I AM reluctant to write about fashion. It does not fascinate me; on the contrary, I find the subject repellent.
But I did not choose the times I live in, nor do I choose what I am compelled to write.
In reportage, I’m committed to speak about my own experience.
I am not an authority in the history of fashion, but the perimeters of experience do not end with what is immediate.
In the fashion world, almost everything connects. But what truly gives a woman style? What gives them that personal magnetism and allure, which makes them dominate a room from a footstool?
How do they do it and what can you learn from them?
There is something ridiculous in this worship of style, in seeing a woman wear an outfit, which she has just seen advertised as the latest fad.
It is profoundly wrong if you think that money and labels could get everything fixed and you’d henceforth look incredible.
Good taste does not mean being showy, but keeping it simple.
I think there is a little daydreaming and fantasizing, even at our age, about chic clothing.
Bringing in appropriate stuff has a tinge of adventure in it and women spend aggregate years of shopping because our purchases make us feel less puny.
We are fragile so we shop and fix ourselves up to make up for our weaknesses.
And while you don’t need all that stuff to make a super life, you need it for admiration. As they say, if you are not around people with taste, you can’t get it — you have to let the good stuff sink on you.
A lot of self-delusion probably happens when we read fashion magazines. I think mini skirts are the best thing to ever happen to women (for some women at least). Short skirts are fun and young.
Can you dress sexy at my age? I don’t see why not. You can never look as succulent as a young décolletage, even if you have the bosom or a V-neck with chains and pearls.
Good stockings on your spring legs is a possibility for our age. If it makes you happy, why fight time warps?
You have to stay attune to fashion, then learn to make do with what is there!
A decent goal of female clothing design is to enhance a woman, but in the mid-90s the styles have made a grotesque distortion.
Extravagant colors and superfluous add-ons have replaced graceful flow.
With all the elements to making a great dress (materials and tailoring), imagination seems to have become degraded and have given way to ubiquitous logos, which are plastered all over accessories and jacket backs.
Designer Jean Paul Gaultier was the first to make corset-like bustiers for Madonna, which was regarded then as a good joke.
These days, further variations on both underwear and outerwear have taken over runways. Not only are skirts scanty, the bare midriff has also become prominent.
The micro-mini phenomenon gave way to fancy tights, see-through lace tops and high-waist baby doll dresses. The fake, innocent look and Peter Pan collar also became trendy for a while.
Now, downtown chic has taken over, concentrating on jarring outfits that need translation.
Interviewed by the press, designers said that their current efforts are for women who are too busy with important things and do not have time for adornment.
One of the most common rules is that there shouldn’t be a day when you don’t feel happy or proud of yourself for what you’re wearing.
Enjoying clothes is an honorable enterprise. It cheers up older women, survives killer love affairs, dumb marriages, money woes, job disasters and family trials.
Give something of yourself away!
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E-mail Mylah at [email protected]
