Are you a "Fashion Person" + POLL!

So my brother and sister-in-law came over for dinner last week and I get into something of a -- I won't call it an argument, more like a debate -- with my sister-in-law, when she says that in her opinion, I'm a foodie.

Now I had cooked the meal, but it was nothing special -- homemade tomato sauce (an improvised Bolognese meat sauce) over spaghetti, with a salad; can you get more Olive Garden than that?  I had mentioned, in passing, something about putting Italian parsley (the flat kind) in the salad rather than cilantro.  I do not think that makes me a foodie, readers. 

To me a foodie is someone who follows the restaurant scene (like my sister-in-law, he he, who happens to be an excellent cook, btw) the way some people follow Ryan Gosling movies, or is constantly on the hunt for some rare ingredient for a dish they're making -- teal truffle oil or, I don't know, dodo eggs.  I do care what I eat, yes, but I actually don't enjoy eating in restaurants much and if left to my own devices would eat very simply.  It's true: I know my ingredients, we get our vegetables during the growing season from a local CSA farm, and we drink raw milk.  Does that make me a foodie?

I ask, because sometimes people also mislabel me as a "fashion person."  I do not consider myself a fashion person.  First of all, I do not follow fashion.  Fashion Week in NYC came and went last month and I paid no attention.  Sure, from time to time I might glance at a fashion show photo on some blog or other, or pick up a fashion magazine in the dentist's office or the laundry room.  Frankly, fashion can be hard to avoid these days.



Yesterday I salvaged a recent copy of People from the trash ("Murder at the Palace! Drew's Engaged!  Beauty Secrets of the Stars!"), but just so I had something to read in the bathroom. And People is hardly Vogue, even if most of the ads are the same.

Obviously, I do write about fashion here from time to time, but always from the perspective of a head-scratching naif. Yes, I have an interest in vintage style and old Hollywood costumes.  But I don't think that makes me a "fashion person."



I think the confusion happens because I sew clothes.  But the more "fashion-y the item (think leopard pants) the less likely it is that I ever wear it.  You will never see me sporting sagger jeans or a suit that looks like it shrank three sizes, or Red Wing Classic Moc Lug boots -- or stuff like this (though I do like fringe)...



 Or this:



Anyway, this topic got me wondering about you.  Do you consider yourself a "fashion person" -- i.e., someone who follows fashion fervently and puts its dictates into practice -- or could you care less and do you just sew/wear what you like?

Do you have a spare second?  If so...



How would you define a "fashion person?"

BTW, please don't forget to throw your hat in the ring for the latest issue of Vogue Patterns I'm giving away with my article in it.  You have till Monday morning.



Happy weekend, everybody!