No such thing as old fashioned

I feel like I live in a time that trends and styles change so quickly that nothing is ever really old fashioned. My daughter just told me she cut her hair to shoulder length. She had worn it long all through her teens and twenties. We both agreed it might be time for a change. She said she loves it. Someone asked me the other day if ripped jeans were out of fashion. I googled it. They were still holding. Here's the thing though, is there really any such thing as old fashioned anymore? Now that we are all online we can always find a little group who have the same interests as ours. We can always find a group of women who still believe in skinny jeans. I might actually look for a skinny jean club. 

Sometimes I hear people say that something is "Not your mammas.." or "Not your grandmothers". For example, "This is not your grandmas kind of rug hooking" and I always think, "What was wrong with my mamas style? Why do we need to diminish what they did to feel good about what we do?" We are all just being ourselves in our time and place. How we do things, how we dress, what we see as stylish or old fashioned is just determined by the world around us. Real style I think is determined by something different. Real style develops by listening closely to ourselves and being in tune with our own feelings about what we are attracted to, what we like and what makes us feel comfortable. Whether it is the way we dress, the way we live in our homes, or the way we draw or hook or write, all forms of style come from knowing ourselves well.

It will never come from a TikTok video or a Facebook reel. Style emerges much more slowly than a thirty second clip. I enjoy paying attention to trends. I love a new pair of jeans. I also love my thirty year old leather belt and my collection of Blundstones. I don't care if they go out of style (they haven't) I will wear them because they fit my lifestyle and they can take me from the barn into town. I still like black eye liner and I don't yet care that I might be just a bit too old for it because Sophia Loren was wearing it at ninety. Today we get to pick who we follow. We get to decide who sets the trends and styles for us, and in doing that we get to be more ourselves. We get the chance to think about what we really want, what will make us most ourselves.