"What Does it Take to be a Fashionista?"

The first seminar titled: “What Does it Take to be a Fashionista?” done last August 9, 2005 (Tuesday) was conducted by my classmates namely: Caroline Tiqui, Katrina Nuqui, and Abigail Sarmiento.

Ms. Christine Santiago. The speaker they invited to deliver the speech. She was our former classmate -when we were in first year- and Angeles University Foundation’s Ms. University 2003.

The organizers’ reason for inviting her to be their speaker must be because of her being a model since she was 16 years old and a beauty queen as well was enough to qualify her to give a talk about fashion.

The first thing that came on my mind was, wasn’t the organizer’s angle on fashion lack in force or effectiveness? I know that fashion is one of the categories given by our Electronic Newsroom instructor, Ma’am Virgie Bautista, but there are a lot more about fashion that they could have tackled. They could have angled to a much deeper topic.

Furthermore, in my opinion, I find it offensive when the speaker described three of my classmates’ way of dressing. She called on Apple Mallari, Marissa Diwa and Earl Santini Lagman as “models.” I understand that the speaker was only suggesting her opinions on the models on what they should wear. However, if I were to be on their shoes, I would feel embarrassed. Who would want to be criticized on how you dress in front of the whole class? So it means that you dress ugly? It’s insulting. Let’s just take Marissa for example (picture on the left), I noticed that my classmates were laughing when they suggested her to be one of the models.

The speaker said something about fat people that they should wear dark clothes to make them look thinner. But it contradicts when she suggested clothing for Apple, (picture on the right) whose body built, is large in size. She suggested her to wear pastel colored clothes.

I also remembered the speaker saying that we should never wear plain black or red instead, it should have prints. She also said something about Earl wearing red shaded tops and she didn’t like it to see him wear it again. What is up with that? Does that mean when she liked what you are wearing you’re already a fashionista and if she did not you’re not?

On the other hand, the speaker is right when she said that we should be wearing clothes we’re comfortable in and that colors of the clothes can help.

Who knows better on what fashion is than the person herself? People have their own interpretation on what fashion is so we cannot judge people when it comes to fashion. Remember, we have the freedom of expression and it also applies in our clothing.