Thursday, March 25, 2010

Styling...


In honor of National Crafts Month (March), I've decided to stop blogging for a while and start crafting more. (Oh, and I need to focus on publicizing my new ebook Just What the Doctor Ordered: An Insider's Guide to Medical Writing, which will be available in mid April.)

So, my last post for a while...

I've been thinking a lot about taste and style lately. Where does it come from? How do we judge it? How can one person's taste be good and another's bad? How can we say one woman has style and another doesn't? That one dresses badly (Ugly Betty comes to mind) and the other well?

My conclusion is that we can't judge it.

You like what you like...the colors, the patterns, the textures, the forms, the fit. You're born with certain proclivities, just like you're born with certain personality traits, and then they're polished by the impressions laid over you by your family, your culture, your school, your job, the time you're at in your life, the place you live. It's not something you have a lot of control over.

It just is.

What's more, style trends are arbitrary. They're just someone's opinion. For instance, although millions of women emulate the Sex and the City girls, I think most of Sarah Jessica Parker's outfits are outrageously...well, stupid. And what woman can handle tromping all over Manhattan in 4-inch stilettos?

It's not a competition: Whoever has the most style wins. We're just different. Let's embrace it!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well.......come back soon. I'll miss your blogs. They were insightful and motivating.

Linda J. Peckel said...

Coming from someone with as great a style sense as you have, it really resonates to just "be". Thanks!

Sheryl Kraft said...

What's style to one is a mess to another. And what one person can pull off looks awful on another. We're each so individual and absolutely need to respect that!
Good luck with your new endeavors!

Nancy Monson said...

Thanks everyone!

Alisa Bowman said...

Maybe taste and style are a matter of confidence, to a degree. I saw a guy the other day wearing brown shoes with black pants and no socks. It's not something I would have ever put together, but it looked ok on him, maybe because he was walking like he KNEW it looked ok. Not sure. I do know that I love the photo of your quilt.

Victoria Mixon said...

That is one beautiful quilt! Wow.

Vicki Hanson-Burkhart said...

Nancy your wallhanging is gorgeous! I love the fabric choices and composition as well as the quilting, and as you know I have seen a few quilts in my day:) You have a true gift. Glad to hear your focusing on your crafts.