Do you have a style security blanket?
Over the past two weeks, I have written a lot about Michelle Obama, I've looked at tons of pictures of her outfits, and I've read commentary about everything from her heel height to her eyelashes. Sometimes, this is a weird job.
One thing I keep thinking about is how Mrs. Obama seems a tad addicted to one item in her wardrobe (can a person become addicted to accessories? Do old people like pigeons?): MO favors her studded black Azzedine Alaïa belt the way President Obama likes hope. She's been wearing it everywhere since last summer and she pairs it with basically everything, even when it doesn't look great. (Remember the bow outfit? Yeah, yeah.)
But Michelle Obama is not alone in her over-love for a belt or a shoe or a coat. She's suffering from a common fashion phenomenon I call the "style
security blanket." It's what happens when we become attached (often misguidedly) to an item or makeup technique that for some reason makes us feel confident and secure and maybe once garnered tons of compliments. What happens next is we feel so safe and comfortable with this piece that we turn around and overuse it. This is how your teachers wound up wearing '70s floral-print blouses in the '90s or why women are still walking around with the Jennifer Aniston Friends' haircut today. They're afraid to let go.
My personal style security blankets have ranged from enormous-to-the-point-of-tacky gold hoops to bright red lipstick to a pair of tie-up heeled booties that my husband says look like hooves. Currently, I cannot stop wearing my gray-and-black zebra-print scarf. Seriously, it's a problem. I've thrown it on with workout clothes and with fancy dresses-and there's no way that God made little green apples that it matches with both.
I ask you: Are you suffering from this fashion disease? Are you wearing the same weird item all of the time, even when you know you should probably stop? Should we have a style intervention together?
(Honestly, I don't know if I can. I might cut the person who tried to take away my scarf. But perhaps you are stronger than me.)
