I read an article recently in the Financial Times that explained why and how women get easily sucked into trends. The main reason, it said is because the fashion industry is vast, diverse and mind-numbing; numerous retailers, designers and marketers are constantly vying for the attention of the target audience.
Emails every micro second about sales, further reductions and new arrivals keep popping up and suggested stores to “like” pop up on your Facebook feed, to tempt you; not to mention all of the other forms of advertisements. It’s safe to say that the industry keeps on attaching itself to us like a leech, distracting us from the things we actually like. If you sit and think about it seriously, we are never really given a real true break to discover our own sense of style and to develop an actual desire for something on our own. We are always told what the style, trend or fashion is and it has reached
the point where we are controlled so much, that our choices are predictable.
Like most people, I have found myself in this very same place yet again. Buying, buying and buying with no agenda. Sometimes only buying based on price. I know! Even I am ashamed of this myself. This impulsive attitude that develops has nothing to do with style but more so with the anxiety build up that the fashion industry has engendered within us through social and other media and celebrity endorsements. The inconsistent feeling you get when you missed a “trend” piece is what contributes to cycle that seems to never end. Since we are pressured so much, our decision making thinking pattern is not only biased, but it is also in mental chains.
Just last week, I was yet again slapped with a buying dilemma. Christian Louboutin and Burberry launched their nail polish and beauty lines respectively and temptation struck yet again. Like any other nail polish and lip balm I am pretty sure they are not going to last forever. But yet a part of me still wanted to own them because of the brand images they are associated with. Shallow and empty much? Nevertheless, this is how the industry has moulded our minds or maybe my mind alone. Christian Louboutin’s nail polish is possibly the most expensive on the market right now and has no particular beauty history. I had to question myself again. I consciously removed it from my basket and jotted down all the reasons why I shouldn’t buy it. Deep down inside, I really didn’t honestly like it. I think what the article in the Financial Times was trying to tell me is no matter what you buy and wear, you never truly like it if it doesn’t fit into your style. You will just own things that make up your temporary style.
MUA Renee Chester Thompson
Even though I drew this example from the beauty industry it is still quite important to the fashion industry. We need to pay more attention to why and what we are buying. We need to extract ourselves from all the fashion-madness that is going on. We need to create mood boards of our muses and the styles we love. We need to really discover who and what we are. Are we 50’s chic or 21st century Rihanna ghetto? When you have found your true voice, then start finding the brands that create the aesthetics that you desire. Some of us may have a problem pulling together a mood board after going through so much clutter. For this I recommend a seamstress as it is much cheaper to keep up with trends via this method. The clothes also last much longer.
So I did not buy the nail polish nor did I buy the beauty line. And of course I still haven’t settled on a particular side but I know it’s somewhere between Ulyana Sergeenko and Ciara. Here is a look from my seamstress. I was craving 50’s elegant glamour.
www.online-runway.com
http://instagram.com/theonlinerunway
