Celebrating Fashion

August is a month of celebration,we celebrate women, ordinary woman, professional woman, house wives, sisters, aunts, grandmothers, from one generation to the next.  We celebrate women of all sizes from small to extra large because we all have something give back to the community around us, innately, we have a desire to be appreciated and honored and loved and admired. In addition, beauty flows from the within.  With that said, we hit the streets of Cape Town to find out what the Capetonian women of all sizes and age group thought about fashion and what it represents about women in general. 

Because fashion has a great influence on women and how they feel about themselves. Especially, with regard to weight, because in the fashion industry it is all about size and being small is regarded as beautiful, models starving themselves to death just to walk the runway and even Donatella’s own daughter has suffered from this need to be thin. However, things got better with the arrival of JLo and Beyonce on the scene, they have shown us that women need to have curves, and being curvy is beautiful and attractive, they have shown us that we need to love our own bodies, whether it be an hourglass or pear-shaped one.  fashion changes and fluctuates over time something might be in today and out the next day, and clothing sizes differ from one manufacturer to the next, and from country to country, sometimes not fitting into a size does not necessarily mean weight gain but for that range the sizes were made smaller.   

How does fashion affect South African women because African women are truly blessed with derrières, we asked three questions to women in Cape Town.

  1. What does fashion represent about women?

Dignity, fashion is an expression of oneself (moods, personality and preferences)

An expression that shamelessly presents the complexities of our innate nature that

need not be explained in words.

 2. What does being fashionable mean to you?

Looking good and feeling sensual, others said being in step with latest trends

Taking risks and celebrating individuality, Creativity. Knowing what works for your body. Being able to dress and enhance your beauty.

 3. Do you think the way we perceive fashion or being fashionable changes as we age?

 Some yes and some no, because if fashion is priority then it will remain essential although the look might change due to trends, but more talked on as we get older. We tend to become comfortable in our own skin and the need to prove fashion sense becomes less and for others the need accelerates!, our responsibilities changes so does our environment and our roles. Our values and perspective changes and does affect the way we present ourselves

 For  all the women interviewed, it’s all about loving what you wear and being comfortable in one’s own skin, and its not about size but its dressing to honor and complement ones body and that is really what is truly sexy, because at the end of the day beauty fades and character remains.  To all the women of South Africa, happy woman’s day…may you reach for the stars!