The Perfect Fit
- Renata Julia Ordóñez
- Mar 15, 2017
- 6 min read
Crop tops? Choker necklaces? Ripped jeans? Why wear any of these? Fashion is what everyone’s all about in 2017, even for boys. What we wear is what how we show off to the world.
Lily Sergi, 15, knows all about fashion. On the day I interviewed her, she was wearing semi-formal clothing- a metallic gray off-the-shoulder top, a black pencil skirt, and over-the-knee boots. Her extremely blond, curly hair poofed around her shoulders, and her makeup was pretty natural, except for her bronze eyeshadow and dark red lipstick. Other people, like myself, may consider it ‘semi-formal’ to wear nice pants and a nice shirt, or a skirt with a nice top and flats. Perhaps even semi-formal to you is wearing a flannel shirt and jeans, or a leather jacket and boots. But for Lily, that’s semiformal. Causal means skirts, jeans, scarves, cardigans, jackets, crop tops, choker necklaces, and boots.
-Photo taken by Renata Julia Ordóñez
So when I asked her, “which do you care more about- style or comfort?”, she quickly responded with style, definitely. “I feel like it’s better to be confident than actually comfortable, because although there are a lot of comfortable stylish clothes, I’d rather feel good about what I’m wearing than in what I’m wearing.” To her, clothing portrays a person’s confidence because “it’s a way to present yourself to the world without having to talk, or anything like that. Everyone says they won’t judge, but everybody kinda judges anyway. So it’s a good way to make a first impression.” When I interviewed fashion designers Kristine Donley and Kaia Lagoni, two employees from Sole Mates, a Downtown Fort Collins shoe store- they answered pretty much the same as Lily- that style is more important than comfort, but that they should regularly go hand in hand.
But why style over comfort, or why are they sure that with comfort, comes style? Style, in many ways, even without our noticing it, is not only a way we show off to the world, but it also expresses our feelings and emotions. Sometimes we care a lot about what people think (and sometimes people care a lot of what we look like), and we wear clothing that will show off our personality. “I like people to notice that with loud clothing, I’m showing I’m a trendy, social person”, Lily explains. “I also like dressing the way I do because it shows how committed I am to events that I’m going to, whether it’d be to school or a party. if I didn’t want to be here, I’d probably just show up in PJs. It shows how I feel.” Style is also used to project culture and diversity, as Elle writer Cynthia Durcanin says, “Fashion is a means of self-expression that allows people to try on many roles in life. Whether you prefer hip-hop or Chanel-chic, fashion accommodates the chameleon in all of us. It’s a way of celebrating the diversity and variety of the world in which we live.”
Fashion is like an unsaid statement we want others to know about. “Fashion shows what people are into- be it flashy, modest, or dark clothing. For example, some people who wear a lot of dark clothing may be trying to make a statement, but most times I just think it’s what they prefer, like the color. Or perhaps it’s just a statement they make, like myself wearing skirts in winter, showing that I don’t care”, says Lily, while Cynthia Durcanin says that fashion is “a state of mind. A spirit, an extension of one’s self. Fashion talks, it can be an understated whisper, a high-energy scream or an all knowing wink and a smile. Most of all fashion is about being comfortable with yourself, translating self-esteem into a personal style.”
So if we all have different styles and ways to express ourselves through clothing, why do we follow trends? What does trendy even mean, and why are they so important? Trendy, as described by the dictionary, means “very fashionable or up to date in style or influence.” What we normally find as ‘up to date’, truth be told, is what celebrities wear. As Lily puts it, “Trendy is stuff that celebrities have made popular or ‘up and coming’.” It defines an era- just like the 80s and rock stars. “Even the Kardashians”, Lily says, “like Kylie Jenner, who wears a choker that matches her swimsuit, and now all of a sudden there’s swimsuits that come with matching chokers. It’s weird, it’s a celebrity thing.”
But what’s trendy and fashionable is not only due to celebrities. It also has to do with expressing a lifestyle or belonging to a social group, like dressing ‘preppy’, ‘cowboy’, ‘hipster’, etc. In fact, we may even do this unconsciously. If we’re not influenced by the popular crowd, then we are at least affected by the clothing provided in the stores and brands we like. “I like H&M, Forever 21, Lulu’s, Cira’s”, Lily says. The clothing in those stores follows a certain fashion, a certain trend, that is influenced by designers who decide what is cool at that time. Brands, affordable or not, make clothing more appealing to some people because it shows a social class. “Especially in boy’s fashion”, Lily tells me, “like, I know my brother, Nico, is Nike, Adidas, and all that. Everyone wants brand name clothing to look ‘cool’.” “People judge because clothing is the first thing they see, and that’s kind of the problem with school. It shows your social status, like fancy versus simple clothes.”
There’s so many unsaid norms and prejudices that come with clothing. Should it really be that way, if fashion really is all about the way you express yourself? Let’s say, for example, what we see as ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ clothes. Lily says “clothing is getting more and more causal and boyish for girls. It’s definitely not weird anymore for girls to wear pants.” But what about the boys? I asked different people what they’d think of a boy wearing a dress, and most answered that it’d be weird, and look wrong. “I would think he was joking”, says Lily, “masculinity is so fragile, they can’t be feminine at all. You see girls wearing pants. But if a guy wore a skirt it would be ‘super weird’. I wouldn’t really care, but everyone would probably be thinking ‘is he joking or is he being serious?’” On the other hand, Kristine Donley and Kaia Lagoni from Sole Mates confessed that they might be confused at first, but they’d “totally accept it. Boys should be able to wear whatever they want!”
So I thought, as of 2017, are the set standards for boys and girls okay? “No, because it’s so sexist and it holds back creativity. You should wear whatever you want. It’s such a small matter at the end of the day. Different styles are personal creativity”, is Lily’s perspective. Perhaps we may even start to see boys wear crop tops, skirts, and dresses, pretty soon. However, it may not be so quickly that we see a unisex store, sharing the same styles and apparel. “Men are such different sizes naturally, so I still feel there should be a woman’s and men’s section. Like women- they have boobs and men are broader in the shoulders. There’s still always going to be a difference between men’s fashion and women’s fashion, because I feel we’re still so divided, so I don’t know.” Perhaps at some point in the future, fashion and trends will be the same for everyone.
On the other hand, girls that wear the new, trendy and ‘flashy’ tops, for example, still have an unchanged stigma that follows their clothing. As Lily explains, “the stigma behind showing skin is something I don’t agree with. We’re teenagers, we’re still young, you can’t over-sexualize a teenager. There’s always some places where you can’t wear a crop top because of the situation, but really, I see them as something fancier than just wearing sweatpants or a sweatshirt. Adults tend to thing we dress slutty, but we aren’t.”
At the end of the day, clothing is just a small fraction compared to who you are as a whole. It does, however, express what you want others to see you as, but heck, if you want to wear a unicorn onesie or a super fancy long dress from Channel one day just because you feel like it, nobody will stop you. If people will be looking at your style anyways, why not get creative? And if an adult or another teenager criticizes you, remember it’s your outfit, not theirs. Maybe someday we’ll break down the stigmas and stereotypes around clothing, and everyone can wear what they want, along with what’s trendy. As long as it’s not socks with sandals or flip flops, Lily says. Dress as who you are with what you like- show your style, your statements, your preferences.