Fashion vs Sensibility

Have you every bought a fabulous pair of shoes and the first time you wear it out it turned out to be absolute torture? Or maybe, like the unfortunate woman in Lt.Stitchie’s song you knew it wasn’t your size but you forced your feet into it anyway?

On any given day you will find a woman who is experiencing some kind of pain at the cost of fashion. They may be wearing an outfit in which they can hardly breathe, the fashionable pair of shoes that will give them countless bunions by the end of the night, or who have spent all day at the salon getting their hair singed, scalp  burnt and all at the cost of beauty. At the end of the day is it worth it? And who are we doing it all for?

My girlfriends and I had this discussion lately and they honestly said they were not doing all this for themselves. It was to avoid criticism from other women and of course, to attract the opposite sex. I stuck out like a sore thumb with my seeming uprightness stating that I did it all for myself. I do it so that I will like what I see when I look in the mirror. Fortunately, I have never been that much into fashion, but am not immune to the fashion bug.  Some women seem to be mindlessly driven to get into what is in right now, many times at their own peril. Sometimes they really don’t look good in it, but it’s in, so they have to have it. A male friend of mine recently commented that Jamaican women think that if a dress is sexy and they put it on, then they will automatically be sexy. Oh no, not everything fits everyone.

The focus  should be not on the hottest fashion, but what looks best on us. But Jamaica has some of the most confident women I know so it seems it will always be; at whatever cost, get into what is in fashion. Does that apply to you?