Have you ever seen those pictures of beautiful, luxury homes that look too perfect to be true? You know the pictures are staged. You know real people do not live that way. Well, guess what? The same is true in the fashion world. Real people don’t dress like what they see in pictures.
It is easy to understand why some of the more bizarre fashion designs never get any further than the runway. Some of the crazy stunts that designers try to pull are just not practical for real life. But what about the more down-to-earth designs? What about those pictures that appear to show real people in real life situations?
Most of us still don’t dress that way. Most of us still do not spend $200 and a pair of pants or even more on a new dress. We buy our clothes from corporate retailers rather than Rodeo Drive boutiques. And there is a reason for that. Actually, there are plenty of reasons.
1. We Really Don’t Care
The most common reason could very well be the one that aggravates fashion designers the most: we really don’t care. The average American is not at all that impressed by the work of Yves Saint Laurent and Donna Karan. Rather, we are collectively impressed by clothing that is comfortable and easy to live in. We are more impressed by function than form.
Most of us are happy in jeans and T-shirts. Sure, we might spend a little more on a custom anime T-shirt from Umai, but we feel no compulsion to spend five times as much on a Calvin Klein T-shirt just because it has his name attached. Really, we don’t care that much.
2. We Live on Budgets
Supermodels and famous actors may have money to spend on super expensive clothing, but they are part of a rather elite crowd. It is a crowd that the rest of us cannot even hope to someday join. We live on budgets. We have to pay attention to how much money we spend on clothes.
Budgets are a real drag, aren’t they? It’s too bad that we all don’t have limitless bank accounts capable of supporting a brand-new wardrobe every four weeks. But alas, what would we do with so much clothing anyway? Maybe it’s a good thing we can’t buy one of everything.
3. We Aren’t Fashion Extremists
It may come as a surprise to the majority of fashion designers, but most of us aren’t fashion extremists. We are not into pushing the envelope with our style preferences. If we are never caught wearing an outfit awkward enough to make the latest edition of a mainstream style magazine, no big deal. No sleep will be lost over it.
4. We Have Work to Do
Yet another reason most of us don’t dress like what we see in pictures is as simple as the fact that we have work to do. Skinny suits may make for interesting photo ops, but no business owner actually doing any real work can function for an eight-hour day in such constricting clothing.
Real work requires the ability to move. It opens the door to the possibility that one’s clothing will get dirty. Simply put, the realities of life dictate that what we see in pictures just doesn’t work in a real-life setting. And because we do not exist in pictures, we cannot dress like them.
Fashion models dress for their photo shoots. That’s fine. They are just doing their jobs. But in the real world, very few people dress like the models. Real life doesn’t allow for it.
