Most people think fashion is fickle.
Most people think that people that seem to take an avid interest in fashion are “faddy”- materialistic- highfaluting- fake-“hoity-toity” to name a few words that have been unfairly synonymous with the world of fashion. I’ve always thought it was funny to be called these names either behind me or to my face in form of a “joke” (as we Yoruba’s say “It is when things are said in jest, that we know the real truth”)
Anyhoo, it’s always been funny to me because every single one of us partakes in fashion. If they are not walking around naked then I don’t think anyone has a right to accuse anyone of been pretentious because they care to look deeper. No one goes into a store with the specific purpose of buying the ugliest piece of clothing in there.
Now, YES I know your mind just went through the “What the hell were they thinking?” “Did you dress up in the dark?” and “This girl has no friends to tell her the truth” moments you’ve ever had.
Let me say, that there is no accounting for taste and as we all know “One man’s meat is another man’s poison” NO ONE and I mean NO ONE in their right minds, sets out to buy an item of clothing that will make them look less than attractive or down right UGLY.
I was reading a paper that was written by a friend of mine over 10 years ago on Fashion & Photography and he explores the “Fashion Theory” in his paper. He quotes Suzy Menkes; who if you ever care to read up on, is one of them most influential people in European fashion.
“The theory of Fashion is an attempt to demonstrate the importance of dress, clothes, and style by means of explaining theories, which constitute the value and the legitimacy of the whole fashion process. The meaning behind fashionable dressing has led the way for fashion to be analyzed on its sociological and psychological implications. If what we wear conveys, symbolic codes and convention about the type of person we are and what type of social back-ground we might attach ourselves to, without evidently speaking to the wearer in person, then the argument is that ‘fashion’ refers exclusively to clothing behavior. In other words ‘fashion is how you can tell people what you are and how you feel about yourself’.”
She couldn’t have hit the nail on the head any more directly than she has already. It is a widespread cultural practice for us to mark our identities with what we wear. The correlation between appearance and character is very imminent in society today. Not only do we care about the people who know us but also we care about public perception. You will always be anonymous to someone on the streets yet every woman has a desire to watch themselves been watched. Even a smile of appreciation from a stranger who we may never lay eyes on again validates the effort we have put into projecting an image. Whether it’s the dress you put on, or the shoes you matched “effortlessly” with the intricate details of your outfit, or that purse you splurged on, it feels good to be appreciated.
While some of us girls dress up to impress and attract our men, some of us say we dress up to impress other women; I guess we are our own harshest critics and to get a nod of approval from another woman is BIG, other women say they dress to impress themselves (Yeah sure! WHATEVER!)
Clothes have always been a vehicle to convey social strata, class, religion, culture, desires, beliefs and our subconscious minds. Why then do some of us condemn something that is a part of who we are and will always be?
Is it because we confuse fashion and style? Do we confuse the money making venture and the façade of the gliterrati and larger than life acts of the creative minds to draw attention to their creations with the simple fact that at the end of the day it’s really all about the clothes?
Here’s the difference fashion can be bought, fashion is the business of it all.
Your style cannot be bought, can’t be duplicated or paid for.
It’s no wonder we all have people that we look up to in fashion. For every personal taste, there is a public figure out there that serves as a model. With that been said, you could never look exactly like the person who you choose to emulate because they have their own attitude, aura and swagger and you have yours. Therein, lies the difference,
From wanting Lindsay Lohan’s bag collection, to drooling over a watch you see in the pages of this month’s VOGUE to wanting that Peridot & Ruby skirt you saw your girl rocking in a picture. Fashion transcends every level of society and we all in our own little way are a part of it. It doesn’t have to be expensive it has to be YOU.
So get over your guilt trip. Because you want the Rock & Republic jeans you’ve scoped Posh Beckham wearing in the tabs; you wanting a pair badly doesn’t mean you want to be like her, because you feel the need to re-create a look you’ve seen Paris wear doesn’t make you an airhead.
Don’t be a closet fashion freak.
Come on out the closet or get back in there and celebrate the FABULOUSNESS that is YOU! lol
Happy Holidays!
