Trompe l’oeil is French for “deceive the eye” and refers to an art technique that can create optical illusions that appear very realistic. But the idea of trompe l’oeil isn’t only applied to art. It also finds its way into fashion.

Fashion, by nature, is often used to “deceive the eye” with prescriptions for looking taller, thinner, or more proportional by wearing stripes or wider belts or smaller prints or narrower trousers.

But there isn’t a combination of separates on the planet that can “deceive the eye” into believing that you are a better person than you are.

You may dress like a Queen but if you act like a Wicked Witch, no designer logo, couture jacket or fresh-off-the-runway anything can hide the real you. Rude is rude even if you’re decked out in Chanel.

The point is this:

Are you living as good as you look?

Sometimes I think that we spend so much time and effort to LOOK good that we forget to BE good. To be polite. To be considerate. To have empathy. To remember what’s important.

Yesterday, for instance, I was shopping at The Grove and witnessed two sides of fashionably dressed human nature:

First, I was one of fifteen people waiting in line to check out at Barnes and Noble with only one person—yes, just ONE!—working the register. Sure I may have wanted a word with management to suggest better staffing, but I also wanted to give a standing ovation to the fourteen souls who waited patiently and pleasantly with me in the spirit of the season.

Unfortunately, this concern for my fellow man didn’t extend to the parking lot where I was nearly taken out by someone channeling Mario Andretti in a Prius. Here the sweet sound of Christmas carols was overshadowed by a cacophony of blaring horns and squealing brakes.

Now I understand that you have important people to see and important places to go and important things to do. And I realize that parents with young children, the elderly, and the handicapped may all take a tad more time entering and exiting their vehicles and crossing over the pathways designated for vehicles. But living as good as you look means having as much patience in a parking lot as you do when you’re trying on swimsuits or jeans.

Living as good as you look also means choosing to wear and use products that align with your values. And purchasing those products from companies who have values that align with yours, too.

And living as good as you look means realizing that your personal style isn’t just an assessment of what you wear but is also greatly impacted by things like your tone of voice, your vocabulary, your manners, your morals, your behavior and your ethics.

So if you want to deceive the eye of the masses with a little fashion trompe l’oeil, just carry a fun little vintage 1970s tote bag like today’s VPOD by Roberta di Camerino. But realize that any deception stops there.

You’re not fooling anyone if you’re dressing to look good but not living as good as you look.

And that’s true for all Vintage Crusaders!

Available at thekaliman.

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