The consensus among my friends, as well as a lot of the women I follow on the internet, is that clothes suck lately. This summer, if you were to pop into any of the fast fashion outlets where trends both live and die, you’d find a strange mix of styles, indeed: ’90s-era crop tops and babydoll dresses, wacky prints, poofy sleeves, ruching and draping, and big, boxy shapes that don’t appear to align with the build of any actual human body. One could sum up fashion right now as “sexy baby” or “cursed prairie” or, as my friend and editor Rachel put it, a bizarre blend of both “modest and horny.”
I hear everybody’s qualms about this moment in style — and I respect them! — but I have to go against the grain here and speak my truth: I am loving it.I’ve been a fan of fashion’s weird journey for years now. I love a good sack dress, even though I am one of the millions of people who hover somewhere between straight and plus sizes and they are not technically “flattering” on my body type. If I were to follow fashion magazine convention, I should always wear something that draws attention to my waist, where I'm smallest, and draws attention away from where I’m biggest: ass, hips, thighs. I shouldn’t wear horizontal stripes or, really, any sort of loud pattern at all but, rather, dark, neutral tones for their slimming effects. Anything architectural, bulky, or frilled is certainly a no-no — those additions will just make me take up more space, not less.
But where’s the fun in that?
I appreciate the value of simple, timeless clothing and can understand that if you’re a less risk-taking dresser, shopping must be pretty stressful these days. Maybe I’m just a hopeless trend monster, but I don’t know, man — I’m having the time of my life. I love these loud patterns! I love the bold color, the fascinating shapes, the funky additions to an otherwise unremarkable top or skirt that give it some flair. I love that fashion right now isn’t about what’s technically the most “flattering,” because those rules are designed with the thinnest, whitest, and most conventionally beautiful among us in mind.
The game is already rigged; even if we follow every rule, we still can’t really win. So why not just go wild and lean into the wackiness of it all? If I’m never actually going to attain the unattainable ideal of the sexy-but-not-too-sexy woman, then I might as well have a good time when I’m getting dressed in the morning.
by Shannon Keating, BuzzFeed | Read more:
Image: Abbey Lossing for BuzzFeed News
