It’s refreshing and relieving, honestly, to hear that our style icons get dressed the same way we do: by mood.  The Costume Institute at The Metropolitan Museum of Art has curated an series of exhibits that include interviews titled “Impossible Conversations” in which a conversation between icons from different generations is manufactured by interspersing archived film footage with present day material, all orchestrated by filmmaker Baz Luhrmann.  “Schiaperelli and Prada” is the most current exhibition featuring footage of Miuccia Prada and actress Judy Davis as Elsa Schiaperelli.   In a twist on the theme, the Sundays at the Met program enlisted Judith Thurman, writer for the The New Yorker, to moderate a ‘possible’ conversation between the youngest style trend setter, blogger Tavi Gevinson and fashion icon Iris Apnel, titled “Good Taste / Bad Taste: The Evolution of Contemporary Chic.”   As an introduction to the panel, Thurman posed the question “How did you style yourself for this moment (today)?”  Apnel replies “I do everything in a gigantic rush. I’m organized only in my own way. I don’t intellectualize about clothes. All of a sudden I feel like this might go with this so I throw it on and if it looks well I leave it on. If it doesn’t I take it off and try something else.”   Gevinson said  “Usually I dress how I feel but in this case, I’m from Chicago so I had to pack ahead of time”  to which Apnel replied “That’s always a drag.  You don’t know how you’re going to feel when you get there.”  Gevinson continued,  “A lot of my clothes have some sort of motif of photo so I really like collageing- putting together a story.”

Thurman said that it seems like getting dressed was a form of play. Apnel replied “Absolutely. Once the fun goes out of it you may as well be dead.”

So when it comes to fashion, one of the basic messages to remember is that style is a fundamentally personal thing. No one can have your style except you. Cultivate the items that suit your personality, your mood, every mood. Choose pieces that will be there for you to create a look that feels good at that moment. Sometimes it’s a color that interests you. Other times it’s a color in a pattern.  Style is about feeling good -  about feeling great – and shouldn’t be anything else. And above all, have fun!

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