A Brief Word On Style

I'm a simple girl - I can't afford designer heels or a wardrobe filled with Betsey Johnson dresses (as much as I'd like one), I hardly ever buy anything full price and I'll forever be a lover of thrift store shopping sprees. I haven't looked at a fashion
magazine in years because I truly believe that clothes are hardly interesting without seeing the people who wear them - the real-life women who make them beautiful.

But I love what I wear, and I have a passion for clothes, and I think the trick to true style does not lie in being able to afford the high-end and haute couture but rather in the ability to fall in love with what you wear and to wear it with confidence. No, I've never been to Fashion Week, but does that make me any less passionate fashion?

I feel oddly alienated from people who see the extent of beauty only in where their clothes came from and how much they paid for them - the kind of girls who tote around Coach bags simply because everyone else does it. What you wear should never be a status symbol, it should be an expression of who you are, of how you feel about life. True style is magical, blissful, an art form that you can't simply cut out of a magazine and paste over yourself. You are not a blank canvas for others to put their picture of style onto. You are unique - a creature all of your own, and what you wear is entirely yours.

Trite but true, Yves Saint Laurent said it best - fashions fade but style is eternal.

Always,

Penelope ♥

A Manifesto; One Of Many

Photo by Jen Gotch

I believe in the right for women to have a choice.

I believe in people, because it's a little known fact that they have a tendency to surprise.

I believe in Change with a capital C.

I believe in myself, a kind of satisfaction that no other god can give to me.

I believe in serendipity and it's ability to amaze.

I believe in the ethical treatment of animals - they're living, breathing creatures, no different than we are.

I believe in magic in it's oh so many forms.

I believe in breaking free of routine.

I believe in personal freedom for all - something that no job or school should ever revoke.

I believe in gay marriage, because love knows no bounds.

I believe in respect for everyone, no matter how conflicting their personal views may be with yours.

I believe in abolishing the word "feminist" - in the words of someone spectacular, "I was asked if I was a feminist, I said - 'isn't every woman?'"

I believe in the power of clothes - although true love for yourself starts on the inside, that perfect dress can always make you feel like a goddess.

I believe in beauty, however it comes wrapped.

I believe in consistently doing the impossible.

I believe in art, in all it's quiet splendor.

I believe.

The question is, what do you believe in?

Always,

Penelope ♥