reat taste, great style: these are things which you will never really learn. This is something innate and therefore unique to you. It's either you have it or you don't. I think this is something that's been settled for a long time and need no dispute. But I'd like to raise a question to you my fashionable friend, can great taste ever become cheap(er)??When I saw BO Concept's newest window display, it certainly raised a question and a whole silent debate in my head. How can Bo Concept ever say that great taste is now cheaper? Does great taste have to be expensive? Is taste something that should come with a price tag? Further, is taste something you can sell to the public?
Taste, I figure, is something unique like your DNA. Taste is subjective. It's a personal experience. What may be great to me may not necessarily be stylish to you. Take the case of Betsy Johnson versus Catherine Malandrino versus Calvin Klein.
Betsy Johnson's designs are very quirky and yet still stylish. She reminds me of Cyndi Lauper in "girls just wanna have fun" and that's exactly her concept (in my mind). Her bold and adventurous sense of fashion made her stand out from the others. Catherine Malandrino's design principle is something that's definitely flattering to daily women. Her style understands a woman's curves and so she shapes her designs to follow the contours of typical women and make them work for it. No nonsense. It's really something you'd want to have. And Calvin Klein's look are always simple-minimalist. Enough said. But who's to say that one is better than the others? It's a matter of taste.
Taste is also an expression of your own self. Can't imagine Tessa Prieto-Valdes if she didn't wear her costumes. Yeah, she's been out on tv several times sans costume and there was something lacking. Just the same that I cannot imagine Sarah Geronimo wearing sexy dresses. But what's interesting is that their choice of style is reflective of their taste. I see Tessa and her well-crafted costumes. I see Sarah and see nothing much but the work of stylist. I see Willie Revillame and his taste for fine cars, I see Spice Girls of the 90s penchance for chunky shoes. We see taste based on what we see, and their character. That's probably why Vina Morales will always look 'syana despite her money because she's really like that. Signature baduy.
Taste is consistent. Can taste ever change? I have a friend who's style is so consistent I can tell what she will buy next. It has never failed. The same way that this friend will forever look butch because her taste for clothes are kind of butch too. She finds calmness in buying loose jeans and loose shirt. No matter what we gift her and advice her, she will never change her mind about those baggy jeans.
Taste need not be expensive. It's how you put things together. I know someone whose concept of shopping is no more than P100. She goes ukay and gets her clothes there. She literally sews some of the clothes and alters it herself. When she wears it, she is able to look well in it. I couldn't see other people wearing her clothes. It's definitely her style. But again, her taste is uniquely hers. She has a certain taste for designer clothes, and yet she does ukay too. No matter how, she's able to look classy and standout as her quirky taste threads across.
And finally, taste cannot be imposed. I've always wondered what happens to make over sessions when the cameras are long gone. We see people with Vegas-style change over night. From their Vegas look they change into something classy for tv. They cut her hair, they color it and they give her advice. But what happens after? I'm quite certain that her taste is Vegas style and for sure, those vegas clothes will return. Is that why queer eye eventually folded up and why we never see those make over ever again? Whatever it is, that's purely cosmetic and something made for tv.
And just how close is style to taste? Style is perhaps a clear manifestation of taste.
So in the end, when BO Concept said Great Taste Made Cheaper, what are they really trying to say? Why can't they just say great designs sold at an affordable price? Well there's just no drama in that, isn't there? Maybe this is a claim that should be looked at by ASC.
