The Prejudice I Used To Hold Against Fashion: “Fashionistas are a bunch of airheads.”
What the old Kate would have said to defend this view: Fashion is just frivolous — there are more important things in life than makeup and shoes, and it’s silly to care so much about what you look like to other people when it’s what’s on the inside that counts.
Why I was being prejudiced and moronic:
Of course fashion is frivolous. But that doesn’t mean that the people who follow it are. Almost everyone has a frivolous hobby or pasttime, whether it’s watching TV, or clubbing, or building little cars that actually go quite fast. Despite usually promoting the idea that everyone should try and make the world a better place, I strongly believe that none of us can be doing this all the time — we’d knacker ourselves out!
Everyone needs a little frivolous downtime, some ‘me’ time, and fashion is no lesser a hobby than any of the other little fun stuff that people fill their days with. Just because someone’s ‘me time’ of choice involves dressing up in pretty things doesn’t mean that they aren’t deep people. Plenty of people interested in fashion are academics, feminist writers or volunteers in their community. In fact, plenty of them are just all-round inspiring people, and would be even if they wore a binbag.
Besides which, fashion isn’t the passive interest I used to believe it was. It can be an active hobby, one that involves learning about colours, trying to understand weird clothing sizes (and hence, revisiting high school maths), and occasionally getting a little bit crafty. You don’t become stylish by buying a four hundred quid handbag — you become stylish by carving an image just for yourself, that makes you look and feel your best — and that is both a science and an art.
And hopefully, you gain skills, and confidence, along the way.
What changed my mind: As smarmy as it sounds, fashion bloggers converted me. Learning to disassociate fashion from the style magazines I avoided, or the peer pressure in high school, and associate it with how everyday people showed their artistry and taste through their outfits — that was an eye opener.
And I can only apologise to fashionistas everywhere for juding you, and hope to learn a few of your tricks as I continue along this blog — and hopefully, to gain skills, confidence, and friendships along the way.
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Thanks for stopping by my blog!
I agree so much with this post. I had a really similar experience with my discovery that caring about style is not frivolous. I used to be the jeans and t-shirts everyday type, and could have cared less about clothes. My views have changed a lot over the past few years, and now I see style as a form of personal expression. I like to get dressed up because it’s fun and artistic.
I used to think it was all about showing off or gaining attention for yourself, but now I’ve learned that style isn’t like that at all. It’s about individuality, and thriftiness, and creativity. Sure, there may be some frivolous fashionistas out there, but then there’s plenty of frivolous people who could care less about clothes as well.
Great post, and I look forward to reading your blog in the New Year!