R.I.P Style

Style: A distinctive appearance, typically determined by the principles according to which something is designed.

Style is dead... don't get me wrong, we all have it in some ways and it still exists but it isn't actually alive. The recent passing of true style was one of a shame, as our everyday outfits seem pointless and empty without it. Style shouldn't just be about hanging a piece of satin across your shoulders, style has meaning and without meaning it becomes a trend. Like YOLO or LOL, each is here for a moment with no clue as to why they appeared in the first place. I see the newest fads walking around town in their Nike trainers, green parkers with fur rimmed hoods and leggings that grate dangerously near camel toes, but within a week they'll be wearing a whole new outfit, making the streets look as if they've been taken over by clones. This isn't real style though is it, what meaning is there behind this trend? Think back to the days of punk where customising your own clothes wasn't just to look good, but to rebel against consumerism; or skinheads that exaggerated their working class look to challenge the capitalist system! In today’s world there is a thin line between new styles and mini trends, they often get mixed up. Style is the way garments are worn, whereas trends can be the garments themselves or how you wear them. Style is personal and trends are universal. What’s even more complicated nowadays is that it is a trend to have an individual style, something no one else has or wears; but surely this is controversial to the origins of style its self as in some ways, to be stylish and individual just meant you had impeccable style. Not be part of a trend. Style pushes boundaries, trends outline them; the two do not go hand in hand. In these new times, style is not defined it is limitless, and perhaps that is why it is so difficult to define and seek meaning to.  

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

Society today focuses almost purely on perfection, we don’t take things as they come nowadays, and we’re always looking to adapt, change and reinvent things to perfect them. What is perfection, why is it so valued, and who says what perfection is?  Fashion isn’t about perfection within trends, if it was we’d all look the same, to me it’s about refinement in personal expression of self. Software and apps such as Photoshop make it easy to create a false image of ourselves without having to go under the knife. Girls as young as 13 are editing their bodies on these programmes to create an image they have been socialised to believe is perfect and beautiful.

Granted I’m in no way at peace with my body, a recent breakup knocked my confidence and I feel its time I learned to love myself no matter what shape or size I am. I’m neither fat nor skinny, I have curves and I’ve come to realise that it’s physically impossible for me to exercise my way to a thigh gap; the only option I’d have would be liposuction, which frankly I can’t afford with my current wages and expense of a car (and would not undergo otherwise. So this year, for me, is about making peace with my body, and instead of trying to look like the model that graces the cover of vogue instead work at realising what I have and learn to love it. By no means did I have an easy childhood with the way I look, constantly ridiculed for my fiery locks that flow past my shoulders I always saw fault in myself. However after coming to peace and loving the colour hair I was graced with, naturally I found fault in the rest of my body.

So I’m now on a mission to compare myself less to others and only to the perfection I can healthily achieve with my own shape and size. It’s important for people to realise that everyone is a different shape and each is as perfect as the next. Not everyone finds skinny and muscly attractive. As they say looks aren’t  everything and as bullshit as that sounds, because initial physical attraction is important, personality generally overrules image when it comes to relationships, I mean come on…who’s going to want to stay in a relationship just because the other person is hot!?

Therefore I’m jumping on the band wagon and helping to spread the body peace message whilst embarking on the journey of self-peace myself!