"It's not what you wear but how you wear it" - Rianna Croxford

It seems that more and more, the high street is being shied away from. This is perfectly understandable as economics teaches that as incomes rise, consumers will move away from the inferior goods that they consumed due to their income to the more superior goods. I feel that although this is one of the fundamental laws in economics that relates to all consumers everywhere, it should not have to be the case in fashion. Of course there will be the move up from New Look to Topshop and from Topshop to AllSaints but when one moves up so high that they feel all they should be wearing is Dolce&Gabbana, Gucci and Prada, it's a little odd - no?

Whenever I tell people I'm a stylist they seem to think that I only work with the large high-end fashion houses and refuse to touch high street. What they forget is that I am a stylist - not a brand promoter. I will go where I need to go to get the job done and this means that the high street option is never closed to me. It has come to my attention that as one walks down Oxford Street (and swiftly finds their way to New Bond Street - excuse the snobbery) there are too many "Gucci" belts and hats around as well as "Ralph Lauren" polos with the ponies on the wrong side or the wrong colour. Dead giveaways of fake merchandise. I used to like to believe that these people, donning the fakes were duped into thinking that they were real. What I didn't realise, however, was that I thought this because access to the brands that they had purchased fakes for was open to me all my life and still is now. It led me to think that there was a problem with wealth distribution (which undoubtedly there is - but I'll leave that to the politicians to sort out, back to fashion.)

I finally settled at the conclusion that they wanted these brands to impress. By wearing Gucci and Ralph Lauren, they were impressing their contemporaries and elevating themselves, I suppose. This, in my opinion, is the problem with people and fashion. One cannot allow the wearing of a brand to speak for oneself. What I mean is that my wearing Gucci or Prada does not make me look better or worse (well, depending on how the outfit is put together it could make you look worse) it is the way I put my outfit together. I have seen people wear clothes bought in a thrift store, taken home and altered by themselves and look better than me and it caused me to think about where I was going wrong in my style. Note that I asked where I was going wrong in my style and not in the brands I was wearing.

Skakespeare wrote that "the apparel oft proclaimeth the man" and this too, is true but remember, it is how you wear it, not just what you wear.

Ciao Belissimi!

Mr. Darkwah
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