10.15.2009

On Why I Blog

Sometimes I get excited at the seemingly never-ending slew of fashion and design blogs on the internet, but sometimes I get really daunted and self-conscious. For one thing, I work full-time, so I can't blog whenever I get the urge to write something. I can't even take an outfit pic every morning before work because of time! (Though I suppose I could wake up a bit earlier each day and do that.) I have a myriad of unfinished bits of entries, and have very few pictures of my own because most of the time I find to write is when I am at work.



It used to be different. When I was 16-17 I was on livejournal, taking photographs and writing entries all the time. I had photographs that were the blossoming of my self-portrait oeuvre, but also looking back some are reminiscent of amateur fashion editorials (fashion blog photography, anyone?). I was inspired by fine art photographers, fashion spreads, other livejournalers, art, early cinema, etc. I was thrifting a lot and watching Turner Classic Movies pretty much non-stop.



I had a lot of weird clothes that I thrifted purely for photographing myself in, some of which I am selling now. This dress you might remember from an entry a few weeks back about vintage dresses I was going to sell:



And this dress is currently in in my shop, the vintage stole is my grandmother's:



I started expirimenting with crazy makeup, too. So begins a long affair with eyelash glue (I later did a series in college with miniatures glued to my face). This isn't a mask, these feathers are glued to my face! The pearls in my hair is similar to how I did my hair for prom a few months previous, and dress and gloves are vintage.



And, more like the wardrobe_remixes of today, I would take outfit posts on many days. Here are two outfits I particularly liked at the time:



Many of these photographs are super embarrassing (boy how I want to go back in time and tell myself to get bangs), and some of these outfits are perfection except for some unfortunate choice in shoes or eye makeup. Still, I feel proud in some strange way to be almost "ahead of the curve," and glad I documented my youth so well. It's neat going back and saying "oh yes I should look for that skirt" or "I never thought to pair that hat with that dress." And of course, I was more risky with my choices back then, such as being unafraid to wear a garish coat or unusual hat (or any vintage hat, really, at the time). Maybe this blog is an extension of that part of me from high school I want to keep alive, and part of it is to share ideas I have for various things (and those have been lacking, too). Either way, I need to post more!

2 comments:

Huzzah! Vintage said...

I have so many photos like this of myself in high school. In one particularly cliched one I rediscovered recently, I'm looking stoically at the camera as mascara streams down my face.

Thank god the Internet was just a series of tubes back when I was in high school.

Karina said...

I wish I would have documented my teenage fashion choices, but all I have are some embarrassing yearbook photos and the occasional picture my mom took...maybe I should dig them up for some laughs :)