CHICTIONARY by Clare Press

(I speak, you speak, we all speak...FASHION)

F’row Word of the Moment

Style cheat. (stile cheet) vb. The base act of appropriating someone else’s personal style and claiming it as your own.

To cheat is low stuff indeed (just ask Sandra Bullock), and to style cheat no less so. To be on the receiving end is to suffer greatly at the hand of another, to skate perilously close to losing your identity, confidence and self esteem; to wonder “why me?” on a torturous loop; to doubt one’s uniqueness, value, nay one’s very sartorial soul. In short, to be the victim of a style cheat sucks, big time.

I had that outfit down, I made it my own, now my former BFF has gone and stolen it…where do I go now? What’s the point? What is the meaning of my fashion life?
Yep. It’s existential crisis time.

Indeed some of those who have been cheated on never recover. Look at Rachel Zoe – face frozen like a Mint Magnum while all around her slebs half her age knock off her trademark look: maxi dress, tan twig arms, lollypop head and LA balayage. And, to add insult to injury, they are her former clients.

So that’s the cheatee covered, but what drives the cheator? They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Not so! Imitation is the laziest form of getting the job done. I refer you to the attack of the Chloé clones on last month’s Australian fashion week catwalks. Oh and that asymmetric black Lanvin ruffle dress which made more than one appearance too. Slap hands so-called creative people. Go your own way.

In conversation. Hints and tips for daily use:
“That bitch totally style cheated me! I was wearing earmuffs as shoulder pads while she was still combing her hair trying to remember where the tumble drier was.”

“How hot are my new pink hair tips? I style cheated Abbey Lee from Aussie Vogue.”

“(Ex-)girfriend! You are one style cheatin’ harpy! I ain’t never gonna loan you my new Georgina Goodman boots from this day forth. You cannot be trusted not to crib my look from the toes up. Grrrr.”

To read more from Clare Press, see the Mrs. Press blog.

GWAS Note: Mrs. Press is a busy lady (book writing, fashion designing; you know how it is), so shall be dropping by GWAS sporadically to impart her words of fashion wisdom. She apologises for being three months over deadline with this latest Chictionary installment (but it was worth the wait, no? Cue naughty little chuckle.)

Yours truly,
Girl With a Satchel