Making it Work
BLOG: Personality with a side of PINK
By Aimee Rancer, Blogger
May 22, 2008 | noon
The more I was thinking, the more complex the phrase became. I eat a grapefruit every day for lunch. Does that mean I am sour and tangy? Or juicy? Or round? Well, I may be the latter. However, after much consideration, my friends and I agreed that the phrase “you are what you eat” is complete crock-pot.
So later that night, I was contemplating the next topic I would discuss in this very blog. Since “making it work” pertains to fashion, I began to consider the question debated time and time again.
You are what you wear.
Is this really the case?
I didn’t really know, so I asked a few people what they thought.
I asked a girl who said she wore all T-shirts and jeans because she couldn’t wear the things she wanted to wear. When asked why she didn’t wear all the things she wanted, she responded, “because I have a little chub.” Trying to delve deeper, I asked if this stems from insecurities. She shrugged off my persistence and went on her way.
Thirsty for a little insight, I began asking everyone. Short, small, petite, plus size, men, women, children, (well, maybe not children, but it sounded good) and everyone in between. I bombarded them with quick, rapid-fire questions.
“Cliché,” is all the response I got from one guy.
“Cliché?” I said. I then asked him to elaborate on his dress mentality.
“I don’t stick to a genre, era or trend. What I wear is a combination of things I am feeling. If I want to wear blue socks, I’ll wear blue socks. I don’t plan out outfits because of what everyone else is doing.”
Upon looking at him, he really doesn’t seem like he’s dressing for anyone but himself. With cut-off black, plaid shorts, rope sandals, a periwinkle T-shirt and his arms and neck adorned with bracelets and symbolic knickknacks, he looks anything but plain.
I was wondering if all men held this same mindset. So, I asked another. “Do you think you are what you wear?” I said to a guy dressed in all black.
“Maybe, I wear a lot of black not only because I listen to punk rock, emo and hardcore, but I’ve always worn black. I really like this color,” he said.
After a little discussion on clichés and stereotypes he then spurts out what I typically think a guy would say. “I also don’t go out and just buy clothes to fit who I am, my mom buys all my clothes.”
Oh, the Mom angle. Much like the MySpace angles, Mom’s just always know what will work and what won’t, right? Eh, maybe not in my case, seeing as how my mother still thinks I look “faaaantastic in forest green,” but that’s besides the case.
Having your mother buy your clothing isn’t such a bad idea after all. I mean, it doesn’t take any time, it’s easy, and well, it’s cheap—your mother is buying the clothing for you.
I was lacking in the girl department so I decided to meander down my hall and knock on the doors of my neighbors, asking them this dreaded question.
I received a few varied responses ranging from the obvious to the more complex.
“Uh, I guess so. But just because I wear sweat pants all day doesn’t mean I’m a slob. Okay, well, maybe it does.”
“I wear a lot of PINK stuff from Victoria’s Secret. But just because everyone here wears PINK, doesn’t mean I act like all of them.” Hmm. That’s true. Yes, yes, I’m guilty of stereotyping even though I have no right. Originally, I believed that girls who only donned PINK on the back of their derrière were of that Greek breed. Now, of course, my assumptions were completely inaccurate, but I’m human.
And while my quest of the long debated statement of “you are what you wear” is still unanswered, I’ve gained a little perspective.
Upon reading my findings to a friend, she says something so blissfully simple it makes me wonder why I over-analyzed it in the beginning.
“You are what you wear, you wear what you want.”
I guess it’s as easy as that. And well, a pair of PINK shorts.
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