Fashion for everyone

allow me to present to you my ultimate fashion icon, the inimitable iris apfel, a woman who effortlessly scaled the mount everest of personal style, becoming the first woman to have her wardrobe exhibited at the costume institute at the metropolitan museum of art in new york (during her own lifetime, no less):

here's a lady who for many decades has worn whatever she damn well pleases; she is a reminder that the best thing about personal style is that it is yours. you can use and abuse it however you like.

i started this blog because i really like playing dress up - every day - and i know so many lovely people who for various reasons feel they need to dance on the safer side of the tracks. i was one of those people for a while.

i grew up in a conservative community, wearing uniforms everyday to school. i was exposed to art, to theater, and to elegance, but did not have much access to the fantasy of fashion.

then, at some point, i realized that i could take my play clothes out of the costume box and wear them every day if i felt like it. i could wear pants on my head and my legs through my sleeves if i cared to.

i bring this up because of an interesting comment made on eddie's the last glamourai post. a reader felt that street stylers, and i assume style bloggers, dress in a way that is too self-conscious.

it inspired me to add that there really is such a thing as dressing for YOURSELF. i like myself better when i feel good in an outfit. i feel empowered by a beautiful detail or a kooky print, and when it's cold outside, i'd much rather wear 15 different fun things than one big boring sleeping-bag of a puffer coat. the more the merrier!!! who gives a flip if someone else thinks it's too much? they don't have to wear it.

the reason i have chosen to make some of my everyday 'costumes' public on this blog is that i'm having a great time in them, and i hope other people will see that and be inspired to take risks that are right for their own lives.

the selfish pleasure i get? it's not in having someone make my photo in the street (although that's always flattering). it's the way people in cafes, subways, gas stations - and yes, on the street - smile and engage with me. in a world that can be very isolated & disconnected, where many people are living lonely, my personal style is a language that i've realized enables me to make new friends all over the world.

let's remember that this is a reciprocal dialogue, and have fun

with not only our own style, but also each others'.