Bedoor Bluemoon

Image found on http://kikiochii.deviantart.com/art/Fashion-Sketches-1-4-134403761

At a certain age, we are all sucked into the idea of fashion and what is fashionable vs. what is not.  I remember my first interaction with fashion was in the 7th grade when bell-bottoms were a hit.  I had to beg my mother to get me a pair of, interestingly, cotton bell-bottoms and I was so happy wearing them on the free dress day in school. Back then, I didn’t get what was fashionable through the internet but through girls at school who probably got their fashion ideas from their parents or other sources such as magazines.  At then, I never questioned the “in” girls, I just wanted to be “in”.

Or basically, not be “out”.

The next fashion statement we had in school were the Docs:  Dr. Martens shoes.  For those of you who don’t know what those shoes are, you can google them online and imagine little girls and boys wearing the boots version to school in very hot weather.  It wasn’t the prettiest sight but no-one questioned fashion.  In addition, they cost a lot of money but who was I to question them?

We grew older and realized that the “in” girls and boys weren’t as “cool” or “hot” or whatever word in currently used by this generation to show how hip a person is.  I started not caring when they were wearing skirts instead of the boring serious uniform pants I chose because I started realizing who I was.  By the way, even books were in or out of fashion so at that stage everyone was the same which really isn’t what school should be about.

Now this makes me wonder why our teachers weren’t so keen at making us understand that individualism was important and that each and every one of us is unique in a certain way?  Aren’t teachers supposed to be our mentors who would guide us into understanding life better?  What about our volleyball/basketball/soccer coaches?  Weren’t they supposed to be closer?  What about the counselor?  Shouldn’t he/she help us go through the difficult time when we were all lost teenagers?

Well, I stayed away from fashion and the cabbage patch dolls and chose to pursue other matters.  I realized that it doesn’t really matter what you wear as long as you’re fine with it and accepting it.  You won’t see me wearing something out of this world but I can say that I have always dressed decently to never look back at a photo and cringe.

You know those photos, don’t you?  The ones where you want to scream at your younger self “what are you thinking?!?!”  Well, I do have some pictures with black lipstick but never again will I make that mistake.

Benjamin Franklin said, “eat what you like, but dress for other people.”  I completely agree if people are normal and don’t come up with insane ideas.  This will probably get me hated by many fashionistas who make a living by trying on, checking out, assessing, blogging (seriously I don’t know what they do but I’m sure it’s important because who am I to disrespect their work).  Alright, yes fashion designers come up with some insane ideas sometimes but I think it’s society and the “in” girls who make it a trend.

Who is today’s fashion icon?

For example, a few years ago eyebrows were ridiculously thin that you could draw them using the eyebrow pencil.  Next, eyebrows were cut in half where the outside half would be removed because, apparently, girls only need half an eyebrow.  This was the “Chinese eyebrow” phase.  Nowadays, eyebrows are thick but shapely.  Interesting what people do to waste their time.

How much blusher is just enough?  What’s up with the makeup contouring nowadays, we never had a problem with how our faces looked without it all those years, so why do we need to look sculpted all of a sudden?

Now comes the serious part.  If you were invited to a birthday party with people you know are better dressed or more fashionably dressed than you, accessorizing and making sure all their bling was evident to the eyes of the beholder, and you were a mere guest, would you have the guts to dress the way you want?  In our society, many women are covered so if you were a covered woman and were invited to a party with uncovered women (which is very normal), would you be expected to change the way you dress?

And do you allow fashion to take up a lot of your time?  If so, why?  Does it really matter what you wear or how happy you really are?  Where is YOUR point on the spectrum of fashionable-unfashionable?  Where are you content with yourself and not ridiculed by others.  Image is important, but how important is it?