Style and fashion… is there a difference? The answer is yes and it’s a big one.
The two words “style” and “fashion” are constantly intertwined and used as substitutes for one another as if they carry the same weight and definition. Truth be told, they do mean something different to one another; fashion is what you wear, but style is how you wear it.
The word style covers a lot of ground. It’s a very intimate trait that people carry within themselves whether they are conscious of it or not. Style is particular and unique. It’s not what, or who, you are wearing. It’s how you visualize, arrange, create, and most importantly, carry yourself and present yourself. It is essentially your image. As the great CoCo Chanel once said, “Fashion fades, but style is eternal.” Fashion is like a fast paced highway with no two stops repeated, whereas style is steady and unchanging. For example, two people may own the same garment or shop at the same stores, but it’s their individual styles that change how they decide to pair or wear it. That’s how it becomes individualized. It’s that army jacket you purchased for $15 on the sale rack from Old Navy in the 8th grade, and continue wearing today as an adult because you love it and it still continues to go with all of your wardrobe. Now style doesn’t apply only to garments or what lies behind your closet doors and dressers drawers. It can relate to every materialistic or physical object we own or create. It is an individual’s personal style which makes them choose gold or silver, brights or neutrals, or which pattern notebook they want for school.
We live in a time where our world is fascinated and obsessed with mainstream media and its celebrities. Most people can recognize a celebrity as fast as a lifelong friend. A major indicator of identifying these celebrities is by their style. Not what they’re wearing piece-by-piece but by their image as an entirety. This is created and recognized because of their personal, or sometimes iconic, style. (Paging Lady Gaga…although she may not be a fitting example. She could be in a category all on her own. ) Style doesn’t require name brands or high price tags. It doesn’t matter what label is sewn into your outfit, it’s about how you decided to put the look together. It doesn’t matter if a handbag cost $2,500 or $25.00. As long as you pull it together and with confidence and sleekness, the only difference between the two is one person spent $2,475 trying to create a look and another person didn’t.
Now on to the word that is more frequently used and recognized: fashion. Fashion is ever changing, ever evolving, inspiring, and inventing. It’s a world consisting of new ideas, new faces, new bodies, and beauty. Fashion is what brings ones’ vision into life, and available for use and show. It is a gigantic industry. Every day there are people buying magazines reading and hearing the word “fashion” screaming at them from the headlines and in between every page turn. This is the world of the newest hairstyles, make-up looks of the seasons (even differentiating the looks by times or days of the week.) This is where we can find all of the newest trends in clothes, inspiring our future shopping trips and outfits. And this, is where name brands do matter. When we hear the word “fashion”, we can almost hear the pop of a champagne bottle and envision glitter floating weightlessly from the word. It’s amazing, dazzling, and rich. But there is a very ugly side to this glamorous world of Fashion; women hating their bodies. The young girls and woman used to show off the latest trends and garments are most often of the same build: Skinny. Really skinny. There are no thighs touching, no skin jiggling even in the slightest, on the runway. So, because of the unrealistic bodies portraying the newest trends, girls and woman are left feeling inadequate and unhappy within their own skin because they don’t look the same way. The truth is, the road it takes to get to look that way is a very unhealthy one and often times impossible. An epidemic of eating disorders has erupted over the last couple decades, right along side the eruption of fashion models, photo shop, and celebrity worshipping. This is not what fashion should be about. Fashion is a form of art. It’s a vision, worked and perfected into a form that can be used and renewed over and over again. It should inspire. But it shouldn’t inspire someone to skip meals, or wish for a body other than their own. It should inspire them to be unique, creative and confident.
Although both style and fashion can be tied together in the same realm, they are not of the same nature or meaning. Style is steady and intimate, changing with every individual. It dictates our views on our surroundings and appearance in our every day life. Fashion is the wild card, keeping your style refreshed and inspired. It’s ever changing and infinite. No matter what your fashion choice, if you wear it in confidence and in celebration of yourself and your body, you cannot be questioned.