Lately, I’ve realized that fashion and style are two different things. I know there have been people who’ve said it before, but I didn’t really believe them, I guess. Audrey Hepburn once said, “Why change? Everyone has his own style. When you have found it, you should stick to it.” And I’ve come to agree with her on that.
I used to think that people should dress in a very specific way—the way I learned from Stacy London and Clinton Kelly. And while there are timeless truths about fashion (in my opinion), it doesn’t mean that breaking them suddenly means you’ll look unkempt or unruly. Rather, it just means that you have a certain style.
A while back, I started a Pinterest board of clothing for someone I know. He hated most of what I had pinned for him. Go figure. His style is somewhere between skater and adventurer (with a strong affinity for shirts that he got for running marathons), and I had pinned dress pants with button-down, fitted plaid shirts. So I left Pinterest alone for a couple months.
Then, for some reason, I felt the need to update it last month. As I scrolled through his board, I realized that most of the things I had pinned didn’t fit his style. So, I deleted most of the pins and started searching for band T-shirts and outfits with hoodies, because that’s his style. It might not be what’s on the front cover of GQ, but it fits who he is. I even pinned a David Bowie shirt for him—because he loves Bowie.
And while I don’t own a Bowie shirt (even though I have a Bowie The Labyrinth shirt on my wish list), T-shirts aren’t typically the first thing I pick out to wear in the morning. Like I’ve worn in all my other Style Guru bios, I typically incorporate cheetah print into my wardrobe. In my opinion, wearing cheetah print on cheetah print is perfectly acceptable, which you can see I’ve done with my sweater and skirt. To break it up a little, I’ve layered them with a long, flowing, solid-colored shirt. I guess I don’t follow conventional style rules either.
So, I finally joined the “style and fashion are different” club and realized that I’ve been living in the “in style” but not “in fashion” realm for a long time. And sometimes I look at myself and think, “What was I thinking when I put that on?” But then, I do it again.
