“No one can tell us how to express ourselves. There are different modes of creativity and different formulas, and all of that is subject to change. Life is not really fixed. All of it can change” – Pharrell Williams, excerpts from A Man Named Scott 2021

In my eyes, fashion runs deeper than clothing alone. Fashion is a feeling — it is a reflection of your soul. The looks that drive my passion are all-encompassing and an embodiment of an entire mood. It’s not just the clothing that defines a look, it’s your attitude. Fashion is an idea that comes to life, it allows you to get a glimpse of who someone is and lets you be who you want to be. Emotions, time periods, and melodies are a few of the themes that are embraced when choosing and appreciating any ensemble.

Fashion is an extension of how we think of ourselves and a representation of what we believe in. When we’re feeling our best we tend to vibrate on a higher frequency and those around us respond to that energy. Light is the only energy we can see and it is reflected in color. Our feelings of color are often deeply personal and rooted in our own experiences or culture. Our choices of color are fueled by mood and sensitivity. We choose a look because it invokes something in us and often it influences the decisions others may make about us. Fashion is a tangible vision that can express confidence, create conversations, or simply bring delight.

Who are you trying to be or embody? Who speaks from within you already? A warrior, a pageant queen, a skateboarder, a rock legend, a movie character, a mogul. Whatever it may be, you answer that call anytime you present yourself to the world. In current society clothing is not optional (though it should be, but that’s a different story), so you have to choose something — a 5-piece suit, a Grecian-styled dress, a pair of levis, work boots, and your most comfortable t-shirt. In any choice, the look is never completed without the right attitude. You can be nude and still make it fashionable. Fashion is an approach. Your stance can reinvent the wheel and bring your look from casual to iconic. Lady Godiva turned nudity into a statement. David Bowie pushed the gender boundaries of accepted beauty and sexuality norms. Costume choice is integral, but garments alone cannot capture your complexity. What defines fashion isn’t the apparel, as crafted as it may be. It’s the way you put it on. Fashion is established through mannerisms and immortalized by your posture, poise, and spirit.

Fashion transports you through time. Every era has a definitive style that reveals the old affairs of days gone by. We all have a favorite era that speaks to us and helps us feel connected to our true selves or reawaken emotions of bygone times. Vintage threads arouse a sense of nostalgia and allow us to live simultaneously in the past, present, and future.

Fashion cycles us through periods and amuses our curiosity.

Trends are spawned through varying factors, including availability, functionality, or the hierarchy of an occasion.

Denim was invented in 1875 in response to laborers’ need for durable men’s workwear and has since become a staple item of clothing transitioning through the ages. High-waist and acid wash are reminiscent of the 80s and 90s, low-waist signifies the beginning of the millennium, distressed denim reigns in the modern day.

“Jewelry is like the perfect spice — it complements what’s already there.” Diane Von Furstenberg. High-end jewelry was intended for the most honored nobles and has since evolved into the realm of statement pieces and costume adornments. Pastels of the 50s gave way to neon and bright lights of the future, while the current state has returned to the neutral and monochromatic.

As we continue to revolve around the sun, fashion flows through time with us and moves us melodically. Music and fashion go hand in hand. Upon first glance at an artist’s or band’s style, you are immediately able to imagine how they might sound. In turn, you project your sound a certain way based on how you look. Soundtracks fuel fashion and fashion echoes a voice.

Fashion is more than what you wear. It doesn’t have to be anything other than you just simply being you. Go beyond the cloth, wear what you feel. Wear something triggering, challenge the box your new Louboutins came in and be the high heel. Fashion is a sense of being, a right of passage, a support system, an explanation, an argument, an interpretation. Fashion is an expansion of a sense of self. As we transform from birth to adulthood our ideas and visions change. Fashion is as fluid as life and continues to unfold with us. Fashion is me, fashion is everyone. Fashion is a conduit to be indubitably you. It perpetuates our limited existence and the idea of it remains timeless even if that outfit “goes out of fashion” because fashion covers more than just your body.