The Sprout

How Do I Look Cool?

Posted by Sambow from Cardiff - Published on 24/02/2010 at 15:45
7 comments » - Tagged as Fashion, People

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What defines the "in look" these days anyway?

Is it wearing what everyone else is wearing? Is it shopping were everyone else shops?

To be honest I'm not big on following the ‘trend-train’ and I'd much rather buy clothes that I like, not what everyone else considers to be cool.

Take Paul’s Boutique, these small and very tacky handbags have taken over from the traditional backpack. Oh but these are not your average £16 pound handbag from New Look, these bags can cost up to £65.

If you like the bag, buy it. But the constant wish to be cool has brainwashed the nation into thinking we need these items to look nice, or to be accepted.

I remember back in the days of Jane Norman, I never walked past a girl who didn't have one permanently strapped to her arm. But like all trends it eventually died out and was soon considered "old" or "un-cool".

Personally I will never stray far from a backpack as my school bag; it's practical and big enough to keep my books and my pencil case in and not my make-up and a few pens.

Another fashion trend that has tested purses are the infamous ‘Jeggings’, which can be over £30 for some pairs.

I quite like jeggings, but not because everyone is wearing them. In fact the only reason I got them was because they were offered at half price with another purchase at the shop. I would have been more than happy to get my pair of jeggings from Tesco, a nice £8 set would have done me nicely.

Sadly some girls feel the need to flaunt the labels of their clothes around and make others feel bad if they don't have the most expensive and latest name. I know a girl who constantly talks about Jack Wills (a brand of clothes I don't find that appealing). I will go into our swimming classes and she will pull out a top with “JACK WILLS” plastered straight across the front of it, but still she insists on saying "I've a Jack Wills top" or "My pants are Jack Wills!"

I feel like screaming "I don’t even like Jack Wills!" Yet everyone seems to think we crave the same things, that we all want to have the latest style and all want to be fashion idols!

Not me! Not all of us!

Of course I like to look nice. We all like to wear clothes that make us feel good about ourselves, but what I can't stand is the desperate need to be a clone.

Who starts these trends anyway?

Does someone just show up carrying designer gear waving it in people's faces like a hypnotic pendulum? Are some people prone to the hypnotic pendulum and some immune?

Whatever the case is, I probably wouldn't want to start a trend, it would feel like someone had taken my identity, stolen what was not theirs. I feel this way when people copy what I do, when people take what I created or say what I thought. How can people stand it when their sudden fashion statement is turned into the whole school’s fashion statement?

But it is a fact that people who start fashion trends off aren't looking to improve their own style, they want to start a fashion trend. They want to be the centre of attention and the ones who are seen as "the latest" and "newest". These people are just as bad as the people who follow the trends in the first place, it's pretty easy to tell who these people are; some people will keep their clothes to themselves and others will flaunt them in people's faces until they’re recognised.

There really shouldn’t be this rat race to be number one fashionista!

Alas there's nothing we can do about people like this, and there's nothing we can do about the people who follow the fashion trends. If we face the facts they are probably what makes society move on. The constant want for new things allows more and more individuals and companies to make their breakthrough and allows more products and merchandise into our shops, pushing out the old and making room for the new.

The positives of these ‘trend-trains’ is the new things our people crave for, such as iPhones. Pricey it may be but that doesn't stop people popping into Carphone Warehouse and ordering one right off the shelf. Although there is a guarantee that a new “must-have” item's price is going to be ridiculously steep, it just means we will have to wait until a newer item comes out so we can have the one we wanted initially. Oh wait... then we will want the newer item and that’s the problem right there.

I guess I'm off to sell my jeggings and save for that new Wii 3000...