and while they might love decora today, they might realize it’s not for them tomorrow. Unfortunately, despite its garish colors and reliance on childhood staples naturally attracting a younger demographic, I don’t think decora is a good style for teens: I think it’s much more soulfully successful when the items you wear are well-loved accumulations of your life over the years. New stuff is great and awesome, but without love, the colors clash. It’s hollow. It’s slop.

Everything I’ve said about decora up until this point could also be applied to my website. It, too, is a bright, eye-melting love letter to every person I ever was. Many of the pixels and stamps featured on my site I remember using on DeviantArt or saving to my hard drive from Neopets petpages. Every little virtual trinket brings me such unabashed joy. The website is public, but it’s also personal: every choice I’ve made in the design of the site I’ve made to satisfy my own taste. It’s mine! It’s perfect imperfection, and I’m so proud of it.

I’ve received a couple of comments that I need to put an eyestrain/“vibrant colors” warning on my website. I know these people generally mean well, but to be honest, this unprompted critique kind of bothers me. I didn’t ask for criticism, for one! And as someone with sensory issues myself, I get kinda peeved when people imply that we aren’t responsible enough to regulate what we consume. But also, I’ve tried very hard not to make the site too obnoxious (with the exception of certain pages, like Beau’s). It’s an organized kind of chaos: it’s loud, bright, and obnoxious, but there’s order. There’s purpose. Every stamp is organized so that the colors are complementary and that there’s not too many gifs next to jpegs. Every blinkie is calculated! There’s a rhyme and rhythm to it, I swear!

That’s how I try to style my decora, too. It seems nonsensical and random, but I actually put a lot of thought into coordinating pieces. Decora isn’t just throwing clashing colors together: it’s about finding pieces with matching vibes and letting them harmonize with each other. An outside observer might be blinded by the outfit or think it’s too much, too ugly, but to me—and, I hope, to a trained eye—there’s intention behind every carefully layered necklace and bracelet. Nothing overlaps, nothing clashes. Every color is given its personal chance to shine.

Pay no attention to my bedroom. AVERT YOUR EYES

I try very, very hard with this. My decora outfits take me hours to assemble. I want them to be loud and in-your-face and perfect. I strive to be so aggressively colorful that it offends people, because if someone is offended by what a random shmuck is wearing in the grocery store, then they are a deeply miserable person and I want to get under their skin. At the same time, I want to be so colorful that it inspires people: that it fills people with wonder, that it makes them smile and brightens their day. Dressing in bright colors brightens my day, after all—that’s why I do it! And if other people derive joy from it too, that’s awesome.

Ultimately, that’s the reason behind my fashion: it brings me joy. If others like it, that’s great, too! But it’s for me. Same with my website! That’s why being asked to put warnings on it kinda irks me: colors and self-expression is so important to my identity that it feels like being asked to put a warning on who I am. When I exist in public, people have to deal with me. My colors might offend them, just like my sexuality or race might—but if it does, fuck ’em! They’re going to have to deal with it! Don’t like, don’t read!

I want a society where people can wear what they want and be who they want. I want people to dress in what they love, whatever that might look like to them. For some people, love is worn jackets with holes in the pockets, or it could be their Sunday best—it’s black dresses, it’s silver studs, it’s cargo shorts and Zelda graphic tees. Love means so many things to so many different people. I’m so lucky that I was finally able to discover what I loved, and I’ll fight for a world where everyone is allowed to do the same. We don’t live in that world yet. Fighting for expression often looks like blood and bruised knuckles—but if I can inspire one person to embrace love by wearing a silly hat or frilly skirt, then that, too, is a battle won.

Be unapologetically kind to your vibrant self. Shine so brightly that people stop to look—and think—and change for the better. Love, PLUR, sparkle on—and decorate your life!