loveFASHIONhate

title-1865470

Wed, 07 Mar 2007 21:56:22 +0100

Without fashion would style even exist? I think there needs to be fashion in order for style to manifest itself, either around, or in aggravation, even in complete avoidance. Improvisation is one of the key components of style, making or possessing. Going back to the woman on the tube, if I had my way, I would wrap an ethic scarf around the neck, place some heavy bangles on the wrist and collaborate my trade-mark ‘wrestlers-belt’ somewhere on the outfit. She might detest my alterations but that’s what style is, not having one governing body which states that short-cuts are only to be worn by the under 25s, that neon is so last month or that we all have to look like we’ve stepped out of Star-Trek. I sound like I am slating fashion, but its function is essential for those who play the game, and for those who don’t. Fashion can indeed, go out of fashion, but style seems incessant.
Money does obviously NOT imply style, did you see Sienna Miller at her ‘Factory Girl’ premiere? She arrived in what looked like a pair of Bridget knickers under some transparent tights. On the side of Miss Miller, I will say that she looked OK, but that could just be down to how gorgeous she is (she might-as-well have worn a plastic bag).

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title-1865465

Wed, 07 Mar 2007 21:55:29 +0100

I happen to like my rather large feet, (made more prominent with wonderful Wrangler’s), my odd obsession with wearing colours which really don’t go, and even my habit of carrying the same bag everyday (mainly due to my laziness in swapping the contents). Each attribute is singular and distinctive, and makes me who I am. Even showing the burden of student-debt and a diet of pesto-flipping-pasta, style seems to be something which comes with the person, not with the budget (unless I am indeed, believing what I want to). Even looking at the dress of fashion designers like Giorgio Armani, Karl Lagerfeld and Carolina Herrera, you couldn’t say they have fashionable clothing (in the sense that we know it), in fact, they have quite narrow personal taste. They ooze style, not cutting-edge fashion.
High Fashion is exactly that. High maintenance, high prices and even higher ego’s. To be truly fashionable takes serious dedication. Think trawling through hundreds of outfits, of varying colour, and shape, and cut, and…the list goes on. You’re dressing to please an ever-judging audience, invisible or not, you’re conforming to au courant executed à la mode (and any other French phrases applicable). Whereas the stylish need only to please themselves, never reaching a goal or ideal, simply staying parallel with their concept of a good appearance. The latter seems more appealing to me.

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fashion vs style (cont.)

Wed, 07 Mar 2007 21:54:20 +0100

The question which puzzles even the geniuses of the industry. FASHION VERSUS STYLE. French Connection have based a campaign on it, articles meticulously written and countless arguments between the desks of feisty fashionistas have all been based around differentiating between these two entities. You don’t have to be knowledgeable on fashion to understand how this debate originated. Do people fall in either category, or display both, or is fashion and style two different things to start with? Fashionable people can look stylish, but one doesn’t seem to necessarily lead to the other. Take the perfectly-groomed female on the tube, yes she obviously had the bank balance (or a rich Daddy) to fund her head-to-toe designer wear, but does style automatically grasp along-side? She certainly looked fashionable, but I don’t know if I would call her a ‘style-icon’, for she was only wearing a coat that we paid a tenth of the price for at Topshop, (and stopped wearing last season). But then again, if the herds follow fashion, and style only allows one’s own vision, then the majority of people would possess no style whatsoever. Britain has some of the best ‘High-Street’ shops in the world and it’s every teenage-girl’s fantasy to be locked in Topshop (by pure accident of course). Sometimes it can look like every 15 year old has been hit by the cloning tool, wearing the exact outfit seen in ‘New Look’s’ window-display four weeks previously. Now that’s when the penny drops about having your own idiosyncracies and quirks.

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Fashion V Style

Tue, 06 Mar 2007 14:03:27 +0100

There's me, high-street head-to-toe, struggling to remain vertical on the Tube train to Camden market, with my hair somewhat ‘disturbed’ by the very unruly gale funneling through the windows. Surrounded by likewise individuals with no desire to notice or be-noticed by any other passenger, accompanied by a Metro paper and Boots' meal-deal, one-by-one they hop off the train. Camden seems to be taking forever until my eyes catch glimpse of another commuter waiting at the other end of the carriage. Smothered in a trench coat very reminiscent of one seen at Burberry Prorsum S/S07 and carrying a brand-spanking-new Nicole Farhi red-leather handbag, she casually flicks through the glossy pages of Harpers Bazaar. Feeling slightly disheartened and hiding my ‘Chloe’ replica (£30 at a market stall in Bulgaria), we finally reach Camden Town.
A debate later starts as my friend and I stroll around the capital of self-expression, and a daunting one at that. People in gothic to grunge, ‘designer’ to boho or even just caked in fake, you see fashion, no hang on, style, interpreted in many different forms. Or do I mean fashion? What is the difference between fashion and style?

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