What Style Means to Me

A very memorable lady once said “Fashion fades but Style is Eternal”. Who knew back then that Coco Chanel’s words would carry forward the truth for decades in fashion? In honesty, not me. When I was in my teenage years I adored the fashion trends of the season – yes of course now the shock and ‘What was I thinking’ factor inevitably creeps up every time my mother decides to open the photo albums and take that not so chic route down memory lane. I relished the Friday my pocket money was due and not long after it had been withdraw from my father’s bank account it was in the hands of the poor lady in New Look who had to serve me every week.


Looking back yes the cringe factor is through the roof, but it’s shaken off with the unforgettable feeling of being stylish. I loved the way I got to pick whatever I wanted to; after years of my sister and I being matched in the same outfits, I felt very compelled to make a stance with my clothing (bye bye neon lycra biking shorts – yes seriously). I never wonder, even to this day, why people love to buy, make, design or produce clothing because to me it feels as normal as breathing. Clothing is everything, and not in a superficial ‘I must have this’ way, but in a feel good, individual, creative outlet type of way.

Whether its from the back of somebody’s boot on a cold Sunday morning or from the sleekest most polished shop off a high profile street corner in a fashion capital, style is everywhere. Style isn’t always about knowing which Louboutin shoe matches that Miu Miu bag, or deciphering whether that Chloe skirt compliments this Westwood blouse. Impressive, yes but style is a whole aesthetic in itself. It is wonderful to see such a rainbow of style in places such as Brighton and London, Asia and across Europe and the US, but it is frustrating to see not all of these ‘styles’ would make it onto the street style pages of glossy magazines.

Having the latest and most key piece from a designer’s collection unfortunately in my opinion doesn’t make somebody stylish, it knowingly turns them a generic trend setter vacuumed into a very sickening consumption process that would have Thorstein Veblen turn in his grave.

Style is beautiful because it is not restricted to fashion either. Fashionistas may laugh at the sorry woman who rocks her crocs and bum bag down the street but would be taken aback by the volumes of literature, paintings and music collection scattered at her underground library at her ‘stylish’ home in Notting Hill. We may roll our eyes at the lady who hasn’t joined the canvas bag train and instead uses the same old tesco bag for her lunch, yet seem to ignore the fact she rejoices in the theatre, plays and musicals every week. It is these sorts of people that carry the style torch for the supposedly unfashionable.

Style isn’t about looking so made up you’ve come alive from a Karl Lagerfeld sketch, or vice versa looking so ‘underground cool’ that you physically couldn’t leave Shoreditch; it’s about how you carry yourself. Eyes roll with the cliché ‘I mix designer with high street and vintage to create a unique look’ gabble and it’s so often than not people are always trying to be that one step ahead they’re breaking necks to achieve it. I find the most stylish people are the one who create the simplest outfit choices.

Style most definitely does not exist in the ‘what’s hot and what’s not’ pages, in fact I’d call these so called fashion pages the extinguisher to styles exuberant and uncontrollable flames. I pity the people who live their lives by the fashion rule book, heaven forbid navy and black, or shoes with socks. It is when a stylish woman bowls up breaking all these rules and looking completely desirable that it gives a slap on the wrist to these fashion DO’s and DON’Ts. Where would the likes of Maison Martin Margela, Vivienne Westwood and Comme des Garcons be now if they slept with this book under their beds at night, before designing their collections?

Fashion is about change; it’s about reinventing classics, looking towards the future and breaking moulds. But style is about being true to yourself, there is nothing wrong wearing head to toe Dior if you feel comfortable in it, because that’s the person and the style you want to portray. Nor does it matter if you have only ever set foot in charity shops, because what works for you makes you stylish. It’s a sorry day when women moan about the latest trends because they don’t suit them, it’s almost an embarrassment to fashion. What does it matter if the ‘gone by the time you’ve saved for it’ fashion doesn’t fit your frame, because if you have original style every other trend merely becomes a spec.

Style is about embracing yourself and what you love, not about what the fashion pages love, or what your friends love. Enjoy wearing the latest ‘looks’ or don’t, because at the end of the day if you feel like a shrinking violet in your attire, it shows the hold that fashion has on you, and how your style has faded away.

ALL IMAGE ARTUR WESOLOWSKI. http://supermodels.nl/photographers/arturwesolowski