ON TRENDS: STYLE IS ETERNAL

Although I'm frequently sharing my wardrobe, style obsessions and projects, I realize that I'm not sharing enough of one very important thing - my thoughts. I tend to stick with the visual, but let's go with the intellectual today and delve into a little topic very near and dear to my fashion frenzied heart.

Trends come and go, but in the words of Yves Saint Laurent - "style is eternal." Style is something that isn't learned or plagerized from others like a shoddy high school essay; style is something that is cultivated and emerges from within a person to create a unique and personal representation of that person's life, loves and interests. So often though, especially in the clutches of the overly monetized fashion industry, authenticity gets lost and the trends of the moment overtake any hint of true creativity.

This all is of course, very unfortunate - but hope isn't lost. With the advancement of the internet age and opportunity lurking around every corner of the web, those who still strive to hold on to their uniqueness without "selling out" chip away at building a foundation for fashion freedom without limitations or criticisms from the strict and often unforgiving couture world.

These fashion innovators bring us opportunities to share our style, share our voices and connect with others who enjoy the same fashion freedoms. There are so many encouraging websites, and more appearing every day - Lookbook.nu, StyleCaster, IFB, Chictopia and Stylelikeu to name a few -  create a platform to help individualize the fashion experience. They include countless fashion bloggers -- unafraid to share their thoughts and wardrobes with the world. Communities that offer a podium for creativity and a place to categorize lusts, musts and inspiration are more plentiful than ever before. (Tumblr, Pinterest, weheartit) Fashion is no longer encapsulated or defined by just a few people and a few opinions.

Ten years ago, all we had to go by were the latest issues of Vogue and a few fashionable friends sharing their thoughts on what matched and what made us look like frumpy beasts - now we have a vast creative space without limitations. WE build the industry, not the other way around. We no longer have to look to the pages of fashion magazines, but to ourselves and our own uniqueness. It's truly a wonder to find so many people with so many tastes, backgrounds, ethnicities, sizes and opinions together uniting under one roof, the true fashion pioneers of the digital age.

True trends are those that are built from the dust; actualized by every-day people who posses a total devotion to fashion in a way that allows them to express their inner being through colors, textures and pattern combinations, making them their own. They aren't told by the masses what to wear or how; they create art and poetry with fabric and form. This is why I love fashion.