Lou

This One is About Dancing in the Rain

My Shirt Story

I love this shirt for a multitude of reasons. First and foremost, it’s because I feel like it reflects my personality – funky and odd with a dash of crazy. I’ve never been the type to fit in a box, and that used to be a real issue for me. I hated that people called me weird or crazy, or that I couldn’t just fit a category like everyone else. I mean, how do you define and explain yourself or your style without these kinds of things?

 I’m bilingual aka I’m from two countries (Austria and the UK) – whatever country I’m in, I only half belong and this theme kind of explains my entire existence. I’ve always been a little bit of “both”, not just one thing. I am bipolar and bisexual, for example – none of which fits the societal system, nor most people’s views on how I “should” be. For me, this shirt reflects all of this because I bought it when I first decided that not fitting into a box was OK. In fact, I realized that I liked who I was and that I didn’t fit. If I were any different, I wouldn’t be me – and I’ve met too many wonderful people and experienced too much to want to give “me” up just to fit other’s expectations.  

Another one of the reasons why I love this shirt so much is the memories I’ve made with it, especially the day I bought it. 

I was living in Winchester, UK, at the time and took the train to Brighton to go to a day festival with one of my best friends, who had moved away the previous year. Annoyingly, there were a load of delays and the two hour trip ended up taking me five hours – and when I finally arrived and met up with Aidan (my friend), we realized that there was no entry after 5 PM. 

Instead of getting upset and letting these unfortunate circumstances ruin our weekend, we decided to make the most of being in Brighton, and to be honest, it was one of the best weekends of my life! I mean sure, it was raining, windy and about 15 degrees but we spent the entire night moving from place to place, trying out different beers and bars and dancing in the rain to our favourite music. It just goes to show that often times it’s just a question of how you decide to deal with a situation – most people would’ve probably either gone back home, been in a crap mood, or stayed in the hostel all night, but we figured it wasn’t really that big a deal as we were still in a different city (with a great art & party scene too). 

I came across the shirt just after we’d decided to make the most of our stay in Brighton, and I was explaining my “not fitting into a box”-theory to Aidan. We were walking down a road and, me being me, I got distracted and went off into a small side street. There was a shabby, rainbow-coloured building with Hawaii-flowers decorating the windows with music and lights that had caught my attention. It turned out to be a huge second-hand store with an entire floor devoted to whacky Hawaii-shirts, and everyone who ever met me knows how much I love a good funky shirt. Within five minutes I had found it: the shirt, the One with all the colours and all the Lou-personality. 

 

 

-L

The Shirt Version of My Personality

“There are so so many more reasons why I hold this shirt so dear – its reminiscent of my dead uncle (an avid fan of embarrassing Hawaii-shirts), for example, or reminds me of my dream of working and traveling in New Zealand (this guy who owned the store was from there and we spent almost half an hour chatting about it). When I wear it, I feel like 100% me and 100% happy with that, and most of all, I feel like I can achieve the things I want to be.“

Lou

This One is About Dancing in the Rain

My Shirt Story

I love this shirt for a multitude of reasons. First and foremost, it’s because I feel like it reflects my personality – funky and odd with a dash of crazy. I’ve never been the type to fit in a box, and that used to be a real issue for me. I hated that people called me weird or crazy, or that I couldn’t just fit a category like everyone else. I mean, how do you define and explain yourself or your style without these kinds of things?

I’m bilingual aka I’m from two countries (Austria and the UK) – whatever country I’m in, I only half belong and this theme kind of explains my entire existence. I’ve always been a little bit of “both”, not just one thing. I am bipolar and bisexual, for example – none of which fits the societal system, nor most people’s views on how I “should” be. For me, this shirt reflects all of this because I bought it when I first decided that not fitting into a box was OK. In fact, I realized that I liked who I was and that I didn’t fit. If I were any different, I wouldn’t be me – and I’ve met too many wonderful people and experienced too much to want to give “me” up just to fit other’s expectations. 

Another one of the reasons why I love this shirt so much is the memories I’ve made with it, especially the day I bought it.

I was living in Winchester, UK, at the time and took the train to Brighton to go to a day festival with one of my best friends, who had moved away the previous year. Annoyingly, there were a load of delays and the two hour trip ended up taking me five hours – and when I finally arrived and met up with Aidan (my friend), we realized that there was no entry after 5 PM.

Instead of getting upset and letting these unfortunate circumstances ruin our weekend, we decided to make the most of being in Brighton, and to be honest, it was one of the best weekends of my life! I mean sure, it was raining, windy and about 15 degrees but we spent the entire night moving from place to place, trying out different beers and bars and dancing in the rain to our favourite music. It just goes to show that often times it’s just a question of how you decide to deal with a situation – most people would’ve probably either gone back home, been in a crap mood, or stayed in the hostel all night, but we figured it wasn’t really that big a deal as we were still in a different city (with a great art & party scene too).

I came across the shirt just after we’d decided to make the most of our stay in Brighton, and I was explaining my “not fitting into a box”-theory to Aidan. We were walking down a road and, me being me, I got distracted and went off into a small side street. There was a shabby, rainbow-coloured building with Hawaii-flowers decorating the windows with music and lights that had caught my attention. It turned out to be a huge second-hand store with an entire floor devoted to whacky Hawaii-shirts, and everyone who ever met me knows how much I love a good funky shirt. Within five minutes I had found it: the shirt, the One with all the colours and all the Lou-personality.

 

-L

The Shirt Version of My Personality

“There are so so many more reasons why I hold this shirt so dear – its reminiscent of my dead uncle (an avid fan of embarrassing Hawaii-shirts), for example, or reminds me of my dream of working and traveling in New Zealand (this guy who owned the store was from there and we spent almost half an hour chatting about it). When I wear it, I feel like 100% me and 100% happy with that, and most of all, I feel like I can achieve the things I want to be.“

Lou

This One is About Dancing in the Rain

My Shirt Story

I love this shirt for a multitude of reasons. First and foremost, it’s because I feel like it reflects my personality – funky and odd with a dash of crazy. I’ve never been the type to fit in a box, and that used to be a real issue for me. I hated that people called me weird or crazy, or that I couldn’t just fit a category like everyone else. I mean, how do you define and explain yourself or your style without these kinds of things?

I’m bilingual aka I’m from two countries (Austria and the UK) – whatever country I’m in, I only half belong and this theme kind of explains my entire existence. I’ve always been a little bit of “both”, not just one thing. I am bipolar and bisexual, for example – none of which fits the societal system, nor most people’s views on how I “should” be. For me, this shirt reflects all of this because I bought it when I first decided that not fitting into a box was OK. In fact, I realized that I liked who I was and that I didn’t fit. If I were any different, I wouldn’t be me – and I’ve met too many wonderful people and experienced too much to want to give “me” up just to fit other’s expectations. 

Another one of the reasons why I love this shirt so much is the memories I’ve made with it, especially the day I bought it.

I was living in Winchester, UK, at the time and took the train to Brighton to go to a day festival with one of my best friends, who had moved away the previous year. Annoyingly, there were a load of delays and the two hour trip ended up taking me five hours – and when I finally arrived and met up with Aidan (my friend), we realized that there was no entry after 5 PM.

Instead of getting upset and letting these unfortunate circumstances ruin our weekend, we decided to make the most of being in Brighton, and to be honest, it was one of the best weekends of my life! I mean sure, it was raining, windy and about 15 degrees but we spent the entire night moving from place to place, trying out different beers and bars and dancing in the rain to our favourite music. It just goes to show that often times it’s just a question of how you decide to deal with a situation – most people would’ve probably either gone back home, been in a crap mood, or stayed in the hostel all night, but we figured it wasn’t really that big a deal as we were still in a different city (with a great art & party scene too).

I came across the shirt just after we’d decided to make the most of our stay in Brighton, and I was explaining my “not fitting into a box”-theory to Aidan. We were walking down a road and, me being me, I got distracted and went off into a small side street. There was a shabby, rainbow-coloured building with Hawaii-flowers decorating the windows with music and lights that had caught my attention. It turned out to be a huge second-hand store with an entire floor devoted to whacky Hawaii-shirts, and everyone who ever met me knows how much I love a good funky shirt. Within five minutes I had found it: the shirt, the One with all the colours and all the Lou-personality.

-L

The Shirt Version of My Personality

“There are so so many more reasons why I hold this shirt so dear – its reminiscent of my dead uncle (an avid fan of embarrassing Hawaii-shirts), for example, or reminds me of my dream of working and traveling in New Zealand (this guy who owned the store was from there and we spent almost half an hour chatting about it). When I wear it, I feel like 100% me and 100% happy with that, and most of all, I feel like I can achieve the things I want to be.“