Monday, September 16, 2013

On Trend


As a general rule, I do not think of myself as a trendy person.  I guess there are various reasons for this, not the least of which are a whole slew of photos from the 80's that I would rather forget altogether.  When I look back and think of the things I did and wore (Sun-In and Reeboks--I'm talking to YOU), I am actually embarrassed.  I can blame this on being a teenager, so as an adult, I don't want to look back and think of my choices as having been unfortunate, but rather, would prefer to look at pictures taken of me now and think--yeah, that looks like me.  I guess as we age, we all find ourselves to some extent--what works and what doesn't.  Of course, everyone's favorite "classic" icon, Jackie Kennedy comes to mind.  Specifically, the middle aged Jackie as pictured above.  If you look at the photos, taking exception to the cars in the one picture, which provide a pretty effective date stamp, you couldn't guess when exactly they were taken.  If you saw someone on the street dressed this way, you wouldn't give it a second thought, other than perhaps to note how great that person looks.  I would wear both of these outfits happily, including the shoes.  Stylish and trendy are not the same thing.




I bring this up because throughout my daily electronic life, I keep hearing certain phrases or sound bites over and over again that are, well, starting to annoy me.  One of them is "on trend".  Who came up with this anyway?  Is this supposed to be a softer way of saying "trendy" without offending?  A way of convincing the general public that they should smother themselves in chevron and ikat patterns, even though we all know that in ten years the sight of either of these things will send us running to the dumpster.  If it's something that you really, really like--that you've ALWAYS liked, then go for it.  Just don't kid yourself that if you invest in this look (that you are on the fence about anyway), that it will be around for the long haul.


Another phrase I keep hearing is "pops of color".  I find the phrase more irritating than the concept.  A simple Pinterest search (it took nano-seconds for Pinterest to pre-populate the search box after I typed "pops" to add "of color".  When this image showed up, fell in love.  I think it's the hue of pink in the pillow and the fact that it isn't represented anywhere else in the photo, because this is about as much as anyone can take of bubble gum pink--maybe the embroidery on the pillows.  The only thing I can see here that may possibly date this ensemble is the upholstered headboard.  I'm on the fence about those, not because I don't like them, but because I can see them getting dusty, discolored, stained, faded, etc. and the only fix will be to either replace it or have it re-upholstered.  Maybe that's the fun of it--to be forced to make future changes to keep things fresh...The neutrals, on the other hand, will remain.  Any time you get sick of the accent color, change it out--presto--new room.


While we're on the subject of things that are "on trend", I can't help but think of booties.  Again, it's not that I hate the look (although it's definitely not my favorite), I have yet to see this on anyone that it did not instantly make look shorter.  Since I am 5' 2", I am not interested in looking shorter.  My cousin, who is about 6 feet tall wore this look the last time I saw her and tada--instashrink!  If you go for a monochromatic look (black or dark jeans, black socks, black boots) it looks less cartoonish, but the image above is a great example of how NOT to wear this look.


Delving further into the subject of things I'd rather not wear, the fedora deserves an honorable mention.  I don't get this trend.  At.  All.  If you have one and you love it, I'm sorry if you feel offended right now.  It's not half as offended as you will be when you look at photos of yourself in 20 years.  This girl here looks cute.  Because she IS cute--not because of the hat.  She could wear a mop on her head and still look cute.  The hat looks silly.  'Nuff said.



Ok, these silly rainbow cakes are ALL OVER Pinterest.  I have no idea why.  It looks like an unfortunate Rainbow Brite / Crayola accident.  Not something to eat.  I look at this and all I can think of are...chemicals.  Lots of them.  Yum.

Last, but certainly not least, we have the mustache...thing.  I don't even know what to call this.  It is the answer to the question that no one asked.  It's not cute.  It's not funny.  It's just plain weird.  Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.  I'll leave you all to ponder that very sentiment.

~ESM

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