As a fashion enthusiast, I am really drawn to persons who embrace their own fashion identity. This is possibly one of the most complex and scariest things to do especially in a conformist dressing-style society like Guyana.
Most people think style is wearing the most expensive piece of clothing or the most popular brand at the moment, for example, the H Belt from Hermes. There is always the battle of social acceptance versus personal preference and this is why I believe people choose to ignore their real fashion identity. I believe some people don’t like the left-out feeling. Don’t get me wrong, I was once a label girl. I mean who wants to be left out? Hardly anyone wants to sit at the uncool table.
As per normal, at the end of every year I try to do a self-assessment where I evaluate my personal style. For some strange reason, I found myself buying less this year and following older style muses who have paved a way in the global dressing phenomenon. People always say that the style from our time is the ugliest and the most impractical. Older style muses just have this effortless glamour about them and there are no words to describe how much personal fashion identity they had.
Back then, there was far less marketing and pop culture influence. People actually looked at clothes as form of personal expression tool as opposed to visual ticket that deems you cool.
I tried my best this year to really pay attention style sensations. The big difference with muses today as opposed to the ones long ago is that the latter were more rebellious. Take for instance Grace Jones. Her dressing style and music ambitions partially separated her from her Christian family but she still carried on. She had a real identity but she still had a relatable lifestyle. She acted and embraced what people feel but are afraid to let out. She embraced her square cut and distinctive appearance.
I think women today are too caught up with tick-box attractiveness; perfect eyebrows, sculpted cheekbones and plump lips. I think we need to move away from feeling secure in mainstream beauty.
I was so thrilled when I first discovered Grace Jones; she really is the perfect match for androgynous dressing.
My New Year’s resolution is to wear the things I really want to wear and to buy less. Too often we buy style things as opposed to embracing what works for us. I think this particular reason is why women back then were more stylish than women today. They utilized whatever they had and kept their identity.
Today it’s so easy to say what’s stylish. All of a sudden the most stylish look is a bodycon dress and platform shoes. My New Year wish is that we all save more and develop our identities. God knows we need to start contributing to the slow fashion movement and stop looking like each other.
