StPower-Clash of the Titans
Your alarm goes off. It’s a Thursday morning. You hop off your scarily lofted bed and open your closet. Yesterday, you exhausted all your clothes that go together. Now what? Oh, but behold! Say hello to power-clashing.
According to that unholiest of sages that is Urban Dictionary, power-clashing can be defined as “combining clothing items that according to style etiquette do not go together.” Let’s unpack that. First of all, who is “style etiquette” and how did she get my number? Secondly, what does “go together” even mean?
Evidently, it means that the world is in need of another personal style mantra. There’s this whole new minimalist trend that’s whirring around speedy metropolitan hubs: “The 10 Item Wardrobe.” The premise is that you only have ten items of clothing in your wardrobe that all “go together,” so whatever you throw on in that morning rush looks crisp and put together. And while I, too, am sometimes tempted by the idea of sucking all the sartorial joy out of my life and sinking into the warm ease of not having to give any thought to what I wear every day, I’m just not willing to give up on some things so easily.
But the real issue with the 10 Item Wardrobe is the implication that there are certain pieces that do or do not go together, that an outfit is only the whole and not the individual parts. But if you truly love every individual piece in your closet, is there ever anything that doesn’t go together? As long as you wear it with confidence, no one’s going to say a thing. Intentionality is the heart of all clout, didn’t you know?
In the end, power-clashing gets to the heart of fashion: wearing something and making it yours and yours alone. Some days I get out of bed, look at my closet, and decide to grab whatever the two craziest items in there are. I just slap ’em on my body and go. And, truly, the secret is not giving a single f*ck. Like, seriously, who cares? Life is confusing and so are patterns and color theory, so just live your life. But then make it fashion.
