I am not a fashionable person and it’s served me just fine.
Even though I work on The Jibsheet and this is the fashion issue, I still can’t bring myself to care about fashion. To me, fashion seems ludicrous, pointless, time consuming, expensive, and a thousand other unfavorable adjectives.
I have an older sister who is the soul of fashion incarnate. She buys all the latest trends, wears them for a few weeks, and then boom! The trend is over, and she’s left with tons of clothes she doesn’t wear any more and no money.
For some reason this never really bothered her, but I thought it was a little funny, seen from a little sister’s perspective. It just made me laugh, how silly it all was. It was one of the first things I didn’t understand about fashion it was so expensive! I couldn’t still can’t comprehend why anyone would spend so much money just to look “cool”.
And the fashion brands that are “cool” aren’t the kind of things you can pick up at Goodwill or Target. They start as an expensive brand, and the knockoffs will raise the price because they know people will pay.
Well, most people will pay, but I won’t. I don’t see the point in paying more for a nonfunctional piece of clothing because it’s ‘cool’.
Speaking of nonfunctionality, that’s another silly common factor in fashionable clothing it’s ridiculously unseasonal. I have stylish friends who wear their flats in winter and their Ugg boots in August. To me that just seems crazy. When I asked my sister why she would wear a tee shirt and light jacket when it was snowing, she said, “fashion over comfort!”
Fashion over comfort. Ha! I say, comfort over fashion. I’ll wear my hoodies in winter and my graphic tee shirts in summer, thank you very much.
My list of reasons for disliking the concept of fashion goes on for a while. For one thing, I’m a creative person; I don’t like being told what’s cool. I’ve often been labeled as having a “weird” style because I like flowy shirts and skirts over jeans, weather permitting. I don’t like being labeled as “weird” just because it’s out of the social norm.
I think that people who are obsessed with being fashionable will lose touch with their own fashion. Everyone has their own unique style, but almost no one these days will express it. The reason is simple: We’re told what’s cool, and not too many people are going to go against it. They want to feel cool, and fashion does that.
Being obsessed with what’s trendy and not trendy also promotes self-centeredness and materialism. I think that the emphasis should be on being a good person rather than looking cool. The more fashionable stuff a person has, the more fashionable stuff they want, and sooner or later they become materialists. Wanting material goods is a sure path to self-centeredness. Who is being helped by you being fashionable, besides you?
As much as I’m not a fan of it, I think fashion is completely inevitable – no matter where you are, trends and materialism are always a part of life. I just wish it wasn’t so prevalent in our culture. I check out the news on Yahoo, and half of it is fashion related. People care about it too much; it makes the real news seem less important. It’s not just Yahoo, either. I don’t read the fashion or celebrity magazines, but I see them everywhere. I feel like there’s no escape.
Fashion isn’t just clothes, either. Fashion seems to mandate everything, if you think about it. Notice how all the in-style girls are super thin? Well, I think that’s lousy. Trying to be fashionable shouldn’t lead people to an unhealthy living style.
Natalie Portman starved herself to look great in Black Swan; Kate Middelton starved herself for six weeks before her wedding. When people see celebrities like them doing stuff like that, it automatically becomes acceptable. Well, when you think about it… how is it uncool to be a healthy weight? Think it through, now. It doesn’t make any sense at all. Not only is fashion annoying and expensive, but it’s also illogical! You shouldn’t be able to label a body type as “uncool”.
Fashion tried to mandate what kinds of clothes are acceptable, what body types are acceptable, what phones are acceptable (I was the proud owner of an old Nokia, I might add), what cars are acceptable, what hairstyles are acceptable… really, is there anything fashion doesn’t mandate?
I’m not a “Trendy Girl”. I’m a somewhat wacky geek with my own style, and you know what? I like being a wacky geek. I won’t let fashion tell me what I can eat, what I can drive, how I can do my hair, and especially how I can dress. You know what? I learned how to dress myself when I was six; I don’t need trends telling me how to do it.
