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Fashion – Going to the Dogs? Tara Loader-Wilkinson talks about the difference between fashion and style.

These days, even dogs can be fashionable. And I’m not just being rude; Paris Hilton’s Chihuahua, ‘Tinkerbell’, changes Louis Vuitton collars like you or I change our underwear. But when was the last time you saw a dog with style?

The same goes for people.

Fashion has become effortless. What with personal shoppers, magazines and catalogues, the hard work’s done for us. Nip into Topshop, and you’re overwhelmed with posters and mannequins sporting cutting-edge fashion - whole outfits so lovingly coordinated that with a click of our manicured fingers and a swish of our credit cards, we can transform ourselves into magnificent über-chic Fashionistas.

What is harder to create is Style. All the money, personal shoppers and fashion sense in the world can’t buy style; one look at Donatella Versace and this is painfully clear. Style is also about knowing what flatters you. If Milan says skinny jeans are in, but you’ve got a bum the size of a small continent, wearing those jeans may be fashionable but you’ll look about as stylish as Jackie Stallone in hotpants.

Style is something inherent, something we’re born with or without. Imagine going back to the roots of time, to the prehistoric, pre-fashionable world…no Gucci, no Dior, no Prada, just a load of Neanderthal chicks in caves. You can guarantee some of them would instinctively wear their bear skins stylishly. And these women, these pioneers of style, would be imitated by others. So fashion is born.  

The same still applies. Whereas fashion means conforming, style embraces individuality. It’s simple - people that are fashionable follow rules, people with style make up the rules. The world’s most celebrated style icons; Madonna, David Bowie, Boy George, Gwen Stefanie, are constantly reinventing the way they dress. This is because their style is stolen by the masses and becomes universally fashionable. And fashionable is the last thing a style icon wants to be.

By blindly following fashion, we suppress our natural sense of style and the result is often a lack of elegance. Stylish people rarely compose outfits entirely of the latest trends; instead, they find a style that flatters them and accessorize it with whatever’s in – an Alexander McQueen scarf or a YSL bag perhaps.