This was written for Read about a month back. Forgot to upload it. Life gets in the way of life. Oh, and photo credit to a Google search.
There should be a large warning sign on the glitzy gates leading to the fashion
world shouting “Enter at your own peril.” For this insane world often seems to
have its own rules and by-laws that not only have very little to do with reality,
but also keep changing around, crossing one another in a Kafkaesque labyrinth
of eternal hope and morbid despair.
Check is in. No wait. Vertical stripes. It’s all about bright pastel colours. No,
black is the new black. Oh the confusion, the eternal torment of finally having
figured out a season’s style, only to watch it fade into oblivion and be replaced by
something new and arcane.
There is however a distinction between fashion, and style. The first is what
the industry forces on you, and the second is self-expression where you make
the rules. In the immortal words of Yves Saint-Laurent, “Fashions fade, style is
eternal.” The fashion world must reinvent itself constantly to keep sales going,
but that doesn’t mean that we must go along with it.
Perhaps, just perhaps, it’s time to not pay attention to the fashion gurus. Maybe
it’s time to ignore prescriptive fashion bloggers. Perchance we could just do
away with notions of cookbook attire and lengthy checklists.
Let’s just go out there and express ourselves through outer skin that can be
anything we choose; the only requisite being that we nod appreciatively at our
reflection in the mirror. Perhaps Alexander McQueen said it best: "It’s a new era
in fashion – there are no rules. It’s all about the individual and personal style.”
