'Fashination' with life

I was in New York on 52nd Street preparing to go shopping when it hit me. I had already been shopping a day earlier, so why was I doing it again? I asked myself, "Do I really want fashion to be the death of me?" I had hit my usual spots like Barami, Kenneth Cole and Aerosoles when I realized fashion is work.\nNot only is being fashionable hard work, but you have to have a fashination with the world around you. \n"Fashination," a word I came up with after all my pondering, means to have a sense of all things artistic and beautiful while having fun at the same time. \nThe keyword is fun. It doesn't mean being pretentious and saying words like "fabulous" every time you feel joy or bragging about the your new Versace skirt even though it's as ugly as sin. Sometimes you have to stop and look at yourself in that out-of-date sweater and hat and say, "Damn I look good, and I don't care if silver isn't in this season." Having fashination means opening up your mind and having fun with fashion, art, food, culture and everything in between.\nThough being passionate about fashion is a big part of having fashination, tunnel vision leaves you boring and one-dimensional. You have to enjoy the art of dressing and living; it can't be a job. Appreciating a good book, watching a stylish movie with friends, eating almond crème brulee after a swordfish entrée at Malibu Grill and then going to see an opera in that really cute black dress and pumps from Cactus Flower is really what it's all about.\nMany people have said fashion is no longer fun and is taken too seriously. I agree. It is more about the money spent than about the design, the beauty and the clothes. Yes, those tweed and patent leather heels in La Redoute are to-die-for, but they would be even better worn while out having fun with friends.\nWouldn't a gray A-line skirt and a pink cashmere pearl button sweater look so good at the chocolate, tea and coffee exhibit at the Lilly Library? That pair of Adidas mules will look so fresh in your Hip-hop class. There is a point when you have to see the world beyond the runways and status-driven Louis Vuitton bag. You have to live a little; no, you have to live a lot.\nAs an arts editor and fashion columnist, I have found that fashion is at its worst when you try too hard, over do it, or just don't have fun with it. So I vow to take responsibility for my sometimes-unfashionable behavior and give the readers of the arts page the most fashionable coverage on events and the arts in Bloomington. This semester, my co-editor Jenica Schultz and I will try hard to bring this town to life through the arts section. We want our section to be a prime example of what fashination is all about. \nWhat is the point of anything if you can't have fun? There is no point. So put on your ballerina sleepers and that wrap-around sweater and go eat a ton of cheesecake while reading about the Saxophone Cartel in the Indiana Daily Student. You can't just wear the clothes, you have to live in them. If you can't have a fashination with life right now, you never will.