Monday, July 25, 2005

Why is Southern Fashion Considered a "Don't"?

I got the inspiration to start this magazine from one simple article in another magazine, plus Entertainment Tonite.

The magazine, whose name I honestly do forget was doing the make-over do's and don'ts edition. They went on Entertainment Tonite and said the first place they thought of going, where every gal needs help, is Nascar. They made mention of the too tight jeans, the big hair, the overzealous makeup applications. They stated that they had a whole racetrack at their fingertips that needed help.

Basically, they were implying that Southern gals, who happen to all congregate at Nascar, are fashion "Don'ts".

This got me thinking. Most magazines are published in New York where fashion is top notch and always up to the minute. But that's not necessarily "real life". Why should all of us look like we live in New York? As Gretchen Wilson sings in Redneck Woman, "Well, you might think I'm trashy, a little too hardcore, But in my neck of the woods I'm just the girl next door."

I don't even just mean Southern girls here. There's country girls, surfer girls, working in a factory girls, etc. Why should all of these people try to conform to what "fashion" considers in and out? Most of us can't even afford it anyway.

As far as conforming to fashion, I personally don't want to look like I haven't eaten in 3 weeks and forgot to wash my hair since Christmas, but hey, that's just me.

Every region has it's own fashion, food, festivities, accent and image. The image is what makes the region different from another region. How boring would we be if we all looked and sounded exactly the same?! I think every area should keep to it's own traditions and fashions if they want.

Heck, consider it a "Southern fashion" instead of a "don't". I'm pretty sure big hair for women and mullets for men are gonna take a long time to go away in the South. So make it Southern fashion! Show us how to make that hair big without 45 pounds of Aqua-net instead of telling us to get rid of it. Show us the nice slim fitting jeans that still look like you poured yourself into them instead of just telling us that too tight jeans are tacky.

This is what got me started on the magazine. Let's have a place that celebrates real Southerners living real lives. Somewhere besides the "Don't" page of a New York magazine.