Style Icons

I wore my Frida Kahlo t-shirt yesterday and it reminded me of one of the most important aspects of fashion, aside from the wearer who chooses is: other, inspirational, people!
Everyone's style changes and the people who inspire them likewise change. I used to be an avid skinny jean and long sleeved top wearer, before the end of my first year of university when I started wearing long skirts and dresses, and frankly, never looked back (and not worn a skinny jean for about two years). A lot of that is thanks to Frida!

A style icon is all well and good, appreciating and emulating what they wear is obviously the idea, but even better than that is having a fully rounded idol, someone who can inspire through what they wear.

Frida Kahlo is my idol.
I've studied her for several years through art and as part of Hispanic culture. Her biography (Frida by Hayden Herrera) is an inspiring read and her art, which I have been lucky enough to see some of, remains powerful. She survived, and most definitely lived, through illness, injury, miscarriage and her husband of two times, Diego Rivera. She was an incredible, and at the same time incredibly human, woman. This article, from which the picture is taken, highlights how strong the relationship between the female body, insecurity, power and clothing is. She clothed herself to hide her polio damaged leg and align herself with the Mexican people and culture. It is not just her clothing that inspires me, it is the powerful way in which she wore it. The political and social message she made through them and the stand she took for herself, as a powerful woman (the Tehuana dress she adored comes from a Mexican region with a matriarchal society), against her physical pain and her embrace of life in all its colour and emotion. Not even a lower leg amputation could stop her from being glorious.

http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/uncovering-clues-in-frida-kahlos-private-wardrobe/

Moreover, I'm a fan of Advanced Style. Those women probably feel younger than I do and I truly look forward to being over 60 to do what I want and not have to answer to anyone, and to just wear what I want! It's great that you don't have to be young to be fabulous or appreciated anymore. 

However, style icons don't need to be famous! I lived with some, look at this lot!

Taken by Will Stanley Film and Photography

Once found, a style icon, whether a passing phase or a life-long obsession, can be a wealth of fashion and life inspiration: be inspired Stylish ones, just as someone probably is by you!