Being Stylish & Fashionable

Today I am going to talk about fashion and style. Yes I do not usually talk about it, fankly I am still learning. Growingf up being a Navy Brat (yah love that) on middle class working budget. Style & fashion went back to the wayside. Also everything I have learned about fashion and clothing has been pratically self taught.

I know the basic difference between fashion and style. Style is a personal thing, like your signature. While fashion is what everyone else is trying to live up to. That's what I have come to understand it to be.

There is one problem that I have with fashion and style...ok to be honest I have several. There are many misconceptions that people have about it.

Here are my list of problems with it:

1. You have to buy designer clothes or labels in order to be deemed fashionable or stylish.
2. Anyone that does not have these labels, you are a disgrace to fashion and style.
3. Those that don't have labels are rednecks/ ignorant.
4. Once you shop at one brand store(like American Eagle, Abercrombie, Aeropostle, etc) it's bad to shop at the other, you have to stick with that one brand.
5. You can only have one style
6. etc.

You get the idea. I will first begin by talking about the first one.

#1, 2, &3

These are pratically the same, so I put them under one heading.

• Do I like Designer clothers? Yes
• Do I like lables? Yes
• Do I have a few designer clothing? Yes
• How did I get the labels? Either always on sale or as a special gift. I don't ask my parents or my boyfriend to get me stuff thats over a certain price. That way I know they got something for me on sale. I don't mind it in the least.
• Do I shop at stores like American Eagle, Aeropostle, etc? Yes
• Do I only shop there? No
• Do I shop at places like Walmart, target, and even goodwill? yes :)
• Do I think it is important to have labels & designer clothes in order to be fashionable? NO

You see there are many average people out there that cannot afford designer labeled clothes. They can't, they shop at places like walmart, target and goodwill stores. Seriously why the heck would you spend $35 on a tshirt? I am a college student without a job right now, I am not going to go out and spend money to try to impress someone. Granted I am coming from a perspective of not having a lot of money and if I did have a lot of money I would probably decide if I really liked that shirt or not before getting it.

You can just get as many fashionable stylish things from the places I mentioned above. Are they high end,no. But guess what most of the clothes out there look the same,and if I ripped off the label from the clothing would you be able to tell which store it came from. I bet only maybe 10% percent of you could ( I'm taking into account that there are many fashionistas out there that stalk the fashion magazines like Twilight fans stalk Robert Pattison or Taylor Lautner).

Just because there is not label, it does not mean it is not fashionable.

Also the fact that people are not considered fashionable or stylish unless they have these labels is absolutly absurd. Just like I mentioned above how the heck are you going to honestly know if it is a label.

And to call the people that can't afford ignorant or disgusting of anything of that nature... well that is just plain nasty and rude.

To say that you have to only shop at one special store and you have to remain faithful to it, that is like saying that you will eat only at one restaurant and stick to that one.

And the last is that apparently you can't have more than one style.

I find this one very hard, simply because of the fact that I like all different kinds of clothing that I enjoy, there are many styles I want to convey. The reason everyone is complex, no one is fully preppy, goth, classic, etc. I like some clothing, some would consider gothic others preppy....I am a complex person so my style reflects that. I don't know why a person has to have one style.

Maybe it is to make it their signature, but your clothes should not define you. You wear the clothes, not the other way around.

I don't know... it just seems all silly to me at times.