Style vs. Weight

Check out your store magazine shelves. You see all those style magazines? Cosmo, Vogue, Allure, Charm, Vanity Fair, the list goes on. What do all of these magazines have in common?

Apart from regurgitating the same concepts over and over, they’re geared toward stick figures. Women with no excess pounds, no hips, nothing-on top, and allegedly they’re the prime examples of style and beauty. Get real! I mean it. A real woman is soft, by virtue of being female, and is far more appealing, on the whole, if she has a bit of substance to her body.

So don’t tell me a larger lady doesn’t have style. What we do have is fewer relaxed options for clothing that looks good.

Style vs. Age

Furthermore the whole weight issue, what’s up with teenagers thinking they’re stylish? Look went out the door years ago, that’s why A&F is so popular. We won’t even get into the entire problem of labeling your child with brand names from a young age to give them a false sense of reputation, let’s just focus on this whole age thing.

In my not-so-humble opinion, style is partially natural and partly learned. The learned part comes in where a person grows and matures, turns into a bit more cultured, and jumps the hurdle from outside impact to personal comfort. This kind of learning only comes with age, folks. This is not to say you won’t find kids all over the country/world who have adopted a style that suits and highlights their awkward teenage forms, but the frustrating majority of youngsters today choose the easy route with a high profile developer tag.

The truth: The Fashion Industry is Style by Distribution

To be beautiful, you must be thin and around five foot eight.

To be stylish, you must spend lots of money and wear only the top name brands.

To be popular, you must be stylish AND beautiful. Character does not especially matter, and neither does how much you care about people, places, or things.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m rather glad I’m not popular, stylish, or beautiful. At least I’m mostly happy and relaxed, and have money saved in the bank. Take that, GAP!