I don’t think I need to explain why this advert for Glamour’s new Big Book of Do’s and Don’ts, that I saw in a magazine annoyed the hell out of me. The blurb line is laughable in itself. It’s basically made up of random candid pics taken on the street of the so called ‘do’s and the ‘dont’s of fashion. It’s like ‘Here is our idea of what’s a do and we’re gonna ram it down your throat and clone you all, and here is our idea of a don’t and we’ll laugh at these pathetic pictures we took at their expense.’ Where do we begin to examine the madness of this notion!
Furthermore, what kind of an authority is Glamour? The paradigm of style? The saviour of our wardrobes? I don’t think so.
I have an intense dislike for books, publications, TV programmes that instruct style in this calculated, formulaic way. My concern is that these ‘rules’ may be interpreted as if they were biblical text set in stone, striking fear into people. This is what puts up boundaries around fashion for a lot of people, the fear of getting it wrong and the consequences of it. Fashion doesn’t have to be like that. It’s in your hands if you want to take control of it, not in the hands of a shoddily put together book with dismissive writing.