“FASHION IS FREEDOM! FREEDOM TO EXPRESS, FREEDOM TO FEEL, FREEDOM TO BE”
With that being said, who here likes rules? Restrictions? Being told you CAN’T? All together now, “NO ONE”. But the sad reality is we live in a world governed by certain RULES and REGULATIONS that we MUST comply to.
Interestingly enough, some of these RULES have trickled down to fashion, can you believe it? Ever noticed how offended and judgemental people can get when someone dresses outside the lines of what’s considered to be ‘normal’ or ‘fashionable’? Cue, the name calling and the labelling! So today, I thought I could share one of the lessons I learnt in the beautiful CITY OF ROYALS in the duration I was there.
Simply, THERE ARE NO SUCH THINGS AS FASHION RULES, ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING GOES!
When I first landed in Bulawayo, this was such a hard concept for me to grasp. I just didn’t understand it and quite frankly I didn’t want to understand it. Where I come from, one is taught from a very young age to look and dress a certain way. Anything beyond that, is regarded as outrageous, if not outright criminal, punishable by law. So I came to the CITY OF ROYALS with all these grand ideas of what it meant to be fashionable, only to be stopped dead in my tracks by all the ‘outrageous’ fashions around me.
It doesn’t happen suddenly, you don’t feel or sense it right away but let me tell you, it does happen! The mind captures every single moment whether you are consciously aware of it or not. These moments are what influence your thought pattern and ultimately your actions. For four years, my mind captured fashion moments that had people displaying uncapped creativity, true fashion freedom and art with their clothes. I would silently watch people using their bodies as a canvas in the streets, in ways I had never been exposed to before. It didn’t happen suddenly, no, I didn’t feel or sense it right away but let me tell you, the fashion moments that were captured and stored in my mind are starting to play a pivotal role in the relationship I have with fashion now, more than six years later. I didn’t think it was admirable at the time, I didn’t want to ‘dress like those people’! But today, I AM THOSE PEOPLE and wouldn’t change it for anything in the world!
I had the privilege of learning as a teen (even though it was unintentional) that IT’S OKAY TO BE YOURSELF, especially STYLISTICALLY. FASHION IS ABOUT TAKING A STAND AND OWNING YOUR POINT OF VIEW! Rules will always be there and if you take a moment, you notice that ‘fashion rules’ are constantly changing and trying to keep up is a miserable life sentence. Forget all the people that are hell-bent on dictating what is ‘FASHIONABLE’, what do they know? It’s FASHIONABLE BECAUSE YOU SAY SO!
In the spirit of breaking the rules, I decided to have a little fun this week with my stunning ALL GOLD GLITTERING heels (which apparently MUST ONLY BE WORN AT NIGHT #eveningwear). Well, not in my world! I stepped out in these babies in broad daylight, STRONG AND PROUD!
I paired my glitter babies with an all black outfit, only because I like taking simple looks and giving them a complete makeover by adding one or two showstopper elements. The circle skirt is a statement piece in its own right, I felt like a modern day princess going to a ball in the daytime. I love the versatility of this outfit and there are only like a thousand ways to recreate this look, make it your own and rock it! And of course, a pop of red from my handbag just to spice things up because why not?
I can only hope that I can do for someone what My Bulawayo did for me. I just want to create and capture fashion moments that will shape minds and forever change how fashion in Zimbabwe.
SO LET’S BREAK THE RULES!
LET’S MAKE SOME NOISE AND HAVE SOME FUN!
Criminally Fashionable,
Nyash
Xxx
