Recently, I met a young woman who introduced herself as Lacy Gaga (not her birth name). She had her hair dyed blonde, her eyes adorned in dark make-up, and on that day she wore a veil.
She wanted to be just like her idol, Lady Gaga.
This young woman was not on stage performing and she was not going to a Lady Gaga concert either. She was out taking care of her everyday business and we meet at a bank. Now, I totally agree there is nothing wrong with dressing differently from those in the crowd, wearing exotic makeup, or dying your hair. If we all were a clone of each other, there would be no spice in life. However, my philosophy is . . .just be you. Why wish to be someone else when being who you are will help you be that much more successful.
I admire women who have followed their dreams and achieved them, from the very famous to the everyday woman living down the street. I love reading about celebrities and seeing what outfits and high heels they are wearing on the red carpet and around town. Oprah, Madonna, Beyonce, Rihanna, Angelina Jolie, and Demi Moore (just to name a few) are all beautiful, intelligent, successful, and fashion-savvy women and while, I do admire them all, there is no one that I would rather be than myself.
Being successful in life is contingent on the fact that you always have to be who you are. Anyone who has made it, has done so be being an original. Anyone can pretend to be someone else; it is what actresses get paid to do, play a character. However, at the end of the day we like the actress because of who she is.
So, go ahead and dress different from the rest as long as, you are doing it because that is how you want to look and not because you want to emulate another person.
That is how we truly stand out from the crowd, how we establish who we are as an individual by being ourselves. It is like your mother asked you, when you explained why you got in trouble at school that day because you went along with the antics of your girlfriend, “if she jumps off a bridge are you going to follow her?” Likewise, it is like that with our choices in fashion or life. Just because everyone is wearing black heels to the party does not mean you cannot wear the green ones you like.
Remember there is no one else like you. You are an original. So be an original. Make your unique mark on this world by walking, in your green heels, down your own path. Be you.
I agree! One of the things I love about fashion is that we can look at the “rules” and then break them! Whether it’s wearing different patterns together or white after labor day – there really are no fashion police who will put it in our “permanent record” if we choose to do what we want. So while it is nice to have some guidelines (how can you break rules if you don’t know what they are?) it’s even nicer to go beyond them.
I love this piece. You are so on point and I totally agree with Ellen, I think that’s why I go so HARD towards fashion and buck so-called trends, because fashion is an individual thing. It allows me to do me and show how creative and individual “I” can be. I love that and am still experimenting and suppose I will be until I die wearing something that I matched up and gave explicit instructions to be buried in beforehand.