Follower beware! 

When fashion is talked about, the word “trend” is usually mentioned. The color that is trending, the style in vogue, and the popular shoe design for the season. 

Someone, I would imagine, is setting these trends… but who? 

And more importantly, why do many people emulate such trend setters rather than dress with their own style? 

Well, I remember the times as a child when I would want to do something that someone else was doing. If it wasn’t aligned with my upbringing, my mother’s response would always be, “If they were jumping off a bridge, would you do that too?” 

Why do we think that just because someone is doing something we wouldn’t normally do, it allows us to follow suit, conform accordingly… thinking that it is now an okay thing to do? 

A young woman once told me that she was thinking of having a facial procedure. When I asked her why, her response was, “Because my friends are doing it.” Her subsequent words were telling: “I don’t even think I need it.” 

In the words of Oscar Wilde, “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”