fashion intelligence (FI)

"You know what emotional intelligence is — having a feel for what’s right, as distinct from a razor-sharp intellect. Fashion intelligence (FI) is the style equivalent: it’s a flair for putting together clothes that exists independent of money or looks, or even trying.

At its root, FI is about understanding fashion — being able to see beyond trends to the clothes that count, then putting them together in an original way. Having high FI doesn’t mean letting your stylist do all your thinking for you (we mean you, Mischa Barton). Nor does it mean wearing all your free gifts at once (hands up, Sienna, you’ve been rumbled). And just because you’ve got a great body, that doesn’t mean you can wear whatever you like. Madonna is guilty of this. Her recent outing in a satin disco tracksuit, tucked into spike-heeled boots and accompanied with stiff hair flicks, was more why-con than icon.

Real FI is also a kind of physical gift. People with high fashion intelligence have a knack for wearing clothes. They hang right on them, crease in the right way; if they roll up a sleeve, undo a button or add a belt, some chemical reaction takes place and you have perfect rightness. It’s the reason Sofia Coppola wears Marc Jacobs better than anyone else. It’s also the reason designers with radically different styles will do almost anything to get Kate Moss fronting their campaigns. Forget her face, they are paying for the FI factor: the way she’ll twist a collar, knot the front of a shirt, make the clothes work for her, conjure the magic that gets us reaching for our chequebooks, regardless of what’s on sale."

legal né? escrita pela claudia croft (sim, ela é bem vestida - cheguei a trabalhar com ela quando morava em lá), saiu no sunday times.