The Original Fashonista

Why start "The Fashion of Miss Gaston"?  I've been asking myself that question a lot lately.  The doubts of "What am I doing?" and "I didn't go to fashion school" have been bouncing around my head.  Last week I was going through some old family photographs and stumbled across photos of my mother when she was a young adult.  I totally forgot that she was once on the cover of Jet magazine, and that she participated in the Ebony Fashion Fair back in 1967.  Reading the article about her made me realize that fashion is in my blood.  She was voted best dressed in her UCLA dormitory her Freshman year.  I was voted best dressed in high school my senior year.  It all makes sense!  Ha ha.

I see now that my mother has influenced me in many ways, whether I like it or not (lol).  I sat down with her recently to ask about her beauty secrets and any advice she might have for other young ladies out there who want to work on self improvement.

My mom stresses that confidence is the most attractive thing about a woman.  Well how does one work on becoming more confident?  Getting you know yourself and loving who you are on the inside is the first step.  Discovering and developing your personal talents and interests can help drive you towards a positive self image.  I have to agree, no matter how good you look on the outside, it doesn't matter much if you feel lousy on the inside.

My mother was 18 years old when she was on the cover of Jet in 1967, so you can do the math to know how old she is today.  How does she stay in such great shape you ask?  Yoga!  Now, I have to admit I am not personally a fan of Yoga.  But when my mom was in her forties she started practicing yoga and says it helps her improve her body and mind on a daily basis.

Lastly, I asked her what kind of skin care products she uses, because let's be real; I'm getting older and I'd like to make sure I take care of my skin now so it can stay in good shape when I'm...old (lol).  My mother gives herself weekly facials, using an all natural product she gets from Whole Foods for $5.00!  Here's the products website:  http://www.aztec-secret.com/clay.html  She also makes sure to use a moisturizer everyday that contains some SPF to protect her skin from the sun.  She has used LaMer for the longest time, but has recently switched over to Oil of Olay to save money, and she says she can't really tell much of a difference.  To reduce the effects of aging, she uses Vitamin C ointment (17%) to help increase the collagen in her skin.

So there you have it.  Sometimes no matter how hard we try to fight it, we are more like our parents than we think.  My mother and I have different tastes in fashion and clothing, but funny enough when I went to go see her for our photo shoot, we ended up wearing similar dresses.  That's just scary, ha!