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Single White Fashion Female |
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Written by Jane Stabler
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To a great extent, fashion is all about copycatting. Someone starts a trend and everyone follows it, its even evident from designer to designer. They say imitation is the highest form of flattery, but recently I've collected a Single White Fashion Female in my workplace, and it’s really not that much fun.
I’m all for taking a trend and making it your own, but fashion is about personal style and expression and when someone seems to just want a carbon copy of yours, suddenly the imitation is not so much flattering as highly annoying and kind of creepy.
It started all very innocently a few weeks after she joined my workplace, with the statement that she’d been hunting for a belt just like one of mine, which is fine. I have coveted friends’ accessories before, and they’re often a minor part of an outfit. However, a couple of weeks later when I was wearing said belt with a very fabulous asymmetrical skirt that’s one of my favourites, she said she’d also been looking for the same skirt. Hmmm. Still, it is fabulous so for others to want one is to be expected. Sort of.
I was also receiving regular comments from her about a pair of shoes I’d picked up in the UK around a year ago, which again are, I like to think, fabulous. Every time I wore them, she commented on how much she liked them, and then one lunch time after announcing she was heading out to buy shoes, she returned with an almost identical pair. I was lost for words.
By this point, the getting to creepy stage was beginning to take hold. The next step was my wearing a hat to the office when it was a particularly cold morning. The next day, I had to physically hold my mouth closed as she walked in wearing the same style hat. And then the corker, but it’s not actually fashion related. After adopting words that only I use (and I mean seriously, like palaver, which everyone in the office mocks me for), she announced after a few too many wines at work drinks lthat she has been practising my hand gestures at home. Not cool.
Like I said, I believe fashion (and hand gestures!) is a very personal thing, and its one of the few ways you can express who you are without saying a word. And while I know that most fashion choices are ultimately based on the style of someone else, I think your own touch needs to be added. While my SWFF’s copycat outfit activity should apparently be flattering, I think that if your fashion following results in complete replicas of someone else’s taste, you need to spend some more time figuring out your own sense of style.
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