Being fashionable has always been synonymous with being up-to-date. But can our closet keep up with all these constant changes in the fashion industry? The answer is “no”. It can’t, and it shouldn’t.
Fashion has always dictated what society should wear: clothes, beauty items and even the most “fashionable” lifestyle of the moment. As an example, each decade has its own (distinctive) style that everyone can identify. The 1920s: short curly hair, sleep dresses, feathers and plumes. The 1950s: high ponytail with tuft, twirly dresses or skirts and polka-dot prints. The 80s: neon colors, brushed and voluminous hair, makeup and exaggerated looks. In all these periods, there were different trends followed by a large majority and therefore became so striking.
Today, this is still very much a part of our society. There is a new factor that fosters the compulsion to be on trend or to create them: social networks. All we have to do is go online and we’ll see countless girls wearing an extremely pulled-back bun, with the front part split down the middle, with little make-up (to keep their skin looking healthier and more “real”), with wide mid-waisted pants and blouses with necklines at the back; the famous “cleangirls”. They are the trend of the moment. But how long will this moment last?
There is one thing that is the same for all trends: all of them, past or present, with the influence of the internet or not, enshrine items that mark their passage through society. They become a kind of “fashion symbol” for a while, but in the end, as soon as the trend is no longer fashionable, these items fall by the wayside and are lost in our closets. That’s why it’s very likely that, in a few years’ time, “cleangirls” will no longer exist and other trends will emerge and cause a lot of buzz, both in the digital and physical worlds. And all the items that used to symbolize a “clean girl” will be stored at the bottom of trunks, as they will have become “tacky”.
If we follow all the trends, i.e. buy all the clothes and accessories that represent them, or copy the same style of hair and make-up, we’ll end up having a big pile of things that were once fashionable or will be outdated in a while. And that doesn’t mean we’re actually stylish. It just means that we have a very strong consumer impulse. Also it seems that we live for the next trend (and that we’re willing to spend a lot of money, too).
Being fashionable is not synonymous with being stylish, after all, style is something unique and very personal. It represents a way of expressing who we are, what we (really) like and what we want to show the world.
Being stylish goes far beyond following trends; in fact, we use them to our advantage, by trying to understand, for example, some items that represent them and also represent our personal style. In other words, when you’re stylish, you don’t have to use every trendy item and accessory as a kind of crutch, but only what you identify with. (And it’s okay if you don’t identify with any of the current trends).
Ultimately, that’s why our closet should follow our personal style, and we can have pieces that are on trend, but that represent us in some way. And it’s not because the decades are marked by trends that you have to be one too. Being a fashion enthusiast means having the creativity to innovate and the courage not to follow what everyone else is wearing.
The article above was edited by Larissa Buzon.
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