The End of “Who Wore It Better”
I love when fashion is…fun. And recently, something happened on a red carpet that reminded me how fun fashion can be. What I’m referring to, obviously, is Meg Stalter and Paul W. Downs wearing Timothee Chalamet and Kylie Jenner’s exact orange ensembles, presumably, for the bit. What I love about this is that it’s less about tribute and more a sense of irony, style, and clothing has really adopted this culturally wide sense of apathy that is being championed at the moment. So, when a genuine moment of comedy, or just a genuine moment of feeling and earnestness, comes around, especially in the stoic domain of fashion, it hits way harder; it feels so much more impactful. Fashion should be fun, it should be joyful, and when it is, people respond.
What I think is important to note here is the fact that this isn’t “copying an outfit”, at least not in the way we think about it. These stars are wearing the EXACT same clothing. It’s not fitspo, and it’s not lacking creativity or individuality. What I love is in wearing the same garment, they’ve totally changed the meaning of the clothes. It gets at one of my favorite things in fashion: no two people wear something the same way. I never understood why people got so pressed about telling one another where they got one item or another from. Even if someone tries to copy you, they’ll never wear it in the same way.
This stunt also got me thinking about other times celebs matched, on purpose and otherwise, and how it’s evolved over the years. It used to be about putting two celebrities, most often women, against one another. When P!nk and Shakira both wore the same dress, they had fun with it, but the story was more about who wore it better. I hope, I think, this has changed a bit. For example, when Julia Roberts and Amanda Seyfried had on the same Bottega set recently, the fashion community seemed to love it.
I really believe we’re all looking for a bit more light-heartedness when it comes to fashion and dressing in general. Lighten up for f***s sake! Julia Fox, who knows her way around fun and fashion, recently copied Lisa Rinna’s Maximillian Raynor getup, and goddamnit, it was great. Take a deep breath, everyone, it’s not all that serious.
Clothing is, of course, important and meaningful, and fashion isn’t just frivolous, but sometimes we forget that playing dress is supposed to be fun. These things we put on should bring us joy. I think what I love about these recent embraces of parody in dressing is that they remind us, loudly, that we should have a laugh about clothes. Clothing can be funny, and not in a hokey way, but in a joyful way.