Fades, Trends and Style

Wednesday Wisdom, by Jay Jay Speaks

Fades, Trends and Style

April 18, 2012

Yves Saint Laurent, and iconic French fashion designer once said, "Fashions fade, style is eternal." If only so many of us could allow our lives to embody that sentiment.  If you want to get a good hearty belly laugh pull out some old photographs of yourself from an earlier period in your life.

If you’re in my age go find old pictures of yourself and your friends from 20 years ago. Browse through the pictures of you in college or go further back to your glorious high school years. Not only will you laugh till your stomach hurts but you’ll also mentally or emotionally go back to those days and those friendships. What I want you to take notice of is the clothing, the hairstyle, the color combinations perhaps even the furniture you see in the room. Now let me guess, you’re thinking to yourself, “That was the style back then…shoot I was the BOMB!” Umm yeah well you may have been the bomb but most bombs either blow up or are just plain duds.

What were we thinking wearing Cross Colour clothing? What were we thinking sporting the super-high top fades (ala Kid N Play mode)? What was I thinking wearing the Flavor Flav clock around my neck and actually going to class like that? And this one, which I still swear was a smooth look, what were we thinking rocking the Boyz 2 Men “Alexander Vanderpool motif”. Oh if you don’t know that would be the jean shorts, with the long sleeve button up shirt, tie and then the dress socks and shoes. Some would differentiate themselves at times by wearing the button down shirt, tie, but have either long overalls or overall shorts on top. Yeah we did that! It wasn’t just me though. I’m a snitch and so let me do what snitches do, DROP NAMES. It wasn’t just me at Kutztown University stylin’ with the Motown Philly look. The following gentlemen did it too: Rueben Noel Martin, Tom Nelson, Scott Richardson, Alvin aka Jersey, Leon “Bubba” Alexander, and others proudly coordinated our outfits before going down to the South Dining Hall for lunch.

I know there are some of you wondering what the heck is Jay Jay talking about this week. There are some female readers who are getting a big laugh at the expense of these memories but ladies be careful because there are also photographs of many of your from the 90’s and 80’s sporting “Fly Girl” haircuts long on one side angled on the other. Or some of you with those HUGE bamboo earrings so big they block the side of your face. Let’s not forget the spandex biker shorts many of you squeezed into and the Salt and Peppa dye jobs that were really popular.

But if we allow our lives to embody Yves Saint Laurent’s quote that “Fashion fades, style is eternal” we must admit our past faux paus and move on. More importantly we must come to grips with the fact that there may be times in our lives when we take the easy way out or through rather than stand for something that is lasting.

How many times have you abandoned your principles for convenience? How many times have you put your core values on the back burner for something temporary, be it a relationship, a job, a business deal, someone else’s boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife? How many times have you forsaken yourself in exchange for what you said you believed? Those memories may not make you laugh and that stroll down memory lane may not be as pleasant as looking at old pictures of our younger days and fashion DON’TS but it may be a stroll some of us should take now and again just to remind us of who we are today and where we may have been. I’m not recommending you go back in the past and bring the pain forward, but I am recommending you let those mistakes, errors in judgment and wild periods in your past remind you of who you are.

No one is perfect. It is said was only one person who lived without sin. And if you subscribe to that story, you know what humanity did to that person.  He without sin will find life a lonely isolating place. Many people aren’t comfortable around someone they think is a “goodie-goodie.” They feel out of place around “holy rollers” and “little Miss Perfect” when they compare their own sorted history to the relatively lily white history of the do-gooder. This is not an open plea to bear your mistakes to others in hope they’ll like you but don’t forget where you’ve been. Sometimes looking at old pictures is just the catalyst to remind you that BUT BY THE GRACE OF GOD, you could still be that person you were in the picture. But by wisdom and maturity you could have been permanently derailed from your future by some of your mistakes. But by the intervention of someone else, your life could have turned out drastically different. And but by your willingness to let go of people, places and things that were not healthy or good for you, you may not be where you are, who you are and the way you are today.

 Let your truth be your style!

Fashions, trends, fads, movements come and go, but style is eternal. Let your style come through today. Let your “swag” speak for you today. Let the best you, the principled you, the confident you, the mature you, the “BEEN THERE DONE THAT GOT THE T-SHIRT, BUT AIN’T DOING THAT AGAIN” you be your public representative today.  And also go dig out some old pictures and have a GREAT laugh today.

Don’t wait until Monday, do it today (Wednesday) on HUMP DAY!