I switched wardrobes with my roommate for a week

My roommate Kaitlin and I are complete opposites. She grew up in a rural area, I grew up in a city. She enjoys late classes, spontaneous plans, staying up late, sleeping in and taking naps. Meanwhile, I enjoy early classes, planning in advance, waking up early and caffeine-ing my way through the day. We might as well be the sun and the moon. Our choice of clothing is no exception.

How I would describe my personal style? My style is very girly. I love pink, white, red and some blue here and there. I don’t like to wear a lot of dull colors like gray or black unless I’m wearing something colorful with it or if I pair it with some statement jewelry. In the winter, I especially love large comfortable sweaters, cardigans, scarves and necklaces.

Kaitlin would describe her personal style differently: “I’m always late to class, so I like just rolling out of bed and putting on whatever is around. I love flannels, big sweatshirts and band T-shirts with high rise socks. I hate pink.”

The clothes swapping rules:

1. Each person has to wear what the other person chooses, no questions asked
2. Each person has to wear the items that the other person chooses all day long
3. We get to keep our own shoes and pants (for size purposes), but the opposite roommate can choose which shoes and which pants to wear with each outfit

Day 1

Danielle

For the first day, Kaitlin decided to put me in a Troy Bolton baseball tee and her tiny compass necklace. I was not happy about it. I retaliated by making her wear a sparkly sweater — she hates sparkles — with a statement necklace. I was freezing in her thin quarter sleeved shirt all day. I wore my Purdue sweatshirt over it for most of the morning to keep warm. So no one in my morning classes even knew that I was dressing differently.

Kaitlin

“My initial reaction to the outfit was, ‘oh my gosh this is going to be itchy,'” Kaitlin told me. By the end of the day, she still hadn’t completely warmed up to my outfit. “The necklace was banging against my chest all day and the sweater was hot as crap.”

 

Day 2

Danielle

Kaitlin told me on Monday that the shirt I would be wearing today was from the boys section of Kohls. You can imagine my disgust. She told me I had to wear leggings with it, something I never do. Leggings always make me feel exposed. I spent most of the day obsessively tugging the shirt down over my butt. The leggings were nice during my morning exam though. I kept thinking how comfortable they were to sit in for a long period of time as opposed to jeans. But at the end of the day I was still ready to throw it all off.

Kaitlin

“Well I woke up late and I was like, ‘Oh I don’t have time for this, I have to wear my hair down to wear these earrings and it’s too hot for this scarf.’ And then I was like, ‘This is such a bright color. This is terrible.’ And then I put it on and I’m like, ‘this is pretty comfy, I like it.’ I felt cute today.”

 

Day 3

Danielle

Hallelujah, Kaitlin actually has something cute in her closet! This outfit was definitely more my style. The dress was stretchy and comfortable and she actually gave me these adorable earrings! I got a lot of compliments on the earrings and my look in general.

Kaitlin

“The necklace was really jingly but I got a compliment on it,” she said. Then she went on to complain, “I had to wear layers, I had to wear jeans and I was worried all day that I was going to spill something on the blouse.”

Day 4

Danielle

This time Kaitlin picked out two things I EXPLICITLY told her I didn’t want to wear. A graphic T-shirt and flannel. Oh my gosh, flannel. She was going to pay. The T-shirt was really small and really tight and did I mention it was a T-shirt? So I was cold most of the day. I buttoned the flannel and wore my white scarf over it most of the day to make it look more like something I would wear, so no one really noticed I looked different.

Kaitlin

As Kaitlin’s punishment for my outfit, I gave her my giant pink sweater to wear. “I hate this sweater, I felt like Barney,” she said. “The necklace was so distracting, I played with it all day.” She said her friend Alex told her the outfit didn’t look like her at all. Kaitlin also broke rule number 2 because I gave her a scarf  and she refused to wear it all day.

 

Day 5

Danielle

I think Kait learned her lesson about putting me in hipster clothes or maybe she just really didn’t want me to give her another pink thing to wear. But today’s outfit was surprisingly really cute. The sweater was really comfortable, and it was a light pink so it was definitely something I would wear.

Kaitlin

Kaitlin also liked her outfit. She didn’t even complain once. So basically, it was a Christmas miracle in March. “The necklace wasn’t bad. I like the sweater, it’s really comfy. I’m a fan. Today was great.”

Although I maybe treated the clothes switch more like warfare than a fun experiment like Kaitlin did, I had fun wearing my roomate’s clothing for a week. We both learned we liked some elements of each other’s style and it took the pressure off of me to put an outfit together for myself each day. So who do you dress more like? An easy, breezy Kaitlin or a girly girl Danielle?