MTV Fashion
April 12th 2008 04:06
When did everyone give up personal style and start trying to become carbon copies of what we see on MTV? All I seem to see lately are guys who appear to think they’re an extra member of The Killers, and girls who take all their fashion cues from Nicole Ritchie. When did everyone become so void of fashion imagination?
It’s always been around to a certain extent, people mimicking their idols down to the last headscarf and bangle, but lately it seems that exact replicas of celebrity fashion are springing up faster than those with real fashion sense can weed them out. Taking style hints from the rich and famous is nothing new. What is Fashion TV for if not to provide inspiration to your every day wardrobe? You may not be able to afford to be dressed in head to toe Marc Jacobs on a day to day basis, but you can take your cues from what’s in vogue and adjust your wardrobe accordingly. Fashion has always been about finding a style that suits you and working with it, adopting parts of a look that works, and neglecting those that were clearly meant for a different body shape, occasion, or bank balance.
But lately, the idea of making a trend work for you seems to have gone out of the window and instead someone else’s fashion identity is just being copied from head to toe. Imitation is of course the highest form of flattery, but just because you admire Paris Hilton’s style doesn’t mean you should go out dressed so you could possibly be mistaken for her.
Treating MTV like your fashion bible also presents a more serious problem than just looking like a celebrity’s stunt double. It also breeds a false sense of what is actually acceptable fashion. A lot of what we see on MTV is about show businesses, and the programming often showcases fashion that isn’t actually meant for the real world. Just like no nightclub you EVER visit will be as great as the ones you see in Rhianna’s videos, a lot of the get ups on the TV are purely for show. If we can believe that the scenarios lined up in these videos aren’t true representations of real life, why do so many people struggle with viewing the fashion in the same way? Try showing up to your local bar in Kylie’s famous gold shorts for example and somehow I suspect the crowd there is unlikely to be as receptive as the one in her clip. (Okay, so maybe the men would be.) For anyone who has seen Lagerfeld Confidential, the scene in which he buys a gold leather jacket from Gucci sums this phenomenon up. He is told “only you could get away with it.” Which basically translates to “no one would dare to laugh at you”. And although probably no-one would be game enough to tell Lagerfeld he looked ridiculous, he did, just like anyone else would have.
Yes, trends are there for us to follow, and there are style icons to look up to and source inspiration from, but what ever happened to adopting a style and making it your own in some way? Or better, actually figuring out if the trend works for you before leaving the house in it? Just as not every celebrity looks the same on the red carpet, nor should every girl under 25 in your local bar.
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