FASHION BRAIN • Living life with style
Fashion is largely a personal adventure where the individual seeks to portray their personality through clothing and accessories. There is no clear cut right or wrong way to dress and no set of golden rules to guide our wardrobe choices. However, there are a few mistakes that we seem to make on a regular basis.
Here are 5 fashion crimes you may be guilty of committing.
Dressing too Young for Your Age
While fashion isn't always age discriminate there are an abundance of trends that are aimed at the twenty to thirty something demographic. Women above that demographic often run the risk of dressing to young for their own good.
While there is no need to fill your closet with elastic waist bands and goofy sweaters upon your thirtieth birthday, you should practice caution when it comes to trends. If you feel something may be too young for you, you're probably right. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to look young with out cashing in on every runway trend.
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She'd never be featured in Vogue, but she's got as much style as CoCo Chanel ever did, and then some.
Every Summer gets me thinking about the difference between style and fashion - probably because of all the advertising campaigns that start. "Fall's Fashion is Fabulous!" the ads scream, or "Come see the season's hottest colours! Get your wardrobe's must-haves!"
If the department stores had their way, we'd be racing to reinvent ourselves each season. And that's what bothers me. Clothes are wonderfully, gloriously about identity.
They're a chance for us to name ourselves out loud, in vibrant colour. I'm all for being playful with identity (today I'm a school girl, tomorrow I'm a temptress!), but why should we change who we appear to be on the fashion industry's schedule?
From personal experience I can tell you that if you dye your hair too often, old friends won't recognise you - so it's best to pick something and stick with it.
Worse, these days we're drowning under the influence of mass-produced clothing (GAP, Beneton, GAP, Banana Republic, GAP) and mass-distributed media ("You've simply got to have the new chinos from Calvin Klien!"). So when the shops start encouraging us to buy, they're also encouraging us to buy alike. They're tempting us to destroy our own personal style in pursuit of mass-marketed fashion. And that's not okay.
Style vs. Fashion
Fashion is a teasing, unfaithful lover. It seduces you with promises of novelty and pleasure, drains your bank account, and just when you think you've won it over, Fashion has darted off to the Next Big Thing. While Fashion is riding around with a new friend on a customised Vespa scooter, you're stuck wearing last season's power beads.
Ah... but Style, Style will treat you right.
Style will let you wear combat boots with your prom dress, or a Power Puff T-shirt with your power suit. It nurtures your own tastes and individuality, teaches you to trust your judgment, and rejoices in being your life-long companion.
Discover it, and you'll be your own icon of style, instantly recognisable with your own particular brand of je nes c'est quoi, (rather than a walking billboard for the latest whims of the fashion industry). The trick? Simply this: You'll have to make a commitment to be honest (about who you are), brave (to occasionally fly in the face of Fashion), and disciplined (resist the trendy).
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Read more: Be Your Own Icon; Using Style to Transcend Fashion
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