Fashion is Against My Religion
By: Ccep J. Dew
dews_ccep@yahoo.com
I don’t have a working definition of fashion. It seems like such a
contradiction to me. How can you be unique and expressive while following
trends? How can someone I’ve never met dictate to me what’s hot and what’s not?
And how in the world can I play “The Fashion Game” when the rules keep changing?
Now style…that’s something I can work with. When flipping through magazines I
never get swept up in the names on the clothes or even how fabulous or God-awful
the attire is. Instead, I study the attitude…the confidence…the essence of the
model.
I grew up in a thrift-store shopping, hand-me-down household. Though I got
teased a lot in grade school because I was a nerd who lacked Timberlands—which
may be my deep, psychological reason for ignoring fashion trends—as an adult I
embrace that thrift shopping mentality. I wear Rave jeans, Victoria’s Secret
underwear, and Payless shoes because they fit; I wear pink earrings almost
everyday because they’re pretty; and I wear mixed-matched socks with my Betty
Boop shirt because I can never decide on yellow or green. My closet and dresser
hold name-brand items, but only because they were on clearance.
I would describe my style as “celestial”: it’s the same, yet ever-changing. I
basically wear what feels good to my spirit. That’s usual jeans or sweatpants, a
camisole or tank top, and tennis shoes.
Like my clothes, my hairstyles vary from professional buns to funky fauxhawks
and I don’t usually apply these styles to their supposed establishment. As I
write this, my head is wrapped in a white scarf that is knotted in the back.
Tomorrow, I’ll probably wear a ponytail.
One of my favorite “outfits” was a pair of blue pajama pants, a white camisole, blue and white FUBU tennis shoes, and a North Carolina fitted. (FYI: a “fitted” is a ball cap that fits your head. No Velcro. No snaps.) Fashionable? You probably won’t see it on any runway? Stylish? Stylish enough for Ccep. It was comfortable, yet sexy. Now, there’s my definition of style!