Q+A: Sally Singer on style

from an interview with Papermag earlier this fall after she was named editor-in-chief of the New York Times T Style Magazine:

Papermag: Why can't you just be who you are? Is a bling-y person going to look wrong just because Jil Sander is the trend? What if the next big thing was suddenly a hard-edged geometric Mugler style? I just couldn't imagine a casual, soft-looking person like you starting to wear architectural big shoulders, because that's not who you are. So why should we?

SS: No one says we should. People who are interested in style -- designers, stylists or the girl or boy on the street -- get an idea and fixate on it, and for their whole lives, that's their ideal. For someone from my generation­ -- West Coast, basically raised in the '70s -- my style ideal is probably a pair of jeans and a white T-shirt. Being very "done" or wearing a lot of makeup is very chic for others, but it will never be me. Yet every season, there's a way to connect your personal aesthetic with something new. You intuitively think, "I want something new that updates who I am, but at the end of the day I'm still myself."

When people ask me what they should wear for evening, I say, "If you're most comfortable in your pajamas, then wear pajamas. Do not put on a ball gown, 'cause you're not going to look good in it." If your favorite thing is to wear party dresses because as a child every day you wanted to wear your fairy princess dress, then always wear fairy princess dresses. The smart person every season twists it just a little to register that they're part of the conversation. It's fun to update what is in your closet. That's why people who only wear pale blue button-front shirts, which I happen to love, buy new ones. They serially buy these things.

i think this is so true. i love her analogy that participating in the seasonal cycles of fashion is akin to being 'part of the conversation'. it's such an elegant way to think about how to continually allow your sense of style to organically evolve with the cultural moment, while still preserving the integrity of who you are. what do you think?