Instead of a morning paper

SATURDAYS

Vino tinto, espresso and a pink leather clutch.

Let's talk about Clothes.

The power of clothes fascinates me. Our personality may very well be what counts but at the end of the day, one can never deny the power of how we look. Mark Twain once stated, "Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on the society." Fashionista or not - what you wear speaks of who you are - or who you want to be. Someone's appereance is the first thing you notice about that person and non-depending on what you are wearing at this particular moment, your clothes speak. Our appearance matters. That's a fact. 

You may not give a darn about what's being shown on the catwalk or what the person next to you is wearing, but at some point, you have taken the decision to buy a particular piece of clothing. And this morning (evening/night) you decided to wear it. More importantly, you decided to wear it with something else - a highly loved pair of shoes, a particular pair of trousers, jeans, a skirt. We sum of all our parts - including our clothes. A white t-shirt worn with a pair of blue jeans speaks a whole other story than a white t-shirt together with a pair of classic suit trousers. Getting dressed is like a never-ending puzzle.

To deepen this puzzle of clothes; what you think about your look may not be how someone else pursues it. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Everyone sees things their way. You may have been thinking "classy" - someone else is thinking "boring". You were planning to look "colourful" - your friend thinks you look crazy. The way we dress, what parts of the body we protect, disguise or cover, the material or colour of our clothes, the jewelery or the bag we choose to wear to it - it all distinguishes us in a group and as individuals. By choosing to look like "everyone" else, one steps away from the freedom of choice. By not choosing to look like everyone else, one steps away from the mainstream.

"...an individual with greater awareness of her clothes understands her social status in another way than she who does not stop and reflect upon the choices she/he is taking." - The Metamorphosis of Fashion, M. Petersson McIntyre.

Clothes does not only change the way we look like - it contributes to our whole persona. Wearing clothes that you are comfortable in gives you strenght - wearing something that does not feel right, will most likely create the opposite effect. Think of the central role of clothes in movies: how the transformation of the hero/-ine is based on his/her appearance: the duck becomes the swan by taking her glasses off, fixing her hair, putting her in a beautiful dress and changing her sneakers into a pair of sparkling heels. From poor to rich, from boring to fun, from ugly to beautiful. 

Clothes speak. Let's talk about that.