Fashion Sense, or Cents?
By Tam Jenkins, for TheWorldJournal.com
In today’s world the idea of what is in fashion is as
popular as what diet plan you are on. Many a conversation is started by “I
love what you are wearing.” or “Where did you get that wonderful outfit?”
Today what you wear is who you are. And most importantly where you bought
your outfit reigns high on the social ladder on who will associate with
you at a party or not give you the time of day. I can’t for the life of me
see what makes an outfit bought at Walmart any less attractive then a name
brand outfit identical to it that costs ten times as much. If the cost of
an outfit is what makes it so popular then why are Kmart and Walmart such
popular stores to purchase clothing in?
I find garage sales an even cheaper venue, but then again you can get name
brand items for low budget prices. I have gotten NY jeans for as little as
fifty cents a pair. Does that make them less attractive on my nicely
proportioned back side? The men that find them attractive have had no
complaints to the fact I spent such a minimal amount on such a fine
quality jean. The question then is, maybe, what you spend and what fashion
you wear is merely a female oriented one? Maybe it is just the women that
care about such trivial things? I have found no male alive that would stop
looking at an attractive woman merely because her jeans were bought at
Kmart, so thus proving my previous comments.
Women are the reason for all the fashion hype. The reason we have to
change our wardrobes every spring, and fall in order to keep up with the
trends that some over zealous, money hungry fashion designer says is the
new styles for the upcoming season. Who gives them the right to dictate
our clothing preferences anyway? Who gave them the license to say what is
in and what is out? I feel I am a fairly intelligent woman, and I am sure
I can pick what looks attractive on my own body. If I can’t figure that
out by the age of forty five, then I should give up and stick to jogging
pants and tennis shoes. Which, by the way, are very comfortable.
I also realize the fashion trends are aimed at the young teens and the
women in their early twenties. Again being classified as middle aged and
mature, I feel the trends for our age bracket are somewhat stifled. The
fashions they seem to think we enjoy were thrown out in the sixties. With
the pointed toed shoes and the spiked high heels, neither one of these
being very comfortable to us aging women. Even though I hear the pointed
toed shoes are going out of style for the upcoming season, which is long
over due. I believe if men were made to wear these “shoes of torture” for
more then ten minutes they would have been classified out of style years
ago. Some other styles have been around since the seventies which include
the large floral prints and the repulsively cheap looking alligator bags.
I have to admit, even though I am of the older generation, I still found
these choices a bit loud and outlandish.
I think the so called “fashion designers” should have advisors on their
staffs that include women of all ages. Women of all cultural backgrounds
and locations should be included as well. Maybe they should do polls on
what us “older women” prefer or don’t prefer to wear. Keep the fashion
trends for the youngsters and let us more mature women pick and choose our
own styles.
I read an article today on the new fashion trends. Low rider jeans are now
out. I am happy to report I am very elated about this change in style. As
I watch the young girls at the mall it is nice to know they will be
wearing jeans this season that cover up more of their anatomy then the
previous year. Seeing their underwear and much of their backsides, not to
mention the obvious frontal views that gave little to the imagination was
a bit too much for this conservative mother of a nineteen year old
daughter to handle.
I realize that fashion is a big money maker. I also realize the older I
get, the less I am interested in what is in style or what is new for the
upcoming seasons. I think blue jeans or in my case black jeans are always
a common but popular choice. Be it bell bottom style, which by the way is
on it’s way out this coming Fall, or boot cut that will always be popular
to us country girls, either way jeans, and cotton shirts will always be in
style. A lot of heavy women prefer baggy clothing and in contrast a lot of
skinny women prefer form fitting clothes. Besides that little difference,
the choice should always be up to us. Either way baggy or form fitting,
when done with taste, can be attractive.
I pick the styles that look attractive on me, and I leave the choices of
what to wear to the other intelligent, middle aged, women that are my
peers. To wear tight leopard skin pants at age forty five just to be in
style is a disgrace to all the well dressed, classy women out there that
enjoy dress pants and suit coats, or knee high shirts that still show off
our fine defined bodies, but give nothing away to deter from our maturity
and class. As long as they keep the basics such as fine fitting dress
pants, and dress blouses that go with suit coats or sweaters, then I think
us middle aged women will tolerate the young fashions for the teeny
boppers, and their so called young adult friends.
As for myself, I prefer tight black jeans and t-shirts, and on occasion
flannel shirts for warmth, but I can also look mighty fine in a black
skirt and silk blouse. If you don’t change the basics, then I will be
happy and content with whatever the new fashions throw at me. Just don’t
expect me to wear animal skins and spiked shoes. I prefer picking my own
wardrobe. And after all these years I am sure I know what looks better on
my own body then someone I have never met. I am certain they can’t even
come close to defining my style of dress or my likes or dislikes just
because they have a degree in fashion design.
As long as we have young girls, we will have fashion statements. They all
want to look alike, talk alike, and think alike. But then in the same
breath they say they want to be their own person. They want to be
themselves, as long as it fits the so called “In look!” So I guess the
designers will always have a prosperous job market for their so called
“fashions” and us middle aged women will have to tolerate the floral
prints, and high heeled shoes, the look of the sixties and seventies, or
the teeny bopper look. We really don’t have much of a choice in choosing
our wardrobe.
The news is not all discouraging. There is always a bright side to
everything. There are always garage sales, the women out there with the
same taste as we have, and are willing to sell off their precious
wardrobes for mere pennies. For those women I applaud and thank you.
Without such sacrifices the rest of us would be left to linger in fashion
limbo. You make us all proud with your classy clothing, and middle aged
styles, willing to share with the rest of us your treasures of good taste,
and good fashion sense. Does today’s fashions really make sense or is it
just a money making business that preys on silly teeny boppers and young
adults, that are given their parents credit card and allowed to purchase
new clothing according to what is in style at the time? Sense or cents?
Only you can decide that question, and my answer is cents, but that is
only one opinion, and it comes from a middle aged woman that loves her
jeans and t-shirts. Only you can decide what looks good on you, but then
again do we really have a choice in what we wear? The fashion experts say
no. I say forget the designers, bring on the garage sales.
© May 7, 2005
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