Ola folks..I just returned from spending an exhilirating weekend in the fashion capital of the world - atleast my little world - New York City. Every sidewalk was a runway. People strutting their stuff on 5th avenue. A Carrie Bradshaw at every headturn. People struggling to exhibit their uniqueness in every sense. The week before I spent it in Gaithersburg, Maryland which is like any other suburb(yawn!) in the United States. The contrast between the two places was rather hard-hitting. Interestingly enough it was pretty ironic as well.
I was getting a croissant for breakfast at a little bakery around the corner when in walked the fashionista - a skinny, asian girl. pretty, in her mid-20s. Wearing cute shorts and a tshirt. Perfect for the hot-humid weather. Until I saw what she was wearing on her feet. She was wearing furry ugg-boots. In the middle of sweltering humidity and a 100 degrees, wearing ugg-boots with short shorts was not chic, it was geographically out of place. An interesting thought did cross my mind. I have been writing about how people are time displaced and seem to be in a time capsule. For the first time, I was witnessing a woman who lived in two hemispheres at once. OR maybe she thought wearing furry thick boots and shorts made her legs look skinnier.
Immediately I thought of this woman I saw in Gaithersburg, the previous week. She was a female gardener mowing the lawn and clearing out weeds. She was a latina woman in her mid-20s. She was dirty and covered in mud. But she looked like she had walked straight out of a fashion magazine. She was wearing beige pants with a dirty off-white shirt. She had rolled her sleeves to right above her elbows and was wearing a brown leather belt across her waist. Even under the dirt that she was covered in, she managed to look super stylish. As I said before it was pretty ironic. Style transcends boundaries.
