Trends have for a few seasons now blessed us with animal prints and their many subdued messages. If only for a few seconds, they make us feel stronger and powerful, as though we were proudly dominating the jungle.
There is no other pattern that is quite as expressive as animal prints. They are very much a status symbol, not so much in terms of class but more so in terms of personality. It creates sides, with those who love them and those who loathe them.
Animal prints bring us back to elementary times, and make us wonder about our relationships with the environment we live in, but also the sacrifices we must live with.
Are we all chameleons, changing skins are fashion trends take ahold of us?
Every season, we buy new pieces of clothes. Pieces that fit into our homes, our lives and likes and dislikes – or so we think.
Mainly, we just buy what is available in shops, all these items someone else has chosen on our behalf, not really asking ourselves whether we like it for what it is rather than liking it because it is fashionable.
As new trends come in and out of, we embed their appeal and include them into our wardrobe, perhaps discarding other trends as we go. Fashion is used to show different facets of we we are at different times, ...
But is it too fast, is it too much? Do we lose part of yourself and our personality on the way?
Most people will have a song, an album that they can hear over and over again, without ever feeling tired or bored by it, and keeping in tune with the lyrics, hitting repeat again and again.
Recently enough (in the grand scheme of my life), I have discovered Noah and the Whale
and their magnificent album 'First days of spring'.
It is one those albums which will, to me, forever define the band, and be the one
against which all others will be assessed and judged.
Whenever I hear it, I feel a sudden burst of energy, a feeling of happiness and lightness.
Seeing them live a few days ago portrayed their music differently,
in a way which was even deeper and more intoxicating.
Listening to all the instruments play, absorbing the noise, I was in complete awe.
The cold weather has arrived and it is time to rework the wardrobe and include wonder winter warmers. Here is some inspiration to keep you warm in style!
Reading a lovely post for The Raspberry Branch yesterday made me think further about vintage….
The trend for ‘new’ shabby chic style and ‘old’ vintage items has never been so popular.
The Laura Ashley style of an aged white piece of furniture is ubiquitous, and the trend has also been prominent is fashion.
This winter will see a new trend arise, that of a dark yet glamorous movement. Ruffles, pleats and bows took to the catwalks in some of the most luxurious materials such as lace, chiffon and silk. Drawing upon the 50′s feminine looks after the WW2, the trend will project depression-era glamour, to focus on an ever present nostalgia.
Of course, this trend can and will be adapted to today’s consumers, but it fails to explain why it draws upon so much on nostalgia of a past long gone.
Nostalgia is often an understatement for a greater lack of ideas, and a constant fear to lose the feeling of warmth and safety which comes with re-enacting past trends.
The mistake commonly made is the belief that supporting the shabby chic ethos will bring you as much comfort as the true ‘vintage’ original found in your grandmother’s closet or attic. It is where Laura Ashley fails to bring truly new ideas, and where the glamour of this winter’s trend will subtly blend inspirations from both a nostalgic past and contemporary individuality.
Vintage is good in that it recycles ideas, re-uses garments and creates new looks. Vintage should form an integral part of one’s home and one’s wardrobe and be adapted and mixed with newer items; it should not be a trend, and it should certainly not become a consumerist activity.
For many years, I have denied, if only to myself, the fact that perhaps there was such a thing as a French way of dressing. A recent trip into the land of fashion however told me otherwise, and there I laid completely struck, crying and screaming inside about the disastrous state of the fashion I walk amongst on a day-to-day basis.
People seemed liberated about what they can wear; their clothes did not have to be from the height of fashion, they did not have to show lots of skin, they did not have to be overcomplicated and most importantly, they did not all have to dress the same. It was simply elegant and chic. Very.
In the streets, it was refreshing to see people whose life and passions were not centred around fashion, or the so-called ‘fashion’ of fads and seasonal throw-away culture.
I wish there was a certain degree of pride remaining and an appeal for timeless and stylish pieces. All clothing items are of course fashionable, in that they are designed, bought and worn at a specific time period, and will encompass given trends. However, there is an urgent need to focus on quality items which will last through time and blend with other items, creating at last a unique and elegant look, the French way.
