In which I consider the nature of fashion

I just went for a long walk along the beach with John and had ice creams. I had banoffee and he had malteaser but that is not what I am going to blog about, even though ice cream is amazing.

We had a talk about fashion. When I say talk it was more me expectorating and philosophising on the nature of fashion.

I have learnt a lot since school on this topic. At school I thought that the people who were 'cool' were also fashionable and I despised it. They had the trendy things, they had drawstring bags when they were in and coats with silly pom poms when that was all the shops were selling. I sometimes wanted those things too. I never wanted pom pom coats but the battle for a 'cool' schoolbag went on for years. (I eventually triumphed with an Emily Strange satchel that I thought made me full of win)

However now I read so many fashion blogs, I collect iD magazines and design jewellery. How did this happen to the geek from school?

Somehow I've realised that trend and fashion are not the same at all. Fashion is not about imitation but about innovation. In fact fashion is far more related to art (something that I was into in high school) than I ever realised. The 'trends' where the designers are all using geometric patterns is not because they think it is cool but more that it is an idea they are playing round with for a moment. They are inspiring one another and the high street designers

, rather than dictating a look you must have.

The girls who I thought knew about fashion are in fact a long way from it. The designers whose bags they wanted dressed in a way that they would have mocked. I wonder if they ever looked at a picture of Vivianne Westwood? She's a little bit of awesome-crazy. Once you get on the topic of awesome-crazy there are many other weird but wonderful fashion things, like fruits and sweet lolita style. How did I ever think fashion was generic and mundane?

Even the aesthetic of the models is not the same as the 'pretty' of those popular girls at high school. I won't deny that there are lot of very skinny models so perhaps the desire to be incredibly thin stems from this. However the look of those girls with dyed blond hair or brown with blond streaks in it and masses of mascara -that isn’t what models look like. The fashion industry looks for models who are striking, imposing, unusual and beautiful, but not generically pretty. I am not saying that I fit any of these categories. I further analysing how little the cool of high school has to do with anything in the real world.

I may of course be wrong about all of this. I say I am into fashion but I still express that interest by reading blogs of innovative unusual people. There may be much vapid, generic and boring in the fashion world. It just doesn’t come under my radar anymore! What Katie Wore is one of the most popular fashion blogs on the internet. I just wanted to use her as an example of someone who looks amazing and unusual.