Prada or Nada

Who are you?

The chic, the trendy, the retro, thedare devil, the hippie, the Boho, the 90’s, the flamboyant, the sophisticated,the western, the preppy, the traditional, the punk, the rocker, the jock, the Goth,or the geek?

All these dressing styles are categories of their own, however, they can be mixed and matched leading to sub-categories which in turn create more specified sub-categories of their own!

The results and outcomes are limitless.

I, for one, am the sophisticated and sporty, with a hint of trendy and a sprinkle of preppy.

If you were to portray yourself through your clothing and your clothing only, how would it speak for you?

Today, we see more then ever, the array of ways we can choose to express ourselves.

Clothing, nonetheless, has been a staple way to demonstrate our constant shift in emotions.

If we are feeling joyful we find clothing that portrays this; maybe an expressive T-shirt the color of sunshine and pants with patterns of flowers. If we feel gloomy we do the same; we wrap ourselves up in XXL sweaters the color of cadavers, sweatpants, and a pair of fuzzy socks to keep the blues out.

Not only do we express our emotional state of mind, but the brands of clothing we buy, show the world our status. Do you buy Emilio Ferragamo, Tory Burch, Urban Outfitters, Forever 21, Goodwill or Salvation Army?

It is automatically assumed that those buying high end brands are wealthy to affluent, those buying commercial brands are middle class to lower-middle class, and those buying hand-me-downs are un-favored to being extremely limited.

Here, it is practically human nature to organize ourselves and others into categories we wish to place ourselves and others in.

If their clothing expresses a certain idea to us, we automatically accommodate this information into current schemas of what being rich, average or poor is.

What an unfortunate thing to assume others are anything but human.

Yet, we unconsciously judge others on trivial aspects such as these.

In a more macro- overview of our current world, this is also done.

We judge others on the products they buy and the clothing they wear and label them in several ways:

Bad or good

Animal lovers or killers

Republican or democrat

Affluent or poor

Etc., etc.

Its easy to forget, however, that with the desire to express yourself through your clothing and other things, you must be at some economic level stable enough to sustain a changing emotionally expressive lifestyle and people’s perceptions of you.

If how we dress is really who we are and who we wish to show the world, given the fact that we have a way to afford this, who are those who cannot afford to express themselves the way they want to? Is it fair to place them under a label they did not create for themselves?

For instance, I remember when I was a little girl I was told I was pretty. I was constantly conflicted whether to consider this a compliment or an insult because I believed I was strong and that is what I wanted to demonstrate to the world. Though my clothing was not as expressive here (due to the fact that my mother would dress me) my actions during recess were suppose to compensate for this. I would cross the monkey bars back and forth hundreds of time, I would jump rope like no other kid on the block, I would run at the speed of light and bet all the boys I could beat them.

Nonetheless, I was placed under a category I did not choose: pretty.

If I consider how we judge others today based on what we see, I feel a petty about how we have chosen to give others labels they would not consider themselves.

Should we consider those who choose more limited circumstances less fortunate? Is that what they portray themselves as? Or are they the penniless fortunate people who fall off the spectrum of judgment over trivial aspects.

We should bring in awareness as to what we consider others, our words today more then ever have such a huge impact that calling people ‘needy’, ‘less fortunate’, ‘poor’, makes them seem like money is all they need to find a way out of these labels and categories.

The richest men in the world could be poor as well- emotionally, sympathetically, through their absence of kindness or love.

Money is of such importance now that we even found ways to categorize people like clothing styles.

Sad isn’t it?

In my opinion, Kindness makes you the most beautiful person in the world, no matter what you look like, what you wear, where you’re from, how much you have or who you are.