Fashion versus style

10 Dec, 2017 - 01:12 0 Views
Fashion versus style

The Sunday News

eye of fashion new vs style

Rutendo Chidawanyika

FASHION is all about personal style, taste, comfort and sometimes it’s unfair for people to judge you on what you are wearing on the day, when you know exactly that you didn’t feel like dressing up and looking like a runway model, showcasing some designs. Maybe you had a bad day and just didn’t feel like making a statement on the day. It’s totally normal to have a wardrobe malfunction at times, you’re not alone.

Each year we look at the next trends for the new season, what’s in/out, what’s happening. But sometimes we get totally freaked out with some of the designs we see on the runway, and we wonder how it will look on us, whether one can wear it or not, such as the plastic trend or the naked jeans. The truth is you are the judge of what works for you and how you will look in that particular item. Most designers are fashion forward and futuristic, so what we see on the ramp might not even be something that is in the market at the moment.

The separation between fashion and style may seem obvious to some people. Still it’s not always easy to tell the difference since they are cut from the same cloth. You wear clothes everyday and most of the time you don’t think is this stylish or is this fashionable? It seems those thoughts only come to mind when you have to look your best. The funny thing about fashion and style, one comes out when you know others are looking, the other is always there.

You hear people say your style or my style, what you don’t often hear is your fashion or my fashion. That is because fashion has nothing to do with the individual or personal taste. It’s about matching trends quickly and frequently. Fashion fades fast! Retail stores switch their stockpiles every two weeks to a month depending on how the merchandise is doing. Realistically, fashion requires a robust time commitment and threshold of wealth to keep up with. To be fashionable you constantly have to look at magazines and runways across all spectrums of clothes, accessories, and grooming. Its shifting requires the same shift from your closet and look. Fashion is based on random, temporal trends. Due to the changing nature of the industry, fashion is less powerful because it’s impermanent. To be considered fashionable means you need to quickly interpret the influence of those who decide what is in from what is out.

Style is how you put your clothes together. It can be unique or describe a general genre. Mostly, style is reflective of how various factors such as culture, politics, religion, the weather, your upbringing, etc, mould you as a person. Style is a form of self-identity. It needs you to be very organised as it takes months to years to develop. Your style can absolutely change as time goes on, but there’s a singular thread that stays rooted within what you wear or more accurately how you wear things that is intimately tied with you as a person. You might update your style from wearing A-line skirts to pencil skirts, but they both can still be conservative skirts. So that thread would be the conservative aspect.

So what is the difference between fashion and style in simple terms? Style is your lifestyle or personality while fashion is impulsive. Style is you.

Fashion is an industry. To be fashionable you have to live up to other people’s expectations. With style you’re only living up to your own. Its crazy when you think about how much influence fashion has and what dictates the waves of the fashion world. We are told by those in the industry that it’s decided by a bunch of influential people what’s in from what’s out. There’s a perception that magazine editors, fashion designers, or even fashion houses seem to want to just push expensive items, causing fashion to feel more deceitful and meaningless. This is probably true for some and not for others. There certainly is a mean girl aspect to fashion where you either have it or you don’t; you’re either fashionable or you’re not.

Fashion relies upon certain people “having it”. So it’s not so much that it’s fake, rather it’s purposefully exclusive because it needs to be. Style on the other hand, is something you always have because it’s personal. Eyes are the window to your soul and style is the door to your personality. You don’t have to choose to be one or the other because you can stay on the latest trends while having a comprehensive style running in the background. Still, if you do decide to make a conscious decision to follow fashion or build your own style, just remember that the difficulty in being fashionable comes with the need to always buy the latest thing and knowing when to retire the old. It’s hard to be fashionable because fashion never sits still and is costly. The way I see it, if you have style, you never have to worry about fashion. Style means you have your “wardrobe” together. You know how you want your clothes to represent you, what looks good on you, and how to wear it. There’s an air of confidence about it. —Additional information from Online sources.

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