The Lady...a Dying Breed?

"The more simply a girl is dressed, ...the more chic she is." This is a quote from a book I read recently. It's simply titled Elegance, written by Kathleen Tessaro. It's a great style book defining class and elegance. I'd say the book clearly defines the styles similar to the likes of Grace Kelly and Jackie-O.

This is all brings me to an interesting situation that I encountered recently. I was attending a teenage birthday party where we were helping out with the adult supervision. When I arrived, I have to admit that I was a little weirded out. I couldn't help but notice the clothing trends that most of the young fifteen and sixteen year old girls were wearing that evening. It was an odd resemblance of night club attire from somewhere in Vegas, with three inch heals and skirts barely covering their butts. The boys of course were dressed conservatively. I could not help but laugh and think, "What the hell is going on here?" "Aren't they like sixteen?" I had such a nagging desire to send all these young girls a copy of the entire DVD collections of What Not To Wear as a welcome into their teen-hood.

So, are grace and style, as well as the concept of being a lady a dying breed nowadays? Has trying too hard to be sexy now become cool? At first I thought that perhaps I'm just old-fashioned, but my common sense (and good taste) must adamantly disagree. I guess there's just a fine fashion-line that some people just don't understand. I also just simply assumed that everyone kind of laughed at the cheesy styles, teens included. Kind of like a comical Will Ferrell spoof in A Night at the Roxbury. Then I realized how we as a society need to be very aware of how incredibly impressionable young and innocent minds really can be. As kids, and in such formative years, they can easily take in all of the images very seriously, whereas most mature adults can easily understand the distinct silliness of it all. I hope that this loose concept of fashion will not go further in defining their young and innocent understanding of themselves. All too many young girls grow up comparing themselves to silly and revealing images and the constant computer and artificially enhanced celebrities, instead of defining their own beauty with real class and confidence as real ladies with real style. I will continue to have high hopes that our next generation of young women is progressing in this society about their body image. I hope that their idea of sexy is to impress themselves, and not the libido of young boys, or even some creepy older men. I hope they grow up to see the difference to attract real men, gentlemen, who can clearly understand and connect with them on a real and mature level. I so passionately wish that more girls and women could comprehend that if they are confident, then they are perfect and beautiful. I'm reminded of how easily we can become products of our environment. I'm grateful that with age comes wisdom, and one very important and lovely epiphany that I learned through the years: If we can identify and understand our own unique and individual beauty, then we can genuinely and confidently portray it with class and dignity - and that is sexy. It seems that leaving more to the imagination has oddly become a long lost art. It's simply all about being a lady, with grace and beauty- of which no article of clothing (or lack thereof), or three inch heals can ever replace.