The Budget Fashionista

Interesting facts from a story in Women’s Health

- American and British women are most likely to feel they look stressed and tired
- Women in Germany and Italy say mascara is their most essential beauty product
- Argentine and Canadian women are the most satisfied with their looks. 
- Japanese and French women are least satisfied with their looks.

Memories of women from other countries:
I remember when I was 16., there was an exchange student from Argentina. I saw him up at a ski resort with his parents, who’d flown in to see him. His mother was the most petite and beautiful woman I’d ever seen. Absolutely elegant. She sat there with her foot pointed up while her son adjusted her sock and then helped her into a ski boot! She was stunning --I still remember that she had a parka with a fur collar, and that her attire fit impeccably. (And yes, this had to have been about 30 years ago).

When I was in college, I went through this phase of wearing dresses and heels. The teacher, from Lebanon, complimented me. He said, “You know, most women in America don’t know how to dress.” I didn’t know what he meant until I went to a party thrown by some Iranian students and met one of the mothers. Again, exquisite.

Ditto, that with Paris. And with the elite of India, but even there you can find girls in the countryside of Rajasthan who are utterly stunning as they carry pails of milk on their head in a marigold colored sari. And when I do see some of the Korean women or Taiwanese women shopping, they’re usually always well turned out.

In all, I’d have to say the women in the US look stressed, and at some point might even feel so by not paying attention to what they’re wearing.  Would a new dress change their perspective? Well, it does for me, or rather, I don’t focus on the stress and tiredness I might be feeling. 

But I will say, compared to other women in the world, sometimes we’re a lot more casual, which contributes to an impression that we just don’t care. But in some ways, when a person says they’re stressed and tired, it’s a shorthand to saying that they’re working a lot, have kids, and just want a little sympathy. Are we as stressed as a mother in Kenya? I don’t know.

Interesting perspectives, Calliegirl.

I would argue, perhaps, that women in the US and Britain feel like they look stressed and tired because our lifestyles are, in general, highly stressful and exhausting. We have a ridiculously skewed focus on work as well as a must-do-it-all obsession that is not shared by wise women in many other parts of the world. So we ARE stressed and DO look tired—but perhaps we are also more self-critical, another unfortunate cultural fallout.

The cure, anyone?

I don’t know that this is a cure, but I think accepting who you are is key. And take a few minutes to care for yourslef and your appearance. It can be very therapeutic. My mother was from Europe and she always dressed to meet the world, she probably looked too formal sometimes. But like calliegirl, I dressed more formally in college (coming from my mom’s example) than many people. Though I didn’t see it that way. Putting on a nice scarf or necklace with your shirt and pants seemed to make people think you were in full formal attire. And a skirt or dress--forget it. People thought you had a tiara in your bag too. But like calliegirl, the foreign guys appreciated and noticed, because they dressed to go meet the world too. Now we’ve added the pressure to oursleves to look “young” or at least eternally 20-ish. I don’t think women in other parts of the world buy into that so much. I always thought my mother was beautiful, and she didn’t worry about looking “young.” She worked to look turned out and to be her personal best. That attitude was, and continues to be, a great gift to me, in that I feel comfortable in my skin.