‘Style Statement’ all about you, whoever you are
‘‘Know, first, who you are; and then adorn yourself accordingly.’’ — Epictetus, Greek philosopher, AD 55—135.
It makes sense, doesn’t it — to dress to reflect your true self, who you really are. After all, if you dress like Elizabeth Taylor, because you think you shouldn’t be such a wallflower, or if you dress like a corporate vice president because that’s how you think you ought, but you’re really a jeans-and-T-shirt type, chances are you’ll feel like an impostor. Or spend a lot of money as you keep buying clothes that you try to fit into but just feel miserable wearing. Or just give up.
But knowing oneself isn’t so easy, either. Adult life today can involve a lot of going along to get along and compromising and being influenced and molded by media messages that we ought to do this and buy that and look like so-and-so — and then tomorrow or next year comes a whole new set of messages about what we need to do and be to fit in and be current or have the nerve to show ourselves in public. Rare is the person strong enough at the core to resist, who doesn’t lose touch with his or her true self at some point in the journey through modern adulthood.
For those of us who’ve lost sight of our own personal true north, there is "Style Statement: Live By Your Own Design" by Carrie McCarthy and Danielle LaPorte (2008, Little, Brown and Company). McCarthy is a designer and stylist for homes, magazines and luxury hotels as well as a former wedding dress designer and competitive track athlete. LaPorte is the former director of a Washington, D.C.-based think tank for global futures strategies.
This book is being chatted up quite a lot on the innumerable fashion and style blogs on the Internet as the latest thing for women who, had this been the ’80s, would be having their colors done, or, more recently, have tried to adopt quasi-French habits in the belief that Frenchwomen are chicer, happier, and most importantly, thinner, than their American sisters.
We are in luck because "Style Statement" is a great deal more interesting than all those old color analysis guides warning us not to wear chartreuse or pale blue, and the more recent forest-worth of publications exhorting us to be Frenchier. For starters, it isn’t just for women only — men will find it useful and interesting, too. The term ‘‘style statement’’ here refers, not to whether you are a jeans-and-white shirt type of dresser or belong to the pearls-and-twin set club, but rather to how you approach life in general, your character, values, tastes and personality. In other words, what are you at your core?
That being the case, "Style Statement" is not a book you can breeze through in an afternoon. Well, you could, but you would have wasted your money, because you would not have allowed yourself to truly benefit from the self-exploration and discovery that McCarthy and LaPorte invite you to undertake.
The book contains a series of thought-provoking questions on various aspects of one’s life, among them home and stuff, spirit and learning, service and wealth, and body and wellness. (There are several others as well.) The answers require introspection and a fairly thorough voyage back through your life. The rewards include amazing insights into why you are the person you’ve turned out to be, and, most importantly, who that person really is.
And thus you are able to craft your own "Style Statement," a sort of guide and mantra for living your life with understanding of yourself at the core — with authenticity.
Authenticity, the authors say, leads to all sorts of happy results. You make better choices — in clothes but also in relationships. You don’t waste time or money trying to fill an inner void — you know what makes you happy. Insights lead to creativity, to new careers, hobbies, people — to a better fit in the world.
"Style Statement" serves a great purpose. It brings us wisdom, appreciation and respect — for ourselves, as well as for others. It helps us work on what, for a lot of us is our favorite project — ourselves. It’s thought provoking. It isn’t rocket science and won’t feed the world, but it stretches readers who participate. Good enough reason for a book.
