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Life through the eyes of a fashion guru
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It’s often said that opposites attract. I believe this theory to be true – or somewhat true. It’s like putting together fabulous ensembles – pair a red hat with red shoes and a red bag, and you have completely dull, matchy-matchy boredom. Throw your red shoes on with a great blue, grey or maybe even yellow something and poof! You’ve managed to create a fun, artistic, non-boring outfit guaranteed to attract eyes and compliments. Sure nothing matches – that’s the point. Your colors can be complete opposites, but as long as they’re put together in the right way, it works. They compliment each other.
Last week, while lying on my bed with my boyfriend, I realized that the same idea holds true in the relationship realm. Here was a guy that is nearly my complete opposite. I’m a girly girl that loves shopping, theatre, art, dancing and could spend endless amount of hours perusing clothing stores or flipping through “Vogue.” The complete opposite of a girly girl is the all-guy guy, and I realized that afternoon that’s exactly who I’m dating. The television is always on ESPN when I press the power button, he’d sooner drink a bottle of rat poison than spend 20 minutes in a tanning bed and I swear he knows more about sports trivia than that guy on “Stump the Schwab.”
So why does it work?
I think it’s because we coordinate. Our differences compliment each other, and maybe we balance one another out – like bright red shoes and an understated grey top. We don’t match, but when put together we make for a fabulous ensemble.
Matching too many things tends to be overkill. Just like the red bag, hat and shoes, dating someone too much like yourself can ruin your seemingly-perfect duo.
I learned the hard way. After a series of relationships with guys that knew more about theatre and had seen more productions than I have, spent more time on their hair or, instead of checking out the physical features of girls in public, tried to determine whether or not they were wearing True Religion jeans, I learned that having too many interests in common isn’t always a good thing.
Granted, not having anything in common with a significant other would be like sporting a polk-a-dotted, plaid and striped outfit containing every color in the rainbow – sheer chaos. It wouldn’t work at all (and would probably exercise my gag reflexes). Some things have to go together.
In clothing terms, if you’re a neon green T-shirt, don’t mess around with a bright red mini skirt. But then again, if you’re a denim jacket please please please don’t meet up with a pair of matching denim jeans – just the sight of that much denim may kill me.
Differences can provide for an innovative combo or a complete catastrophe. The only way to know what works and what doesn’t is to determine how great the differences or similarities are. Fortunately I was raised by a woman who watches every sport under the sun, and could fix anything and everything while wearing stiletto heels – so it’s not that difficult to sit and watch a basketball game. And while I’m sure all-guy guys wouldn’t normally opt to spend their weekends perusing Bananna Republic, I’ve seen plenty of them pass a significant amount of time checking out tennis shoes at Footlocker. It’s this grey area, this ability and desire to delve slightly into “the other side” that allows for a coordinated, not matchy-matchy ensemble that works just right.
Sheree Whiteley
