"That is the key...being yourself. Don't be into trends. Don't make fashion own you, but you decide what you are, what you want to express by the way you dress and the way to live." - Gianni Versace
I have always had a unique style when it comes to fashion. I like to label myself as "boho-chic," consisting of slouchy sweaters, maxi skirts, tribal prints, heels and long long hair. My fashion styles come from my travels all around the world. I began to love tribal prints after living in South Africa for 5 weeks, where some of the clothes that I bought were hand crocheted and hand beaded with tribal designs. I also lived in Florence, Italy for four months where I adopted many of the European fashion trends.
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| Maxi skirt created by Amy Geffert, March 2014 |
I haven't always been stylish, if that's what you want to label me as. In high school I was very cliché, worrying about buying brand named clothing because I thought it gave me a status. It only took me a couple of years to realize that that is not fashion at all. Fashion, to me, is like Gianni Versace says, it's about owning fashion, not letting fashion own you, it's about using fashion to express yourself. That's what fashion should do. The downside of letting fashion nonverbally express yourself, is when what you wear makes you "different" and people get the wrong impression of you. I have had this happen to me many times. A few years ago, I used to wear gauges in my ear, big enough to stick a pencil through. I would also pair these gauges with high heels and cute dresses. If a person were to meet me for the first time dressed like this, they might not know what to make of me. A girl with gauges, could be "punk", but wearing heels and dresses? For this reason I believe that one should never let fashion own them, because then that becomes your identity and who they are, rather than them using fashion as another way of expressing their interests, like I was with my gauges.
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| Hand dyed, and sewn by Amy Geffert. August 2013 |
Because I believe that my styles are a little unique, I have trouble finding the clothing that I feel best expresses myself. So, I resort to creating my own clothing instead. I have redesigned and created shorts, skirts, and many dresses. Sewing has always been a hobby of mine, but designing my own clothing started when I had an internship with an Italian fashion designer, where I cut, designed, and studded many of his clothing.
Traveling around the world and seeing how fashion changes in different cultures, and understanding what goes in to making a garment, has changed my perspective on fashion styles. What we wear should be a nonverbal expression of who we truly are. When people wear brand names or what's in style just because it's fashionable, they're not really being themselves. There are ways to personalize any outfit, like tying a sweater a certain way, making if off the shoulder, or throwing a cardigan over an outfit.
When my friends ask me, "What should I wear?" I reply, "What do you feel like wearing?" Because that is what it really comes down to right? What clothing do you feel best represents who you are today, or how you are feeling today? That's what fashion is supposed to do for us, right? It is supposed to be a visual representation of our past, our present, our future, and our values. If our fashion does not do that, then like Gianni Versace says, fashion is owning us, and therefore not letting us express the way we want to live our lives.
Resources
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/fashion_2.html#h5sHGY5WmyuHKDzH.99
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