Like many of you out there I keep a Facebook page. It is loaded with law school friends, college friends, high school friends, hometown friends, and so on. It's collection of people I've come across in my life. It's where I can share my ideas, and receive new ones, all in a centralized location.
A few days back, I posted an interesting Note about shunning those with different ideas than you. Several people provided their input, and today it struck me about how that discussion relates to fashion. In an ideal world, we enjoy different viewpoints, ideologies, and tastes coming together, and through the sharing of our individualism with other people, we come to understanding. We each grow as a better person, and that would eventually spread through the world. Well, that's the ideal. Why not bring that same growth to your wardrobe?
Have you ever thought about being around people with different styles than you? Is there someone in your clique that loves the rocker look? How about a preppy? Someone who always dresses too sexy? Someone classic? Someone "All-American?" What do you all think about the clothes each other wears? Do you like them, love them, envy them, hate them? Have you ever tried to take that friend's style, and work it into your own?
Let's try a little experiment. Think about the people in your life and what they wear. Now, think about why they wear certain clothes or accessories. Can you take their ideas of what's fashionable, and weave it into your own looks? How about an example ...
Take a person who is a Gap, Old Navy, all the way. Say she has a goth friend, a Vogue, trendy friend, and a sexy scantily dressed friend. Goths love dark clothing and makeup, and a lot of metal accessories. A Vogue girl is bit French, European prêt-à-porter. And of course the sexy friend tries to show a lot more skin. So what can the Gap take away from these friends? How about this:
I personally love a nice oversized, gaudy ring. This Vampiress ring works nice with the following look that combines a bit of the other friends:
What do you know, Gap has some European inspired clothes. This dress is quite trendy these days, and it has that Gap conservative, cover a lot up, design with the sexy show some skin flair. But, because the Gap girl is a conservative dresser, she can wear the stocking or leggings so that she doesn't feel too exposed with skin. Pair it all up with a chunky shoe like the ones above (I said chunky, not ugly...there's a difference), and you've got a look. And for those of you a little more daring with Goth, go for a dark shade of fingernail polish ... even black. I wouldn't go for black lipstick, but a deep shade, and a strong smokey eye could work. It's a bit daring, but it combines the best of all the looks into one finished, fabulous look. In fact, your friends should have some of those pieces for their own looks, so you all could swap pieces, and combine. There is fashionable goth, so don't give me that line.
What do you think? And all you had to do was open your mind to the possibility of someone else's ideas ... funny how easy and beneficial that is to do.
As I have said before fashion is a reflection of society. Don't you want your society to be a mesh of all things and, from the collective, achieve greatness? It can only be done by an open sharing of ideas, and a respect for the differences you have. I'm not saying embrace the differences, but work with them. Respect is something greater than tolerance. If I can do it with clothes, it can be done with people. A lesson not to let this country turn into GAP people, huh?
Here's to style. Cheers!
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