From Edgy City Girl to Suburban Soft Girl
My twenties have been all about exploring my Personal Style. I’ve been on the hunt to find the clothes that make me feel the most like myself - and to be the most confident version of me I could be.
At twenty, I packed up and ran away to New Hampshire. For the first time in my life, I could wear what I wanted without worrying about being modest and conservative. That freedom changed something in me. I began experimenting with different shapes and silhouettes, slowly learning what felt like me.
NYC Made Me
I came back to New York City at twenty-one as a fashion merchandising student, ready to be unapologetically myself. Between school and working in thrift stores and boutiques across the city, I learned to look at clothing differently. I learned about fashion, style, and sustainability. I paid attention to quality, construction, and intention. Fashion stopped being something I consumed and started being something I appreciated. What something is made of, how it's cut, why it holds its shape - these things started to matter to me in a real way.
And then there was NYC itself. It's a city filled with some of the most fashionable people in the world. The city gives you permission to dress your best at every moment. I wore funky boots and chunky heels, bright colors and fun prints - I regularly wore tutus. And while I was genuinely unhappy in other parts of my life during that time I felt most confident in my style there. My clothes were the one thing I had fully figured out.
Then I left.
In April 2025, I packed a suitcase full of funky print jeans, tutus, and my favorite crop tops and moved to suburban East Bay, California. I needed a break from the city and its constant hustle. I told myself it would be temporary. A reset. A breath.
I had so many assumptions about California before I got here. Honestly? I thought people would be even more stylish and expressive than New Yorkers. I associated California with sunshine and freedom, and I assumed that energy would translate into how people dressed- bold colors, flowing silhouettes, that effortless-but-intentional thing. I was ready to be inspired.
But that is not what I was met with. At my office job, “business casual” is very… well, casual. When my friend and I go out - dressed in our cute dresses, hair done, face done - we constantly find ourselves surrounded by people in jeans and flannels. As I walk down the street or work at the mall, I see athleisure everywhere. Leggings. Hoodies. Running shoes that have never seen a run.
None of this is wrong. People can wear what they want - that’s the whole philosophy, right? But for someone whose style is an act of self-expression, whose getting dressed is filled with intention… I feel like I stick out like a sore thumb. It's like I'm speaking another language.
And slowly, quietly, I start second-guessing myself in front of my closet in a way I never had in New York.
So here I am.
Miss Ralzie’s Closets started as a way to help other people organize their wardrobes and understand their personal style. And I loved that work. But somewhere between leaving New York and landing in California, my own relationship with style became my biggest project.
So this space is evolving. Less about organizing, more about the ongoing journey of embracing your Personal Style - and how to embrace all the changes that come your way.
Here’s my journey: from edgy city girl to suburban soft girl.
