We’ve often heard about retailers and brands offering celebrities money to wear their clothes and use their products. In fact, we’ve also heard the scuttlebutt when these same brand ambassadors are caught out in public sipping a rival brand’s beverage or wearing a rival brand’s pair of jeans.
But now, this celebrity branding has taken an interesting new twist.
It seems that the teen chain Abercrombie & Fitch has offered Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino, reality star of Jersey Shore, a substantial payment to STOP wearing the brand’s clothes.
It seems “The Situation” is not “brand-appropriate,” according to David Cupps, senior counsel for Abercrombie & Fitch.
But here’s the thing (and I wish I could get this point across to all the school kids filled with angst because their parents can’t afford to buy them the hottest pair of sneakers or jeans this fall):
Wearing a label doesn’t make you cool!
Didn’t Abercrombie just prove that by offering to pay off The Situation?
If the act of wearing an Abercrombie label made you cool, the company wouldn’t have a problem with him sporting their clothes, right?
Instead they’re really saying here’s a guy who isn’t cool, who doesn’t embody what we think of as cool and we don’t want him in our club. Let’s pay him to go away.
Enough already!
What makes you cool or uncool isn’t someone else declaring you cool or uncool or wearing a brand that the culture has declared cool or uncool.
Cool is what happens when you own your own power.
When you aren’t afraid to proclaim YOU to the world.
When you don’t hide behind your beauty or your intelligence or your quirkiness or your creativity but when you embrace it and amplify it so it can’t help but glow brightly for those around you to see.
Cool ISN’T embracing someone else’s idea of cool and it’s definitely not embracing some brand’s idea of cool or some celebrity’s idea of cool.
That’s just imitation.
And while imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, it’s also an easy way to cheat the hard work of discovering who YOU are and the uniqueness that only you can bring to the table.
I think of people who rely solely on brands to help define their style and identity as Label Snobs.
They think because they’re wearing a label that it somehow makes them better or cooler than the folks who aren’t.
And you know what? The other insecure people of the world will agree with them.
But the rest of us know better.
We’re not opposed to labels. We love a beautifully crafted designer piece as much as the next gal. But, here’s the difference:
We don’t buy something simply because of its label.
We make our purchases based on more important personal criteria that include:
* Do I love it?
* Is it well crafted?
* Does it fit my style statement?
* Is it in my budget?
* Can I see myself wearing it multiple times in multiple ways?
* Does the manufacture and the production of the item align with my values?
And today’s VPOD fits the bill.
Maybe these fine vintage filigree art glass duster earrings aren’t marked Haskell or YSL but they’re still fabulous finds for a cool Vintage Crusader!
Available at More! More! More! Jewels and Treasures. | Discovered at TheFind.com.
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