January 20th, 2010

I ate too many M&Ms today and am beginning to feel sick. This might sound like a strange statement to start today’s look-of-the-day post with but it indirectly relates to a greater fashion related theme – one of balance and moderation. Personally I find it irritating when so-called “fashion experts” or even bloggers try to sound knowledgeable by preaching on the importance of dressing according to your body type and staying “proportion conscious.” To me it all just sounds like a bunch of mambo-jumbo fluff. Things like “in order to appear taller and slimmer one should wear clothes with vertical stripes” or “full-figured women should stay away from thick textured heavy fabrics so as not to add to the visual volume of the look.” The merit of these statements is not only questionable in itself but it also has little to do with fashion. I’ve also noticed that there is a general tendency amongst such “experts” to assume that every woman wants to look taller and slimmer and that’s just ignorant. I think telling people to wear stripes in order to look taller is just as valuable of a fashion advice as telling teenage girl to wear padded bras. The bottom line is that using fashion as a way of conforming is backwards. Fashion is not about feeling self-concious or wanting to change something about yourself but about fun and self-expression. I could go on about this forever but I guess what I really want to say is that there are no limits and rules. Even the notion of moderation and balance when it comes to fashion is only relative. My biggest advice is to relax, love your body, and use fashion as a vehicle for exploration. Push the limits to know where they are (if they even exist). Its like the way I ate too many M&Ms today; now I’ll know when to stop .