Like she doesn't hear that all the time. I often go looking for new fashion bloggers in my nonexistent spare time, and a while back I stumbled across Tavi Gevinson's blog. I was pretty much blown away at how teeny tiny and young she was, and by how much style and flair she had for someone that young. She continues to amaze me with her intelligence and poise. If I ever have a daughter, I want her to be that level-headed, while also retaining the sense of kookiness and creativity that Tavi embodies. In catching up with her blog posts, I encountered this one, and I just wanted to share it here because that kind of "fashion is stupid" mentality is something I come across often. Tavi articulately defends fashion in her post, and also makes it clear that it is what you make it, and what you seek out.
I come from a theatre and costuming background and this makes for a different kind of appreciation for fashion. Clothing in a play or film is often shorthand for who the character is, so to me, clothing isn't just what you put on so you're not walking around naked; it's a celebration of who you are, and of what you want to project out into the world. It's fun, and it's exciting, and it should be a pleasure to dress yourself every day. I might think that something a designer created is crazy or unwearable (for me), but I don't consider it prohibitive to look and appreciate everything that does get created.
Tavi puts it much better than I do, but I just want to reiterate that it doesn't matter what size you are; style cannot be faked or bought. There are plenty of size zeros who have no personal style, and plenty of celebrities who pay someone to dress them because they don't know what to wear. So there's no shame in not knowing where to start, but you can start, if it interests you. And if it doesn't, denouncing it as "stupid" and merely superficial is a rather closed-minded way of looking at things.
Most of my favorite style icons have incredible personal style that would look costumey or overdone on anyone else, but they make it work because they love what they are wearing, and they feel truly at home in their clothes. From the bloggers I follow to the uber rich ladies I glimpse in the pages of Vogue and W, I look at it all as something to be appreciated and learned from.
As I always say: we only have one life, so we might as well dress up.