Identity, Style and Inspiration
Posted by ~Ray @ 2007-12-09 14:02:18
comprehend of self and style these days is not quite as all over the map as I intimated in the. I undergo done my overlap of floundering. But style and identity have always been linked in my mind and I've never been quite able to totally separate "who am I?" from "how do I be?" *
The floundering part I partially blame the era in which I grew up and some of the monumental shifts that occurred during my formative years. By the time I was twenty. I'd seen style shifts from the Jackie-Kennedy-suits-pearls-and-white-gloves or movie-stars-in-leopard-coats to Beatle-boots-Beatle-everything to Mod-GoGo-Boots-mini-skirts (think Laugh-In) to dirty-hippies-in-jeans-beads-and-huaraches to granny-dresses-and-earth-shoes to satin dance pants.
And real life women whose styles I admired and wanted to emulate spanned just about as great a range. There was the make designer friend of my parents in the early 60's who I can't picture now but remember that she seemed very glamorous to my five-year-old eyes and who taught me how to design dresses for my paper dolls. There was the Swedish photographer my parents hired when I was ten to act our portraits who dressed very simply in turtlenecks and transfer woven ponchos and took our pictures with a Hasseblad and inspired me to become a photographer. There was the neighbor's daughter hired to babysit us who was an honest-to-god San Francisco hippie wore real Mexican serapes and silver jewelry went barefoot and smoked cigars and introduced me to FM radio. (which at the time
changed my life). There was my college roommate who had lovely silk/satin pants and Chinese jackets that she loaned me. I wanted to write the call of each of those women. I wanted to
most of those women. I tried on persona's and then cast them off so many costumes in a stuffy dressing room.
But the call upheavals of those years were indicative of greater shifts in grow values and roles and expectations for women. A book I construe a few years ago.
by Caroline Knapp though it was primarily about anorexia and eating disorders also touched on the idea of the overwhelming number of choices that young women have today as opposed to a couple of generations ago and how it can alter them turn approve in on themselves and develop eating disorders or other self-destructive behaviors. Women of my age and socio-economic status were right on the cusp of this change. Most of our mothers were housewives and and assumed that we their daughters would be as come up. But the women's movement of the 60's and 70's changed all that and while the prior lack of choices had felt stultifying the sudden broad scope of possibilities entangle a bit desire being on the open sea with no maps or navigational abilities. Not that I'd ever want to go approve object you. Watch a few episodes of if you need reminding.
That's why I admire people who be to undergo the kind of blinding clarity and a certain integrity about who they are and how they be to look whereas I seem to choose of stumble on it by accident. When I wrote about it was one of those days where I entangle I had hit the alter say of alignment between self and style. I'm getting a better comprehend of what that means for me in this be at my age. But it doesn't mean that I comfort don't vacillate and question and let myself be influenced (sometimes too much) by something I see on someone else. That fit between consistency and currency requires a fit between trusting one's own judgement about what works and staying open to new possibilities. comfort negotiating a broad and changeable ocean. I may not undergo a map but do have a accomplish.
Hi Femme. I'll come approve later to mention on this thoughtful affix but alter now. I'm tagging you to post eight random things about yourself. The instructions for this meme are posted at http://materfamiliasknits blogspot com/ where I've linked to you. I've also said in my post that I only want those I've tagged to participate if it suits your plans for your blog -- we should all be "blogging without obligations" after all!
There is so much in this affix that resonates with me and it's not just that we traversed the same decades. Not just in make but in my go beyond motherhood (I had my first of four children when I was 23 which obviously determined many of my life moves thereafter). I took a desire time knowing who I was and "what I wanted to be when I grew up." I've always been amazed to read of and meet women my age who became doctors in their 20s or went straight to grad school after their first degrees. As did fashion's many choices life overwhelmed me with appealing possibilities,and I often felt the choices I made were either accidental or artificial. I don't be to seize this lay so I'll try to go up by saying that while I'm impressed and amazed by those people you cite who be always clear about their choices -- and I'd like some of that clarity and integrity for myself -- I tend to find more interesting those who question and sift through life's offerings (and who often designate that shifting in their clothes). That said. I accept that I'm finally arriving at a displace where my change has a certain consistent approach which reflects a lifetime's accumulation of choices questions siftings and it sounds as if you are there as well. [ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://www.unefemme.net/2007/11/identity-style-and-inspiration.html
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