A Commentary on Style

I have generally not been particularly interested in "fashion", preferring to go my own way, but I have always found it interesting to learn what other people's views on this subject are. Thus, I was drawn to Ale'ah Bashir-Baaquee's blog and the post entitled "Swagga-Style"--where I found this:

Maybe its becuase I'm black but inter racial fashions annoy you? Sometimes I say this becuase ever since the saggin pance era started in person other than a black that was saggin hid pants, always had some negativecomment comming from them, But when Black guys start dressing like white guys with skinny jeans and skate boards no one sais anything. WHY IS THAT?

I think fashion is an expression of who you are, I;m not saying every white person who wants to, try and dress black I'm not saying that. But I think styles have to fit you inside and out. Just becase you may feel like your black doesn't mean youa re. I'm not being racist but still.

It appears from other people's posts that I am in agreement with at least some of them when I state that I disagree with this. I have to say, I spy a contradiction here. First you say that you think fashion is an expression of who you are, but you follow it up by stating that "just because you may feel like you're black doesn't mean you are" and that "inter racial fashions" annoy you. I find this somewhat confusing. A person doesn't necessarily decide to sag their pants because they "feel like [they're] black". It may be a completely different and unrelated statement on their part; an expression of who they are, in other words. This is not specifically in defense of the trend, which I personally think is silly, but there is an inconsistency in what you're saying.

Another point: the style you point out as being bothersome isn't race-specific. Forgive me for mixing quotes here, but I find my point better explained by a response from Ruby Rew:

For your information, the sagging fashion began in prison. This means that both black and white men in prison could have been rockin' it. It is often affiliated with gang fashion, hip-hop fashion, or the lack of wearing a belt. It prison, it could have been just the fact that they didn't want to zip their outfits all the way up.

As explained here, the issue of white people sagging their pants is not an inter-racial fashion, and is not necessarily used because these people feel like they're black. You also make the point that "when Black guys start dressing like white guys with skinny jeans and skate boards no one sais anything", but you don't condemn this action as black people feeling like they're white and following a trend for that reason. With this unbalance, your statement comes across (at least to some extent) as saying that white people must stick to their own race-specific fashions, but this is not required of other races.

I'm not criticizing your ideas in their entirety; as has been mentioned by a few others, "Who decides what style is?" is a very good and perfectly legitimate question. You make several good supporting points...but then you seem almost to change your mind and contradict your own opinions. So what is the real position you mean to take?

For myself, I am of the opinion that style is defined by the person who uses it. Everyone has their own specific style, which is always influenced by others to a certain degree, even a small one--in the words of John Donne, no man is an island. But the fact is that everyone should be able to define their own style, without worrying about inter-racial issues or "feeling black".