A Word with your Wardrobe: The importance of building basics your way

By Deanne Nguyen     2/26/09 6:00pm

Fall 2009 is not looking too good.I was halfway through poring over all of the runway shows debuting in New York and instead of immense anticipation, I felt... bored. Bored because every designer seemed to be focusing on the bare minimum, the solid colors and the black-on-blacks; even those who have a reputation for something a little more "out-there" lacked luster this time.

This annoyed me greatly, because even though high fashion tends to be unwearable, it is still entertaining and inspiring to see that creativity in clothing cannot be confined in its own structure. Unfortunately, all I'd been seeing were reruns of the same looks previously utilized by these designers, and the simplicity of most of them was killing me.

But I stopped agonizing for a moment and wondered why everyone had reverted back to the basics. That was when I realized that they might not be all that bad. Instead of pushing the envelope, designers are, it seems, taking time to pour everything out and sort it all back in. Maybe it's just the recession talking, but what they're presenting to us are their versions of the best, most worthy closet pieces. This is their basic variety, their bread and butter, and they want us to agree with it.

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Which reveals another problem: Designers have decided upon their latest renditions of their greatest hits, and what's more, it all appears to be the same type of look: the blazers, the fitted coats, the slim pants, the whole powerful-yet-feminine thing. A timeless look, yes - but this is not everyone's style.

What happens to those of us who like a little craziness in our wardrobes? What if we feel like being preppy or spacey or extra girly? What if we feel like being something other than a streamlined every-face? What if we just want to be ourselves?

We can, of course, still do that; we just have to be more cautious about what that entails. Too often I see myself and my friends getting carried away with looks that are not our own, classic items that seem essential to any adult's arsenal of adornments but, once bought, remain in our closets, ignored in favor of old staples. Thus, it is essential that we save money from disappearing into random shopping sprees by developing a self-crafted uniform, tailored to no one else but us.

If we ask ourselves what our basic fall-backs, our go-to outfits or our favorite colors are, we will be able to identify all the things we need, love and want without any editorial interference. These are the questions the designers are trying to answer for us, and before they do, we should beat them to the chase. They developed their collections with profits in mind, with hopes to weather out an economic storm, and we'll be doing the same. But we won't be buying things just because it's recession-proof; it'll be because it's something we like, and have always liked.

In other words, we won't be wasting money shopping around for a look, because we'll already have one of our own.

For the next few weeks, we will be discussing some key wardrobe pieces, debating wardrobe misnomers and keeping in mind that everyone's personal uniform is unique. Some may choose dresses as staple wear, while others may have a strict "No-Tees" rule. Thus, we can't let designers pin us down by what they choose to define as necessary "basics."

Whatever designers do now exposes them as vulnerable entities in the palm of the consumer's hand - our hands. They want to cater to our fundamentals while preserving their own images, but we have our own to maintain.

For now, though, they have made a good point: It is important to define who we are and what we like, for the sake of money and for the sake of our own identities. We really cannot afford to be otherwise.

Deanne Nguyen is a Will Rice College sophomore.

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