My Style Icon: Gwen Stefani

For this week’s My Style Icon, my thoughts returned to my teenage years and the styles that most inspired me. I made a list of women I admired in my formative fashion years. There was gaunt and dreary Fiona Apple and the dress-over-pants-wearing Alanis Morisette. Though both women inspired me then, neither influences me today, at least not style-wise. However, one name stood out on my list: Gwen Stefani. For me, Gwen is one of those rare style icons I loved as a teen and still love in my twenties.

When I was younger, I bought tiny little jewels that had glue on the back. I stuck one in the middle of my forehead and at the outer corners of my eyes like Gwen. I also rocked out in my bedroom, hair brush in hand, screeching out the lyrics to

“Just a Girl.” I watched the video for

“Don’t Speak” and posed in the mirror, peach in hand trying to look distraught and lovelorn. Though I wouldn’t understand the maturity of either of these songs until much later, I loved them as much as I loved Gwen.

Gwen is the one of the few celebrities who has evolved within her own style framework. Does she wear exactly what she wore in 1995? No, not really. Today the version of her rocker style is more polished and put together yet still edgy. Though what she wears doesn’t necessarily always look comfortable, it looks like she feels comfortable in her clothes and in her own skin. And that’s what I love about Gwen Stefani.

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