I met a friend for dinner. She arrived rocking the 1970s style trend that’s so popular now. She looked perfectly at ease in that era’s clothes; but then I realized that she always looks perfectly at ease no matter what she’s wearing. So I asked her: “how do you always know what to wear to look good all the time?”
I figured that her answer would be about fashion magazines, long shopping trips to the mall and personal shoppers.
But instead, she seemed dumbfounded by my question. And her answer made me laugh. As she looked down to see what she had on, she told me that she had no idea what she was wearing. She said that she just bought whatever was in the stores when she walked in– or online when she got around to shopping for clothes and accessories.
No planning. No stress. No external manifestation of deeper inner meaning. Just whatever. “I’m too busy to keep up with fashion,” she told me. “Do I have a style?”
I assured her that she did, and explained it to her. She thought about what I’d said, agreed with me, and then asked me: “How do you know about all this? Where are you getting this from?”
My answer was easy: “I read blogs.” Blogs written by women with professional backgrounds in fashion who work as stylists. Woman who are active amateurs with a passion for fashion. Woman who dress well and like to share what they’ve figured out along the way. All sorts of women. All ages of women. All kinds of styles.
Naturally, she wanted to know specifically what I was reading, so I told her.
When I got home I realized that a list of personal style/fashion bloggers would make a good and useful addition to my “Wonderful Blogs To Read” tab. [Look up– white letters in the black line– kind of middle to right-ish– the one at the end. Yep, that’s it.] So I added a section to my blog roll that lets you, my gentle readers, know my current fav blogs.
Check it out, why don’t you? You know you want to look good. 🙂 [Please note: fashion blogs on my blogroll deleted 10.11. No longer interested in them. Learned enough, I guess.]
THE SPECTACLED BEAN 
I’m amazed at how well received this post has been. You may not be leaving comments, but you, my gentle readers, are following my links. Huzzah!
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What is 70s style? I cringe when photos crop up of me in clothes during that era–bell bottomed pants and tie dye shirts. Long straight hair. Ugh. 😉 My look now is running shorts and a tee-shirt, so I haven’t gotten any better.
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The thing is, she may not know it, but she has the eye. The person with the eye can go into a store with 90% junk and find the gems, and always look at ease. Probably because it’s easy for them, so they don’t stress out in the least, or even, I dare say, in the case of your friend, pay attention.
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Margaret, 70s style is wider pants and wedgie sandals and tunics and gold jewelry and fabric purses and bug eye dark glasses. Around here it is everywhere I go. I don’t lean toward that style because there’s too much pattern and fabric to suit my minimalist tastes.
J, you are absolutely right. I didn’t think of it before you said that. She does have the eye– in clothes, in home decoration, in food presentation. For me, it’s all an uphill battle to look good and make things pretty, but not for my lucky friend. Good insight, J.
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I find that when I have very small children who are likely to put food all over my clothes, my personal style gets very…vanilla. I wish I looked better, but then I’d worry about dried up applesauce on the sleeves of that very fabulous shirt. So…plain Jane, I am.
Must check out the links now and see if I can feel inspired!
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Stephanie, I can understand your reluctance to wear anything too nice on a daily basis. I’m sure that you look wonderful no matter what you’re wearing– whether it be vanilla or applesauce! 😉
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