Yesterday, I opened my Instagram app and the first thing popping up on my feed was a bikini selfie of Kim Kardashian. It had been like a good year since last time I checked out her profile. Suddenly I was finding myself in a Kim Kardashian scrolling hour. No complaints! But one post really stuck out to me. It was a selfie of her and her kids. She was wearing a gloved bodysuit in a sort of metallic material that resembled a garbage bag. On her face, massive bug eye sunglasses. Her kids dooned similar looks all complete with the same lenses. In the caption, she tagged @yeezy.
I ran to the comment section because at that time it had been months since Kim had publicly aligned with her ex husband in any way.
But the comments that caught my eye had to do with the outfit itself.
The comments were angry. Angry at how Kanye and Kim can keep pushing this bullshit "fashion" on us.
"This is trash. Literally"
"Does he think anyone actually likes this or is he really that stupid?"
"This is the stupidest shit I´ve ever seen"
"Kanye has lost his touch"
"It´s giving alien"
"How can people call this fashion?"
I thought about this post a little longer than I probably should have. (Maybe a little wine was involved, but just know, I was deep in my head.)
I have my own mixed feelings about Kanye, but something I´ve always admired about him is his ability to experiment. The freedom he has to experiment.
I envy that a little bit. He is not tied down by social constructs.
Kanye doesn´t care about what´s cool.
Speaking of aliens, what would they think about us? And our lifelong mission to be percieved as "cool"?
How do we explain Juvaderm? Or Photoshop? How do we justify the overall purpose of social media? I want to see someone explain The Renegade challenge to an alien.
I cringe when I think about how much of my life I have wasted trying to prove that I was cool.
That I was with it. I was aware. I fit in. I fit the mold.
I was the type of girl to say I loved a band I´d never heard of so I could attempt to control how people thought of me. I wanted them to like me. I wanted them to think I was cool enough to know the cool bands.
But who decides what bands are the cool bands anyway???
Seriously, who decides any of this? What´s on trend, what is "cheugy" - its all made up.
The reason I bring up aliens is because it seems as though it would take an otherworldly intervention for us to see how crazy this all really is.
That we live and die by trends.
That we let other people tell us what is cool, what is socially acceptable, what´s in and what´s out.
This is how we shape our society.
But what if instead of trying to prove ourselves, we started intentionally focusing on expressing ourselves?
Not taking into consideration what your friends think is cool, or what tiktok thinks is cool.
What if we genuinely embraced what we actually liked?
I hate bananas. Since I was a kid. I gag at the thought. I´ve returned to bananas throughout my life, hoping my palette had matured.
But no matter how many times society tries to sell me that bananas are delicious...my tastebuds simply disagree.
Taylor Swift could personally invite me to her concert backstage, braid my hair, put red lipstick on me, hand me a banana, sing to me "cardigan" while I eat it.
I´m still not going to like bananas.
I wish we could honor our interests the way we honor the food we love (and hate.) Because nobody cares if I like bananas or not.
But if I wear something bold, or revealing, if my nipple barely pokes through my shirt, all hell breaks loose.
If I admit that I lowkey enjoy The O.C from time to time, some people contemplate sending me for a wellness check.
What if I like The O.C´s teenage drama and love stories?? Why is loving that sill so controversial?
To me, this is what makes the human experience so exciting. The fact that it is so completely individual. Each of us are viewing reality from a different lens that cannot be replicated. We are all perfectly unique. It sounds very Pinterest, very Hobby Lobby, but I´m telling you - once you grasp how incredible this is, you finally start to value your individuality.
Why do you like bananas and I hate them? Why does Sara l0ve learning about cooking and the band Queen and I have a fixation with unresolved true crime??
I´m over what the collective public thinks is cool.
I want to know what YOU think. In your rare, exclusive mind.
Based off of your one of a kind life experience...what is cool to you?
I want to know the woo-woo you subscribe to. That you don´t want to tell anyone else about.
I want to see the shoebox filled with birthday cards you´ve kept since you were six.
I am actually interested in your Spotify playlists. I want to know what songs you connect with. I can google the top 40 hits. Give me YOU.
It just makes me think,
What would I wear if there were no models, no Shein hauls, no popular girls or influencers trying to convince me what is hot or not?
What would I wear if there was no possibility I would get made fun of?
What would I wear if I were simlpy experimenting?
How would your life change?
If no one cared about being "cool" and instead, just owned what was cool to them?
What is that thing that is just for you?
Tyler The Creator also talks about this.
"Being cool, having the biggest songs don´t matter all the time. It´s, what is your skill? What is the skill that you bring?"
We all have a skill. We all have a lane. What would our world looked like if we all found our lane?
I also love when he says,
"You can´t be too cool or you´re gonna freeze to death"
This resonates with me. It´s easy to get caught up in what other people want.
But at the end of the day, what´s the point of wearing stuff I don´t like?
The clothes I wear is an expression of me. Of my most real self.
This is my lane.
I´m experimenting.
Because I care. I care about the details. I care about what I put out.
And that´s cool. Giving a fuck is cool!!
My favorite example of this is kids.
Kids are cool, because they have no concept of what that really means.
I was watching kids the other day while I was walking with Teddy (our dog) in the park. Just observing them in their little world. They´re so facinating to me.
How they´re so perfectly themselves. When they want something, they ask for it. They make their needs known whenever they have the chance.
They aren´t worried about people pleasing. Or being "too much." They don´t fear their friends and family getting sick of them and their needs.
They just are.
And holy shit it´s so cool.
I love how much they love what they love.
There was especially this one kid at the park that I couldn´t help but notice. He was really into Toy Story. The joy of his life is him zoom around the park, trying to balance on one foot and "fly" like Buzz Lightyear.
He never once stopped to think about looking silly. Or annoying. Or cool for that matter.
The boy just loved Buzz.
I know this goes broader than fashion, but it´s easy for me to connect to.
Because if a kid likes minions, he´s going to wear his minions shirt on the first day of school. And he´s not worried about being made fun of or being cool.
And that´s what I love about kids. This is why I´m always trying to be more like them.
More curious. More playful. Less concerned with how they look. True to themselves!
I dream of a life where people are unapologetic about their interests and hobbies.
I dream of a world where we can express our true self through our art, through our words, through our passions.
And someday, I hope we realize that honest self expression...is the coolest thing of all time.
Honor your individuality. Respect your unique human experience. Find out what you love and shout it from the rooftops.
And I know we talked about how lame it is to live and die by trends, but let´s just get one thing clear:
NOT CARING = OUT
CARING = IN
Коментарі