This past weekend, I had the good fortune of being able to go up to the City (as there is only one, a friend once told me) on a weekend filled with everlasting sunshine and a sweet breeze rippling up and down the blocks – a perfect weekend to fall in love with the City in all its glitz and glamour. And, of course, it put out.
Please, I ask each and every one of you to go up there and try not to be shamed by your so-called “fashion acumen.” Even I – a stranger once called me a fashionista – felt a twinge of guilt because it seemed all this time I had been pretending to be a la mode, stylish, fashionable, what have you, and suddenly I felt like a lowly bug in a plain full of veritable omnivores. Naturally, this is how it should be, as New York City, being the most tangible example of a melting pot, is replete with the most avant-garde and chic designs and styles and people who, without even thinking, are living portraits of the very city in which they live.
As I was going downtown from 175th Street (If that sounds familiar to you, I will confirm it – I did go and see Bjork) on the subway, I saw a stunning black-and-white flower-print dress on a girl who was fit enough to be a model. It went down to above the knee and was scrunched up at the bottom, of course not forgetting the shiny, slightly but not gaudily so, black heels. As she traipsed down the stairs with her friends, the dress shimmied around her ever so gently. A rare demigoddess using the people’s transportation! Of course this was not the only time I saw something worthy of a 21 gun salute! Walking down SoHo made my head turn every which way, as it seemed every walking, living person (and perhaps even those who had passed on) was darting around dressed to the nines.
My, my, was I impressed, and to tell the truth, I was quite awed. It seemed, to these people, it was their very duty to put aside trends, the rest of us are just catching up to and go after new ones that soon will be the rave elsewhere. I demand each and every one of you to go up to the City and be witness to the heavenly (even to look at, much more to wear) garments in which these people bedeck themselves. It seems every day is worthy of celebration as these people go to and fro on quotidian errands!
The only people I have seen worthy of comparison to the awing City fashion are the youths I see frequenting the Metro. You may see them as slightly wacky, bizarre, a touch over-the-top but, nevertheless, very different and obviously of their own style. They have the most creative outfits I’ve ever seen, and the shoes they wear are a rainbow of colors, though not distributed as ROY G BIV. These boys and girls aren’t constrained by fashion ideals or stereotypes, as I so frequently see here. They see a dashing, daring article of clothing, and they snatch it up!
The urban sense they have rivals that of the City’s in the way they pursue an eclectic fashion ideal – it truly is commendable. But let me lament no longer, my good people! We can take the grand ideals of the City without ever having paid any money to people-watch, though why not take a sejour there!? Of course the City people have a leg up on all of us because of the breadth of design and fashion which is literally grown there. (I know we have D.C., but there is a noticeable difference. D.C. is not the City.) and distributed in such rapidity, but let’s not fret! We can be on the cutting edge, as well!
The key is to not be constrained by what you see around you and how you see yourself. It’s all about experimenting – trying a new jacket from that store on the corner or a pair of comfy pants from the boutique just over there! I’m sure you all have a favorite store, but why not get out of that comfort zone? It is quite thrilling to give everything a taste, and maybe you’ll end up enjoying it!
Take a risk, but do remember those trailblazers to the north and salute them!
Harry Cavanaugh Moran is a sophomore French major. He can be reached at hmoran1@umd.edu.
