It's not style, it's just gall

Everyone needs to stop trying to look like Anna Dello Russo. Quirky has replaced style, and it's not doing anything positive for the collective state of good looking people. 

The basics of style are fit, color, proportion, aesthetic, taste, and an attitude, like art has principles of design. If any look fits this, then by all means it has style. 

But recently it's like whoever wears the biggest hat wins the style competition. Which is basically the situation at fashion weeks, when they all hoard into some big show-and-tell situation of street-style bloggers, and the street-style "celebrities" who feed off of them. Simplicity is almost frowned upon for being "safe." If you don't look like Lady GaGa you are scared of being judged and are not creative. But, really. As much meaning or edginess can be carried in a large glittery cream puff of an outfit as in a simple one.

What we get is people dressed like the room of requirement spit out it contents for them to wear because the alternative was public nudity. And it's justified because it's "unique" or "daring." Regardless of the fact they are a walking embodiment of the word absurd that should create a situation similar to Godzilla in which they are the monster.

Which isn't to say extravagant dressers are a bad thing. I love Daphne Guinness, or Isabella Blow. But they have a sense of the basics I mentioned earlier, and do not rely only on the fact that they are over-the-top. Quirkiness is not enough to keep you floating. Be crazy, have a party in wearable form. There's just a difference between absurd, and well done whimsy. 

This McQueen look is perfect. Crazy in the best sense, it is extraordinary but still adheres to the "basic principles of style." It's sense of proportion and color make it, not merely the fact that it is "different."

The way people gather to show off and try too hard like cupcakes or peacocks at Fashion Weeks is like
 "Toddlers and Tiaras." They're just running around like "Look at meeee! If you don't photograph me I'll have to get another outfit!"
It's about fashion and attention, not style, and it's weird and stupid.

Here Franca Sozzani talks about exactly what I'm talking about, and probably says it better than I do.