Magazines shout to us from the stands, “Five Fall Fashion Trends You Must Have!” and “What’s Hot, Right Now!” Add to this the many fashion “rules” we’ve heard over the years—no white after Labor Day, no tights with open-toed shoes—and we begin to believe fashion is a minefield of difficult decisions where one wrong step could doom us to style pariahdom.
The fashion secret that should make headlines is that dressing ourselves it’s not nearly as difficult as we’ve been lead to believe. Fashion is not a science, and there’s no formula for looking great. Well, if there is a formula it’s this:
I love it + I look great in it = It’s fashionable
In countless online forums, women ask questions like, “Can I wear black heels with my blue dress?” and “Are bell-sleeved sweaters still in style?” I’ve gotten caught up in the hype. I tried on the skinny jeans. (No, never, not happening.) My heart sunk when I read that my beloved cowboy boots were “out.” Then I came to my senses. Can we wear it—whatever “it” is? Of course! Epiphany. We can wear whatever we want.
In fact, the fashionable folk among us don’t follow trends. They look in the mirror. If they like it, they wear it. And, in general, they’re admired for breaking the mold.
Fashion trends are fickle. Five years ago, none of us would be caught dead in an ankle boot, and now they’re all the rage. Why? Because fashion editors and Milan designers told us they should be. Likewise, the “faux pas” of today could be the current trends of tomorrow. It’s not unimaginable that a few years from now, we’ll all be wearing sandals over panty hose because Jean-Paul Gaultier did it on the runway. (But oh, I hope not.)
The dangers of being a slave to trends are threefold.
1. Not many of us can afford to enter in the never-ending cycle of, for example, buying high-heel oxfords this season just to cart them off to Goodwill a year later when they’re out to replace them with wooden clog stilettos (or whatever ridiculous thing) are in. Following flash-in-the-pan trends can seriously threaten your financial wellbeing.
2. Combining of-the-moment everything makes you look like you’re trying too hard. You are. Originality and fun are lost.
3. When you concern yourself with what you’re supposed to be wearing rather than what you really like and look good in, you start to lose sense of your personal style and who you are. This could be the worst casualty of caving in to trends.
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