 It's not that easy to answer the question, "what is fashion?" because it means different things to different people. Fashion is an art. It's a religion. It's a job. It's a peek into a personality. It's playfulness. It's an escape or a disguise. It is a feast for the eyes. But ultimately, fashion is an individual statement of expression for each of us.
French fashion designer Coco Chanel once said, "Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening."
It's true. Fashion isn't defined solely by our clothing choices, but is also conveyed through the way we carry ourselves, our personalities and our views of the world.
At its most fundamental (and straight from the dictionary), fashion is simply the prevailing style or custom, as in dress or behavior.
So, who exactly answers the question "what is fashion"? Who decides what's fashionable and what isn't? What's in or what's out?
Fashion Designers
The iconic fashion houses - Prada, Gucci, Chanel - are referred to as haute couture, French for "high sewing." These designers lead the way in creating trend-setting fashion. While some of their designs are outrageous and completely unrealistic when it comes to everyday wear, generally the theme is adapted into versions suitable for wearing.
Celebrities
A prime example of a celebrity-driven fashion trend? UGGs. Until Kate Hudson and Jessica Simpson were spotted wearing them around L.A. several years ago, no one had given any thought to UGG boots. Now they are everywhere.
Musicians
Musicians have always been very influential when it comes to dictating fashion. Rock 'n' roll is fashion. Elvis is an iconic example. In the 1950s, everyone wanted to dress like Elvis. What about the heavy metal hair bands so popular in the 1980s? Axl Rose reinvented the head bandana while Poison, Motley Crue and Bon Jovi set the pace for big, rocker hair.
Just because you don't know if a Prada bag is fall 2007 or spring 2008 doesn't matter (unless you work in the fashion industry, of course). All that matters is that you like it and it's an expression of you. That is fashion.
Media
Fashion trends are often sparked by characters on popular television shows and movies as well as adopted from magazine pages. "Sex and the City," "The Devil Wears Prada," these shows introduced us to new, cutting-edge designs. While you might not be caught dead wearing a Carrie Bradshaw original, you might take ideas inspired from her look and piece together your own creation.
Why we wear this
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 Fashion is something we deal with everyday. Even people who say they don't care what they wear choose clothes every morning that say a lot about them and how they feel that day.
One certain thing in the fashion world is change. We are constantly being bombarded with new fashion ideas from music, videos, books, and television. Movies also have a big impact on what people wear. Ray-Ban sold more sunglasses after the movie Men In Black. Sometimes a trend is world-wide. Back in the 1950s, teenagers everywhere dressed like Elvis Presley.
Who dictates fashion?
Musicians and other cultural icons have always influenced what we're wearing, but so have political figures and royalty. Newspapers and magazines report on what Hillary Clinton wears. The recent death of Diana, the Princess of Wales, was a severe blow to the high fashion world, where her clothes were daily news.
Even folks in the 1700s pored over fashion magazines to see the latest styles. Women and dressmakers outside the French court relied on sketches to see what was going on. The famous French King Louis XIV said that fashion is a mirror. Louis himself was renowned for his style, which tended towards extravagant laces and velvets.
Clothes separate people into groups.
Fashion is revealing. Clothes reveal what groups people are in. In high school, groups have names: "goths, skaters, preps, herbs." Styles show who you are, but they also create stereotypes and distance between groups. For instance, a businessman might look at a boy with green hair and multiple piercings as a freak and outsider. But to another person, the boy is a strict conformist. He dresses a certain way to deliver the message of rebellion and separation, but within that group, the look is uniform. Acceptance or rejection of a style is a reaction to the society we live in.
Fashion is a language which tells a story about the person who wears it. "Clothes create a wordless means of communication that we all understand," according to Katherine Hamnett, a top British fashion designer. Hamnett became popular when her t-shirts with large messages like "Choose Life" were worn by several rock bands.
To find your fashion philosophy
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 Two questions I am asked most from clients and friends are How do I find my style? and How do you always look so pulled together? Well my bold beauties I hope to answer that for you all today. Before I give you my thoughts, you first need to know that discovering your style takes time and you will make a few mistakes. Here are The Bold Beauties 3 Essential Steps:
1) Be honest - Honesty is an often overlooked step when it comes to finding your style philosophy. What do I mean by honesty? To have your clothes represent you and your image, you must be honest about a few things including your size, shape, lifestyle, and budget. If you are a mother to young children, it is unrealistic to want style like Victoria Beckham, lets face it; she has a hot husband and lots of help. I doubt shes chasing her children around in a pair of 6-inch Louboutins.
The thing to be most honest about is your current body, not what it used to look like or what you want it to look like, but what it looks like now. I had to learn this lesson as well. Once I learned to embrace my curves, not hide or over-expose them, my style truly developed. The worst thing you can do and the biggest gap in defining your style is wearing clothes that do not fit you properly. Keeping it real will only help you on the journey to discovering your style. Itll also save you money once you start buying clothes that you will actually wear.
2) Research - When people ask me how to determine their style, I always ask if they have done any research, the answer is usually no. Why is researching your style so important? There is no way you can know how you want to look without doing the research. There are many ways to do this; observe the style of a woman you admire, Google some of your favorite stars, or look at online boutiques. You should also investigate brands in your price range, clothes that fit your body type, and most importantly how these looks will fit into your lifestyle. Even though I have a defined look, I am always searching for more ways to cultivate my style. I turn to all avenues to find fashion inspiration, not just magazines, but art, design, and other women. I often take pictures of things I find visually interesting or beautiful and think of ways to incorporate them into my style.
3) Uniforms - I cannot express how important it is to have a uniform. This does not mean we should wear the same thing every day. What I mean is it saves time and money when we have outfits we can go to for all occasions. Once you have researched clothes that look best on you and fit your lifestyle, it is helpful to have variations on a few different looks. For instance, no one ever knows that I have 8-10 outfits that I update with accessories, cardigans, and shoes. This expands my wardrobe and allows me to I have a Magaschoni dress that I have had for years, I am always looking for new ways to wear the dress, and almost every time it is worn, my friends assume it is new.
What to wear to work
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 Getting dressed for the office doesn't mean leaving your personal style behind. Find out which looks give you a polished, professional look and which fashions can be a career killer. Polished, Not Fashion Victim Your goal to getting dressed for work is to project a professional, competent image, regardless of your employment level or career path. The styles, colors, lengths and fit of your fashion choices will speak volumes about your ability to do your job. If you are concerned about your career, you'll be more concerned with looking professional than looking cute or trendy. In general, the more distracting a piece of clothing or jewelry is, the less appropriate it is for office wear. More guidelines to looking polished: Color plays a big part in professional image. Traditional career colors include red (aggressive), navy (trustworthy), gray (conservative) and black (chic). Most of these colors work well in pantsuits, skirts and shoes and mix back with softer feminine colors that are appropriate like ice blue, lilac, soft pink and ivory. Loud colors like hot pink and wild prints are much riskier in the office, but some creative types can still pull them off. Jewelry that jangles (chandelier earrings, stacks of bangles) is distracting. Opt for stud earrings or single bracelets. Slouchy handbags look sloppy. Choose structured styles that project an organized image. Most of what constitutes a polished image is in the details: manicured nails, run-free hose, scuff-free shoes, neat hair. Fit is everything when you are talking about tailored work clothes. Pants should be fitted, but free of visible panty lines. Skirts, especially straight styles like pencil skirts, should be loose enough to sit down in comfortably. Jackets should be able to be buttoned. And blouses shouldn't gap between buttonholes. Designer labels are great, but heavily logoed clothing and accessories look cluttered and frivolous in the work place. A small designer bag is fine; a logo trench coat looks ridiculous. Choose well-made items that are free from obvious designer labels for the most professional look. Dress Like Your (Female) Boss Don't know where to start working on your career image? You're not alone because most companies don't have specific guidelines about what to wear to work. One of the best clues to company dress codes is what your boss wears. Just think about the styles that the highest-level woman in your organization wears and use them in your wardrobe. Does she wear mostly skirt suits? Or does she rely on pantsuits? Does she wear hose or bare legs? Open-toed shoes or pumps? If you don't have a reliable female executive to emulate, then trade on what the men are wearing. If they don suits and ties every day, your best bet is to use pantsuits and skirtsuits: the most formal of business looks. Some organizations encourage employees to dress as well or better than their customers, especially for sales people and others that meet clients outside the office. For information technology professionals, this may mean corporate casual (more on this below), for pharmeceutical sales it may mean a pantsuit, for a lawyer it may mean a matched skirt suit. One way to always be prepared is to keep an extra "meet the client" outfit at the office for surprise meetings. Career Killers Unlike a fashion faux pas, a career killer outfit can do your professional image permanent damage. Looks to avoid in the workplace: Too sexy: see-through lace, miniskirts, spaghetti straps, sheer sundresses, strappy stiletto sandals. Too casual: jeans, shorts, T-shirts, hats, sneakers. Too sloppy: wrinkled clothing, too many layers, baggy-fit clothing. Business Dress Codes Formal Business Attire- For women this constitutes business suits (a matched skirt and jackets) and, in most workplaces, pantsuits (matched pants and blazer). Closed-toe shoes (no sandals), blouses, hose and conservative hair, jewelry and makeup are expected. Corporate Casual Looks-Working women have interpreted this to mean everything from shorts to sundresses, but in its most literal sense it means "smart business." Dressy pants and a blouse, sleek jersey knits and skirts and tops are all examples of corporate casual. Denim, T-shirts and flip-flops -- all '90s phenoms -- are only acceptable in the most casual of work environments. Casual Friday - Depending on the business, this can mean anything from corporate casual instead of formal looks or "Wear your company logo polo and jeans." If in doubt, ask a superior.
What to wear to a party
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 Banish pre-party jitters about attire with our quick reference to dress codes for social events. Black Tie A Black Tie invitation calls for formal attire. Men wear tuxedos, women wear cocktail, long dresses or dressy evening separates. A little black dress is completely appropriate for black tie functions. Formal usually means the same as Black Tie, but in some trendier cities like New York or Los Angeles, it could mean a black shirt, no tie with a tux. Women wear cocktail, long dresses or dressy evening separates. A White Tie or Ultra-formal invitation requires men wear full dress, with white tie, vest, shirt. Women wear long gowns. More about dressing up: Get Party Perfect in 5 Days Black Tie Optional A Black Tie Optional or Black Tie Invited gives you the option of wearing a tuxedo or formal dress, but it should clue you into the formality of the event, meaning a dark suit and tie would be your other option. Women wear cocktail, long dresses or dressy evening separates. Creative Black Tie Creative Black Tie leaves room for trendy interpretations of formal wear. He can go more modern with a tux -- maybe a black shirt, no tie. She wears long or short dresses or evening separates. Sometimes, themed parties call for dress codes like Texas Black Tie, or other variations of Creative Black Tie. In that situation, you can have more fun with it, choosing a dressy look with a theme (for him, it could be a tux with boots and for her it could be a long dress paired with Southwestern style silver belt and jewelry). Resort formal is a designation for warm weather locales (like a beach wedding) where the women can wear something bright and lightweight (floral sundress for example.) Semi-Formal Semi-Formal or After Five means that tuxes are not required, nor are long dresses. An evening wedding (after 6 PM) would still dictate dark suits for him, and a cocktail dress for her. Daytime semi-formal events mean a suit for him and an appropriate short dress or dressy suit for her. Business Formal is the same as Semi-Formal for him, but for women it suggests that women opt for more tailored dressy suits and dresses. The idea is to still be business appropriate -- which means nothing too sexy or slinky -- but still dressed up. Cocktail Attire Cocktail Attire means short, elegant dresses for her and dark suits for him. The little black dress is the ultimate cocktail dress and appropriate for most special occasions. More about cocktail dresses: Best Little Black Dresses 10 Perfect Cocktail Dresses Informal Informal is often interpreted as the same as Casual but it actually calls for the same dress as Semi-Formal -- dark suits for him, short dresses for her -- especially when associated with a wedding or special event. Festive Attire Festive Attire is usually seen around the holidays, with the mood of the party being Informal or Semi-Formal. For her, it means to choose looks with a bit of sparkle or holiday bent (i.e. a beaded sweater with black pants, a red silk blouse with a black skirt). Casual Dressy Casual calls for dressed-up versions of casual looks. For him, it could be trousers and a sportcoat, for her a dressy pants look. Jeans, shorts, T-shirts and other casual looks are not appropriate for Dressy Casual. Casual generally means anything goes (including jeans, sneakers, etc.) If the host or hostess wants a more dressed-up approach, it would be dictated on the invite. And when in doubt about what to wear, remember you can always ask the host or hostess what they expect party guests to wear.
How to find your size
 It's hard finding your perfect fit in clothing: in one store you may be a size 6, in another you may be a 2.
Unfortunately, there is no uniform sizing system for women. Each manufacturer has a different standard for their sizes.
The best way to get a great fit is to know your measurements.
Use these charts to find your size in the Misses, Junior, Plus, Petite and Tall ranges.
The Misses range is designated by even sizes, such as 0-20, 4-14, etc. Find your misses size
Juniors are for younger women and are designated by uneven sizes such as 1-13. The sizes for juniors are usually slimmer in the hips and bust than misses sizes. Find your junior size
Plus sizes are for larger sized women, often designated by a W after the number such as 14W-24W. Some junior lines also come in plus sizes. Find your plus size Petites are sizes in the misses range for women under 5' 4". Find your petite size
Tall sizes are also in the misses range for women 5' 9" and over. Find your tall size |
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