Amazing Fashion mum

I never cease to be impressed by what my mum creates.

Twenty years plus in the industry and she's still going strong with collections that only get better every year.

It's a shame that talent such as hers gets lost in a country like Cyprus. To be fair, it doesn't 'get lost' per se but the mediocrity and averageness of a small island like Cyprus is painfully limiting.

My mum has taught me to appreciate creativity, to be fascinated by texture and colors, to be drawn by the magic of art and, without particularly wanting to, she has cultivated inside of me a tremendous passion for fashion.

I use the cliche because it has become so banal to be a 'lover of fashion' nowadays. Back at home I see all the sixteen year old girls attempting to copy the looks in Vogue and Harper's Bazaar and to some extent it is sad because they actually can - their parents' affluence enables them to actually have that Chanel bag or those Balenciaga boots - but I don't see how they can fully appreciate the skill and art and craft behind magazines and clothes when all they can link it with is Gossip Girl and The Hills.

Don't get me wrong I am one of the biggest fans of Gossip Girl but what it's imposed on us, especially in a country like Cyprus where nouveau-riche is the new chic, is a bunch of airheads that fail to see beyond clothes and handbags and accessories. It's imposed a lifestyle of minimum responsibility, and it's created the expectation that everyone MUST have all the designer goods in order to be happy. Not to mention the tremendous pressure put on parents to provide and therefore purchase this merchandise for their sweet, 'innocent' girls.
Innocent is a deceptive word.

I was shocked when I found out that two girls had been talking about one of their 'friends' in a very derogatory manner, and the only conversation they could muster against her was: We should buy her that Balenciaga bag already! Not everyone can afford ten types of Louis Vuitton, but that doesn't mean they can't afford to love what they see. 

Too much power has been given to the monstrous moguls that snatch the Birkins from their mothers' closets.