Tag Archives: Fashion

by

Discernment – #Nature or #Nurture?

Publicity photo of Shirley Jones for the 1962 ...

Publicity photo of Shirley Jones for the 1962 Academy Awards. She presented the award for Best Supporting Actor in that year. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One women’s sense of style is another’s example of bad taste. The same can be said about one culture’s norms compared to another. On the smallest or largest scale, discernment is a construct not an instinct.

I’ll make my case with twin sets – a matching pair of sweaters (jumpers) worn by women. Agatha Christie characters wear twin sets with pearls. So cliche is the attire that the dress became a pejorative, as in “The Twin Set” Set. A few years ago, the twin set came back, hailed by style-setters as something new and chic, immediately making all previous cultural references to twin sets null.

So how do we teach young minds to be discerning? We don’t, because biology shows that discernment is not possible until the early 20s.  The inability of the brain to discern explains so much about teenage style – or depending on the level of adult discernment – lack thereof.

Does that mean we shouldn’t try to establish discernment in a mind unready to accept it? I gave some thought to this recently, because tonight I will see Shirley Jones in concert. Yes – that Shirley Jones,  Mama Partridge or as I first encountered her, Marian the Librarian. I don’t know anyone else within walking distance of my theatre as excited as I am to see her perform live. I have been a fan since I was a teenager, long before I was capable of true discernment. Yet here I am, many decades later still a fan, even though she has been in and out of fashion like that twin set I mentioned.

I believe that what we are exposed to during the early years gives us the foundation on which we build our sense of style and discernment in later years. The less to which we are exposed the weaker the foundation. The more we encounter, the stronger the foundation. Cultural norms will influence us, only living in a vacuum would eradicate that!

No, I am not arguing that cultural norms should be inhibited. I will argue that young people should be taught that the norms that surround them can be limiting. Take colour for example – I am not a fan of Asian colour aesthetics. I am not a fan, because I grew up with deep purples, and autumn colours presented in shag rugs. The greater my exposure to Asian thinking and art, the more I understand that my dislike is culturally imposed.

Open-minded, discerning adults are nurtured not born.

by

Down with the Tyranny of Fashion

Grandma was stylish and up-to-the-minute back ...

Image via Wikipedia

A few years ago, I hosted a luncheon for a group of female friends. One of my guests wore a lovely twin-set, the height of fashion at the moment. Had she worn it the year before, the fashion police would have pulled her over and given her a ticket. Twin-sets, fashionable in the 40s had been passe for decades.

Twin set: Matching sweater and knit top, frequently worn with a string of pearls. Murder mystery writers often dressed the spinsters who lived in the cottage at the bottom of the lane in twin-sets and sturdy tweed skirts.

Who are they? Those folk that decide what is in or out of fashion? Why do we listen to them? More importantly why do we buy what they foist on us? The most effective way to quash the tyranny of fashion is to boycott whatever offends. Vote with your wallet, ladies.

Take platform stilettos designed – in the short run to break ankles, and in the long run to ruin your back for a lifetime. We couldn’t wait to grow up when we tottered around in our mother’s heels. Now we totter around in our own on which we spent too much money, especially for something that causes personal harm.

Take see-through clothing – designed to cover you  modestly, until you move, then the bits that were hidden are exposed, life imitating the art of fashion.

Take winter boots – that are incapable of protecting the wearer from anything inclement, because they were designed for show not showers.

My personal fashion weakness are handbags. [You can't criticize if you haven't sinned is the theme of a homily I write in my head while riding buses.] If I had the funds, my handbag collection would require a walk-in closet of its own. Handbags are victims of fashion tyranny and really bad taste. Current trends add chains and studs and all manner of unnecessary hardware, so that the carrier looks like a porter for a medieval torturer. Everyone of those hard-edged adornments can run a stocking, rip a blouse or snag a skirt, while at rest on a lap. Why do we buy $200 bags to ruin our $300 wardrobes, not just visually but literally?

Form follow function…please…in fashion.

by

Colour versus the #LittleBlackDress

Vogue magazine cover, May 1917

Image via Wikipedia

I’ve spent the past hour tearing apart the September issue of Vogue – literally, not critically. For my first bead class on Tuesday, I am creating an inspiration scrapbook, because my aesthetic is limited, if not limiting. While ripping I stopped to read an editorial about colour that caused me to laugh out loud – the mocking, not the shared humour kind of laugh.

The point of the editorial was that colour was the new black. Vogue was granting its readers permission to spice up their wardrobes with coral, pumpkin, yellow and teal. The article gave the impression that wearing colour was a bold new fashion trend, one that its readers might be hesitant to follow. Be brave, Vogue reader, be brave!

A few years ago, a pal from Quebec told me that she was coming to Toronto to attend the parent company’s Christmas party. She asked me for some fashion advice, as she wanted to make a positive impression on the Head Office folk.

Aside: My pal’s fashion sense was impeccable, with a decidedly French and colorful flair. Anything she would have chosen to wear would have been beyond perfect. That she asked my advice told me that a possible culture clash rather than a fashion faux pas concerned her.

My advice to my pal was to wear black. I said, “You’ll find that most of the woman will be wearing a LBD with variations in lengths and sleeves. Woman in Ontario do not use color in party situations. My pal raised a perfectly plucked eyebrow in skepticism. A few weeks later, she emailed me, “You were absolutely right – black was the predominant colour!”

Despite Vogue – the American version – some women have eschewed the Little Black Dress – for quite some time. Perhaps, it is time for those women to start wearing black?