By Alicia Roache, Staff Reporter 
Norma Soas
LORD CHESTERFIELD wrote those words to illustrate an artist's use of language to express his thoughts but the definition, if considered from the perspective of a 'woman of style', is still entirely appropriate to clothing.
The Webster's dictionary, though not as succinctly as Chesterfield, defines style as "a quality of imagination and individuality expressed in one's actions and tastes".
Both these definitions of 'style' suggests something innate, individual and inspirational and,
to many something to aspire to.
While the idea of who is a style icon can be very subjective, many agree that it is more than someone who dresses 'trendy', or 'fashionably'. According to Dwight Peters, Saint International CEO and self- proclaimed 'style watcher', "A well-dressed woman does not a style icon make. An icon excites in the way she appears. She sets trends, not follow them, and she is also very individualistic. She can be over-the-top, but not crude. The style icon's look evolves and is not static. A style icon is one who represents, motivates, inspires, a sense of classic elegance, timeless sophistication by her general appearance, from the fashion she wears to the make-up applied."
According to Bev Corke, personal and professional image consultant, who is herself regarded by some as a style icon, "Style is something natural and easy, not contrived. I know people who are always decked out, but that's not my idea of style."
Corke says today she sees very few persons whom she would classify as style icons. "A lot of times what I see is pretension," she said. "People who dress according to what everyone else thinks looks good, what is fashionable and trendy are not
stylish.
"Style is not something you can just buy and put on; it is developed. Style has to be a part of you, your personality. It is what the French call 'Elle'. Very few people have style. They dress well and they look good, but they don't have style."
Corke gives veteran designers and fashionable ladies Joyce Dundas, Norma Soas, Gloria Moodie and Audrey Marks as obvious examples of Jamaica's female style icons.
A RELAXED STYLE
Norma Soas' style is "always relaxed, but suited to whatever age group she is in," she said.
Soas, still a woman of style at even "over 50", is flattered that she is so recognised. "I feel wonderful about that," she said. "It is so much a part of me. Even if I'm going down the road to the supermarket I wouldn't put on anything that doesn't co-ordinate," says the woman who likes elegant clothes, but is innovative and occasionally goes "off the beat."
While she will not say if she considers herself an icon, Soas credits her ability to "put together what would seem to be disparate pieces of clothing (into something) that looks great" as part of her unique style. Her idea of a woman who is a style icon is someone who must always be appropriately dressed for the occasion.
"She must be a total picture; everything must be in tune with the outfit," she said.
Joyce Dundas is possibly Jamaica's first haute couture designer. Dundas has been designing from the early 1960s. In fact the gown she wore to the Queen's Ball in 1962 was designed and made by her. Now 87 years old, Dundas, who has earned a lot of respect as a designer of fabulous wedding gowns, is still a lady of style.
NO SENSE OF STYLE
She feels that today, young women don't exhibit a sense of style. "I know jeans is in fashion, but you can dress up a jeans, with a jacket, a scarf; you can dress up anything," she said. "Style depends on what your are doing and where you're going. Even if you have to leave work and go to another function you can take along something, a top, that could accentuate your outfit," she said.
Peters' picks for style icons are former beauty queens Lisa Hanna and Cindy Breakspeare. For the younger generation, both women seem to represent inimitable style icons.
Mark McDermott of Uzuri also gives Hanna, along with Sophia Max-Brown, Gem Myers and Lois Samuels, as his picks for female style icons. McDermott says that, like his mother, whom he regards as a personal icon of style, Hanna is always well groomed.
"Everything was always neat and she knew what suited her figure," he said of his mother. Like her, he says, Hanna "knows her limitations but you as a person looking on wouldn't know her limitations because she plays them down very well."
Max-Brown, he says, is always appropriately dressed, whether she is glamorous or subdued. Gem Myers embodies "diva style", while Lois Samuels is 'chic'. "You saw that she was Caribbean, but then you saw that she had that Parisian flair," he said of Lois.
"Cindy (Breakspeare) over the years has stayed true to her personal style value classic, elegant, sophisticated," says Peters. According to him, Cindy's "new haircut that speaks to a lifestyle change" and her "great body" an indispensable part of the icon package raises her "icon quotient". Cindy, he says, is never overdone with accessories or make-up.
These women embody what Elizabeth Wilson in her novel Adorned In Dreams (1985), calls "anti-fashion, that true chic which used to be defined as the elegance that never draws attention to itself but which, for that very reason, stands out so startlingly."
However, the style icon is not always considered 'classic' or 'classy'. Carlene Smith, the former Dancehall Queen, is considered by many as a style icon. According to Peters, Carlene took the sensuality and sexuality of dancehall fashion to a level of visibility that was unprecedented and that today is still being
imitated.
Carlene pushed the envelope regarding what was and is considered appropriate dancehall attire and, for many, that makes her an icon.
