FashBlog.com

While surfing the internet several days ago I ran across a fashion blog that claimed to be the most up to date fashion source available. This blog went as far as to claim that by the time a fashion trend "made" the magazines, it was already passe. I did not bookmark this self styled ultimate source of fashion trends because I am not sure I want to be on the cutting edge of fashion. At least not that cutting of the edge of fashion trends. I seek to be fashionable, not trendy, and while they are not mutually exclusive, they are different.

A fashionable individual pays attention to the current fashions of the season and picks and chooses the styles that compliment their lifestyle. For some people, with endless depth to their pocketbook, this may mean placing orders at haute couture shows or attending trunk shows at their favorite shop or department store.

Haute couture shows are runway shows featuring a specific designer, normally shown during fashion week, in a multitude of cities. While some designers, or fashion houses ( Chanel) may also have a ready to wear show , it is the couture shows where the newest ideas and most outlandish fashions can be found. These shows draw buyers from retail stores and the rich and famous. Either group may place orders for the creations strutting down the runways, but it takes a very deep pocket book and active social life to actually buy or wear these clothes. It also takes fashion courage since many of these designs are extreme or at the very cutting edge of fashion. Very few people wear couture clothing. The haute couture business is often run at a financial loss. It continues because it is the artistic presentation of the fashion industry and while the fashions are only sold to a small group of people, this is where ideas for future ready to wear clothes make their bow to the world.

Trunk shows are held at a clothing store, often a department store, and it gives certain clientele the ability to preorder from a designer's entire line for the next season. The buyers for boutiques and department stores rarely order the entire line from a certain designer. Frequenters of trunk shows have the ability to see the entire line and pick and choose their wardrobe for the next season. Accessory, jewelry and cosmetic companies also have truck shows.

This is only part of the high fashion world. Most members of the public either do not have access to these events, or are not aware they exist. We read about the runway shows on blogs, in magazines and on television. Trunk shows have traditionally been by invitation only, and if you're favorite clothing store does not have you on their "A" list, you most likely have never been invited nor ordered your spring wardrobe in fall. Several magazines advertise the time and locations of certain manufactures' trunk shows and an inquiry to your favorite department store may result in an invitation to the next show at their store.

Trends are a part of fashion, but only a part. Trends by definition can mean stylish, in vogue, the current path of fashion. It can also be a synonym of fad. Trends in fashion can be assessed by watching the industry : runway shows, magazine layouts, department store stock, and hip blogs. Trends can also be found by watching college campuses, clubs, and other human beings. If every fashion editor recommends a zebra belt for fall, and not a soul on the streets of New York wears a zebra belt, you can assume the actual trend is not zebra belts for fall. The fashionable individual no longer blindly follows the dictates of the fashion industry, so dictated trends do not always result in actual trends. The fashion industry stated several years ago, the trend in jeans was a higher waste band, but the teenagers are still wearing, and the retailers still selling, low rise jeans.

Trends can also be localized. Everyone in New York can be wearing purple shoes but that does not mean purple shoes are in style. There is no guarantee that purple shoes will ever be fashionable or be worn by anyone in London, Madrid or Paris. Purple shoes may never be worn at all in California, the Midwest, or anywhere but New York. Purple shoes would then be considered a fad in New York, or even a trend, but they would not be fashionable except to New Yorkers. While most New Yorkers' would tell you that if they are wearing purple shoes, by definition, it means purple shoes are fashionable, this is just New York talking. Fashion is a world wide industry and is no longer governed by any one location, even Paris or New York.

Fads are easy to spot, like pet rocks. But fads also become trends, especially when they expand from one locale and begin to travel across the country or the world. Skate boarding was a fad, now it is an institutionalized part of at least American culture. Jazzed up jeans were started by teenage girls in the 1940s and if you ever spend time with young girls, they all seem to go through a period when jazzed jeans are a must. Jazzed up jean jackets are still found in boutiques and art fairs. Crocs started in Colorado. Ugg boots in Australia. These and many other staples of the fashionable world started as fads and expanded into general fashion trend circles. It is when items begin to permeate the general fashion world that they grow beyond fads or localized trends and become fashion.

I am not sure I want to buy the latest trend or fad. I am willing to wait until it becomes fashionable. If it is passe before hitting the fashion magazines, realistically it is too cool for me. If I want to be on the cutting edge of fashion, I may try again to find the ultimate in fashion blogs. Until then, I will let someone else brave the world in the latest, hottest, it was over ten minutes ago, trend.

I will also not limit myself to assessing what is fashionable by what I see around me.
While fashion is hitting the masses more quickly than it did before the internet ruled the world, it still takes some time for fashion to trickle down and be worn by the masses. I would like my handbag to be closer to what is shown in Vogue rather than what is shown in Wal-Mart. I am not against buying it at Wal-Mart; I just want it to look like the ones in Vogue. A hint of what was shown on the runway would be nice , but I am not really willing to commit beyond a hint to any of haute couture's suggestions until I have had time to think about them.

Fashionable, yes. Trendy, no. Unless trendy is fashionable.