Fashion Uniqueness

SPG

Does your personal Fashion style receive glares, stares, admiration or cause sensation or even disgust?

We have been bombarded for decades with photographs in glossy magazines of models wearing the latest season trends. Women of all ages have copied these styles from the catwalk without realizing that they were being manipulated. Millions of women around the world looked alike just by wearing the same styles of dress and hairstyles. There was no individual personality. A few years back this stopped, and women began to create their own styles and show their personality much more. This meant many were admired and others were criticised or labelled eccentric by the more conservative - but their personal style outweighed everything else. People have started to look more individualistic as each combine their ideas with the top designers styles of the season. I must say I am pleasantly surprised to see that nowadays many of the women who appear both to advertise cosmetics and fashion are well into their 50's and 60's showing a more realistic approach to advertising as they have realized that the over 50's are the women who need to spend their money on cosmetics and fashion to continue to look their bests. Skins need cream far more as you get older than when you are young!

The idiosyncratic influence of fashion in the world of style has been celebrated from model to actress, to the woman in the street. Top designers who have come up with bizarre demonstrations of un-wearable fashions on the catwalks, to cause a sensation and surprise us have done it not to sell but more to create a name for themselves! But they have also not realized that all they were doing was fantasising with fashion that could only be utilised by the models or people in show business and therefore not used much.

Even 'Prêt-a-porter' clothing is loosing inspiration. 'Haute couture' takes over with the ultimate in way out gears. Can we call this an achievement or is it a way of telling us to stop copying them and start searching for our own individual style. If we cannot wear the "un-wearable" then we have to do something about it to find a creative but practical day wear to dress up in. Even a mix and match of trends or other past season gears can be modernized so they look individualistic and let the person's personality come through. But can we really get away with wearing what we each like as individuals and not just following the trends? I think fashion is now taken with a pinch of salt and it is each generation that looks for ways and means to show their fashion stance more than what the designers are saying. As people get older they do not follow fashion because they have a wardrobe full of trends from decades ago and they have to use their own style and panache to combine these things and use them to look good whilst not out of date either but fashion is not the be all and end all of their life anymore.

The very popular television series and film "Sex and the City" has indeed propagated the individual's ability to create their own fashion wear because even though the story is about four fashion conscious women each and everyone of them has their own style both in clothing and in hairstyles - the result is that they all look fashionable while wonderfully different, as they combine the styles to fit in with their individual needs and lifestyles, making us realize that fashion also depends on where we work, what we do and who we want to impress.

As teenagers, we all seem to copy each other's fashion sense more as we still have not really found our own style - although young girls today, even before becoming teenagers already select what type of clothes they want to wear. It takes 'guts' to be different - and it takes 'style' to be unique. Older women need not now dress in sober colours, which is a blessing as it makes them look younger! Being different proves to others that you can look great without wearing the trendiest of trends.

Next time you are down Main Street check out the clothes people are wearing and see how unique each person is… shop windows also give us an insight into the different fashion trends that are in each season, look around and see that not all the shops are offering the same colours or the same styles…thank God for that - Fashion is about YOU so go out there and make your own statement.

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