Out with the old and not in with the new: why I don’t believe there should be ‘rules’ to fashion

January 13, 2019

Just realised how long the title of this blog post is but I’ve never had a way with words! Anyway, last month I read a piece that came out in Vogue about fashion rules that shouldn’t be followed and it was a rather interesting read. I enjoyed reading through the article about these certain fashion rules that should be followed no more, which I didn’t realise was a thing and on multiple occasions did not follow. Now reflecting back on it, it’s got me thinking, why are there ‘rules’ for how people should dress and who started them? Isn’t fashion meant to be a statement of your character and personality? So why are there rules being laid down to prevent that. If you fancy a read of the vogue article to get bit more of an understanding to the context of this post, then click here.

Anyway, I just wanted to come on here and share my thoughts around these unwritten rules of fashion and why we should stop succumbing to them. I’m not going to lie and sit here and say I don’t succumb to any rules on how to style. I most likely will put an outfit on and then take it off because of an unnecessary reason has popped into my head without even realising such as ‘it clashes’ or ‘others won’t like these’. For example, I avoid wearing my tartan scarf because it clashes with other patterns despite the fact it is freezing outside but actually who really cares other than myself. I don’t see a written rule anywhere saying I shall not wear multiple patterns together and I’m living for the polka dot tights trend at the moment and thought they styled perfectly with my zebra print skirt in these pictures. It didn’t even cross my mind about the clashing patterns!

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Another rule that was mentioned in the article was navy and black clothing aren’t allowed to go together. This is nonsense! If my friend is reading this she will be shaking her head at me because it’s her one thing that she’s strongly followed with clothes and I’ve always broke. Who said it’s not meant to go together? And why doesn’t it? Because to my eyesight I believe it does, quite well in fact. However, it’s down to a person whether they feel it does or doesn’t, no-one else. Unfortunately we’re the human race and people like to criticise others on what they wear because we all have different tastes. We just need to remember that people dress according to their own style and if we all dressed the same there would be no individuality. Instead of succumbing to these rules and judging others who don’t, we need to look at the bigger concept.

Basically, what I’m trying to say is that there is no rules to your style. You are who you are and if you want to wear different coloured shoes to your bag (again did not know this was a thing) or black boots with your blue jeans, then you go for it! You will feel so much more comfortable for it and as society is changing, I believe there will be more of this. One of the main reasons I love living in Brighton is the variety of styles and characters you’ll find, which I’m sure won’t be following some invisible fashion rule book.

I’ve been trying to dress exactly how I want to recently rather than thinking about what others will think of it, sometimes I do think of others judgement before mine but I guess it’s a lesson in self-love that we all need to take eh. So I’m also talking to myself when writing this blog post as well as with my readers.

Rather than me writing a ranty essay, I’d love to hear your thoughts. How do you feel about these fashion rules? Share your thoughts with me in the comments below!

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