Texan Mosaic

by ALEX PEREZ//Feature Editor

Fashion: /faSHun/: The manner in which somebody expresses himself or herself to be free and shouldn’t be judged for. 

Imagine a world where you can be free to wear what you want, express your own take on fashion, and be appreciated for it. Growing up in smaller and conservative towns, people are constantly judging others by what they’re wearing. People get so comfortable with what they usually see. So when someone walks by wearing something that they think of as weird or out of the ordinary, people begin to judge and bad mouth those who like to venture out, to the point when they feel bad about themselves for wearing what makes them happy.

There are so many new trends such as bralettes, see-through body suits, or the newest trend, to just not wear bras at all. But all of these are getting so much backlash from people who are not capable of seeing past their own views on fashion or what they think is fashion.

Fashion is not to be seen in one particular way. Everybody has his or her own definition of fashion, and we all need to embrace that fact and actually appreciate it as an art form. People who work in any part of the fashion industry, whether it be in retail, in a corporate office, or drawing new concepts and hoping that it sells, all work so hard. For some random person to walk up and bad mouth it, really hurts.

Enjoying putting outfits together and being proud of what you look like is something that a lot of people take pride in and love to do. So when people complement an outfit instead of critiquing every article of clothing, it means so much.

We all work hard to create a design that depends on its popularity with other people. But in all reality, we should just focus on what we, the people who are making it or wearing it, feel like when we wear it. People have their own fashion sense, and it baffles me when others judge or create assumptions about people just by what they’re wearing.

For most people, if not everybody, what we wear is a part of our culture and what we live through every day. For somebody to come up to you and tell you that your shoes do not match what you are wearing after you put so much work into what you look like damages the self-confidence that you have and demeans your culture as well.

Hatred toward others based upon what he or she is wearing is insane to me. Just because you personally wouldn’t wear something does not mean that nobody else should. Be who you are, and do not dare be apologetic for it. The fashion industry is built on pushing new boundaries and being crazy, new and fun. I don’t see why that’s a bad thing. But we become aware that it is when we see comments from hateful people telling models, or even just random people passing by, that they shouldn’t be wearing that because it is not something that they would wear, or that they think is weird.

An example of this is the recent Victoria Secret line, “Undress Code.” In the line, it had lingerie that you could wear outside of the home. But people took it way out of proportion and basically went crazy.

The campaign for the line showed women dressed in a cute bralette with a blazer and a pencil skirt that could be worn to work. But men and women raged about it, saying it was too revealing for the office and making comments about people who do wear it. The line was meant to spice up anybody’s wardrobe for work. Not to literally just wear a bra and a blazer, but to add accent pieces to your normal office look. Society is so afraid to allow women to be free with their bodies and sexuality that wearing something like that is so absurd to people.

Anybody can wear whatever he or she wants. Just let them be free, especially women. Women get so much criticism from men and other women because they’re not girly enough, or too girly, or they look like “a slut” just because she wears a low-cut blouse or because she wants to add a lace slip to her pencil skirt because she wants to be fashion forward.

The definition of fashion is not the same for everyone. As long as you feel good about yourself, then that is what you should care about, rather than if someone is going to look down upon you or get intimidated by you and want to slander you to make you feel bad.

Be creative with what you wear, or don’t. Either way, just feel good about yourself, and be confident in what you wear. It doesn’t matter if anybody else likes it; you’re still slaying.