Style is a funny thing.

You don’t really notice it changing while it’s happening. One day your wearing the same things you always have, and the next you look back and realize a whole era quietly passed by you.

I’ve always been known for having good style. In college, my signature look was pretty unmistakable. Frye Boots. Always Frye Boots. Usually paired with denim shorts in the fall or silk slip dresses in the summer that made me feel slightly more grown up than I probably was. It was easy, undone, and somehow worked whether you were heading to a fraternity party or a Saturday at CJ’s.

It felt like a uniform for that chapter of life, the kind you don’t realize you’re wearing until the chapter ends. Effortless in the way college style always is — when you’re not thinking too much yet about who you are or where you’re going.

Boston changed that a little.

Somewhere along the way the denim shorts slowly gave to sweaters, button-downs, and pieces that feel a little more classic. The kind of outfits that end up being slightly preppy without really trying to be. Stripes, denim layers, things that feel like they belong somewhere a brunch spot in Back Bay and a weekend on the coast.

The other night I was out with a few friends at a bar wearing a denim blouse under a striped sweater — simple, comfortable and very Boston.

One of our guy friends looked at me for a second and laughed.

“You look like a divorced wife boarding the ferry to Nantucket.”

Which is possibly the most specific outfit description I have ever received.

But honestly… I knew what he meant.

Somewhere between college and Boston winters, styles shift a little. The Frye boots and denim shorts slowly turn into sweaters, structured layers and pieces that feel a bit more composed. Not serious — just settled in a way that comes with living a little more life..

Style evolves quietly like that.

It starts as something playful. Something you throw on without thinking.

And then one day you realize it’s become something else entirely — a refection of where you are, the city you’re living in, and the version of yourself you’re slowly becoming.

Even if occasionally that reflection apparently looks like a woman boarding the ferry to Nantucket.

Which, if we’re being honest, isn’t the worst aesthetic to accidentally develop.

Happy Wednesday,

One Business Day