KhrióMagazine / Inspire
03/03/2011
A Little Controversy #1
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Would you prefer to be fashionable or stylish?</span>
Born in 1947, a ‘baby boomer’, I’m old enough to remember when fashion was the only game in town – when even my mother (who insisted she wasn’t interested in keeping up with fashion) did her best to conform to the nipped in waists and long, flaring skirts of Dior’s ‘New Look’ in the 50s while, in the 60s, begrudgingly inching her hem length upwards towards the unprecedented heights of the ‘mini’. And if Vogue decreed that next season would see everyone wearing pink then so it was.
But a seismic shift started in the 80s and continues on today. Suddenly the word ‘trendy’ became a put-down rather than a compliment. Suddenly no one wanted to be a ‘fashion victim’. Suddenly you were proud that your wardrobe was full of ‘timeless classics’. A change had occurred in how we felt about change. While the modernism of the 50s and 60s always equated change and progress, the post-modern age - which began in the 80s but continues to define our world in the 21st century - decided that what was needed was something steadfast, authentic and individual.
Fashion dictates what is new – dividing the world between what is ‘in’ and what is ‘out’. Style doesn’t worry about such ephemeral things – focusing instead on what looks right and on self expression. Making a ‘statement’ – using your own mix of clothes and accessories to tell the world where you are ‘at’. They still talk about the ‘fashion industry’, ‘fashion magazines’, the new ‘direction’ and what’s ‘in’ and what’s ‘out’ but most of us today know that, whatever it’s called, it’s really style – my style, your style - which matters.
What do you think?
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