Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say and not giving a damn.
- Gore Vidal

In my last post I searched for various quotes and sayings on fashion and style and realized that a lot of people infact if asked, everyone seems to have a take on what fashion and style is to them, be it a positive or negative response. This got me thinking about what I feel about fashion and style. It's very difficult to express in words the thoughts and feelings this question brought up in me. ..but I'll give it a try anyway...though I may contradict myself at times.

“I dress for the image. Not for myself, not for the public, not for fashion, not for men.”
- Marlene Dietrich

STYLE : Style is an extension of yourself. It's attitude, personality and instinct. Style is not material. It's a form of expression, a statement and it's in the choices you make. Clothes are just one way of expressing your Style. If you wear blue jeans and a white t-shirt everyday of your life or wear the latest trends it says something about you and that's your style. It's not the actual clothes itself but what it conveys about you. Style is…something that evolves, matures, and changes over varied amounts of time. It can be influenced and inspired by your age, gender, culture, geographic locale, interests, emotions and a myriad of other factors. Most people express themselves through the the clothes they wear while others may hide through them. Style like everything else in our life comes down to CHOICE. You choose what you show the world about yourself through your style and the clothes you wear. And you can also deceive not only the world but yourself by dressing and portraying your style as something your not - knowingly or unknowingly.

FASHION: When it comes to Fashion I agree with Stella Blum who said "Fashion is a social agreement. The result of a consensus of a large group of people." I feel thats how it started initially at least.

“Fashion condemns us to many follies; the greatest is to make ourselves its slave”
- Napoleon Bonaparte

For example: someone saw a worker wearing overalls and thought to themselves 'hey thats cool! I could wear those with a short tank top and it'll be cool.' So they do that and another friend or someone else notices and identifies with them and likes that style copying it or personalizing it by finding another cooler and more creative way to wear the overalls.....and so it continues and evolves till it's not so uncommon on the street . In the midst of this, shops and manufacturers notice that not just workers are wearing overalls and so produce more fashion forward versions of the clothing and advertise and publicize it maybe even getting a famous face to wear their brand of overalls and thus reaching more and more people, creating a fad or trend! A consensus of a large group of people that overalls are cool. And thats FASHION!

Take a plain low-priced product like jeans and embellish it with design. Suddenly it becomes a ‘fashion’ jeans.
- Howard Davidowitz

Now a days though we have fashion designers who create trends by trying to predict what people will like or or sometimes by trying to sell the idea to them unlike when fashion just happened. It's become about letting others do the thinking for you...letting retailers, designers, magazines and other large companies whose main aim is to profit set trends for you to follow. And thats where STYLE comes in when you have to decide what you are and what you want to express by the way you dress and way to live!

"I think fashion is about suspense and surprise and fantasy. It’s not about rules."
- Wolfgang Joop

It's great to be passionate about fashion, trends and knowing how people feel about what's in and what's not...you may identify with some of them and follow those that make sense to you personally.....but NEVER forget to stay true to yourself in doing so. Follow your own muse. Influence others with your own creativity, personality and confidence.
Be yourself, because Everyone else is already taken!