Would you be my Valentino?

Today I felt so much love, I did. It was wrapped all around me…. literally.

On the 14th of February, it doesn’t seem to matter which way you turn. There is no escaping the red roses, pink hearts and lip shaped chocolates. And although I have to admit there is a certain sweetness to being bombarded by all this lovey-dovey stuff and all the happiness it results in, it also generates an unnatural and insincere feeling.

Valentine’s Day. In recent years it has become such an overly commercialised event, that one might forget it is about a martyr who’s death we’re commemorating. Only in the mid 19th century it became a day associated with romantic love and back then it was mainly for unidentified suitors, anonymous admirers and nameless lovers.

Now it has become a day on which we are supposed to pledge our love for the one we’ve been known to love for years. Which seems odd, as that sounds like something we should be doing every day, not just on the 14th of February, when all tangible tokens of affection are tripled in price. If we don’t participate in this madness we are either considered unromantic or classified as ‘not giving a damn’.

Yes, love is a funny thing, isn’t it? Somehow it’s a universal concept filled with contradictions, containing all the extremes. It’s surprising, yet predictable. Healing and passionate, yet poisonous and heartbreaking. All at the same time. This is probably why everybody keeps chasing after it, even though they have no clue what it is they’re chasing or what it might cost them. Its elusiveness makes it all the more intriguing. It’s like a mystery nobody wants to solve.

And although I’m all for keeping a mystery and I’m not big on bold gestures of affection, today I dare to declare…My love for fashion!

I do, I love fashion. And it loves me back, unconditionally. It’s the one true love that has never let me down. Sure, we’ve been known to disagree occasionally, or even hated each other for a brief moment, but we’ve always made up and we’ve come back stronger than before. We have an unbreakable bond.

Really, who needs a mailbox full of postcards anyway? Or flowers and chocolates, when you have a closet filled with love? It’s there when I go to bed and it’s there when I open my eyes in the morning, greeting me with more love than I could ever ask for. It’s comforting and warm. Expressive and generous. And it will never leave me. Yes, I love fashion…. and the feeling is mutual.

I’m gonna dress me up in your love… forever.