When I was younger, my little hands were always giddy to touch the glossy pages of a fashion or gossip magazine and be lucky enough to carry one home. Reluctantly, my dad would hand over the $2.79 for me to catch up on the latest trends and the hottest red carpet looks. The People Magazine Style Watch was always trustable in its formula: a few new makeup tricks that could take you from day to night, the color of the season to incorporate into your wardrobe, biggest red carpet flops and countless “who wore it better” comparisons posing two celebrities with the same outfit and their ratings.
This was the stuff of sleepover gold, weekend study material and endless entertainment. When a “who wore it better” came along I would swiftly slap my hand across the rating so I could guess, without being influenced. If I was “right” I felt somehow dignified in my style savviness. My eye must be attuned, I would think. However, if I liked the celebrity who did not wear it better, I felt disappointed in myself, as if I needed to shake my magic style wand and regain my powers.
If I could just whisper to that young girl and say, “Oh, but you're right! You are always right when it comes to these things. How silly to think there could be a wrong in the world of fabrics and patterns.”
In fashion blogger Leandra Medine’s “A Case Against the Worst Dressed List,” Medine makes an argument against throwing tomatoes at the TV screen during awards season. “Worst dressed lists are polarizing. They accommodate a point of view that runs so distinctly counter to the tenets of style,” that popular opinion rules all. Medine says that at least with “bad dressing” comes expression. “What we’re seeing more and more is a sea of passive dressing — the heartbreaking equivalent of indifference in the scheme of love and hate — that evokes no emotion at all and just numbingly keeps a set of wheels we can see but not quite use in motion.”
What I didn’t see then, I am faced with now. The question is, why do we pit women against each other? Forget fashion for a moment, and think of all the headlines putting women in catfights and jealous battles that don’t exist. What message is this sending to our young girls with open hearts and open minds?
The older I get the more I see that standing up to negativity is necessary not only for us but for those who come after us. When we ask not to be condemned for our creative choices we are not spoiled brats who can’t take criticism. We are demanding to support each other.
Let’s teach young girls to lift each other up. When it comes to fashion, let’s stop trying to determine a right and a wrong. Let’s quit comparing and rating. Style is subjective and your choice is your freedom.
Celebrate each other.
