What I WIsh I Could Do

Draw like this:

 (Daniel Roberts from Igor + Andre)

(a really good interview with him)

Or paint like this:

Esao Andrews

His paintings are practically 3D.  If anyone ever got me a print of any of his paintings (specifically the one of the man above "Untitled") they would forever be in my good graces.

YES!

Absolutely yes.  I will dream right on into those boots and stay there.

Viktor & Rolf 

Until the sales associate tells me to take them off because Holt Renfrew is closed.

Pants I Do Not Own

(yet)

Because I would like to find pants like these:

from garance dore & earnest sewn, respectively

Sadly this girl lives in France so I doubt I'll find them here.  The closest thing I  can think of is the Zazo jean from Earnest Sewn, seen beside the pants I don't think I'll ever find.  I like where the rise sits, just at that really flattering part of my waist.  And since Earnest Sewn is one of the lines carried by Winners I have a chance of owning them.

If only they had side pockets (if only everything had side pockets)...

Also: here's a random question few will answer:  Does anyone know a good tailor in Toronto? I need one to fix what I don't know how to fix myself.

The Non-shirt

Attempt 1 at a long, non-shirt.  I wore pants and this shirt that I found somewhere in my apartment (I think it's my dad's) and wore it with a belt in this "I'm so lazy today and must reflect this in what I wear" so there we go.  And I swear I'll never do this again unless I'm sick because it was just too lazy.  It was too wrinkled.  It was too big and too slouchy and too much of too much.  Even with black skinny jeans (jeans that have yet to fail me when paired with anything else) I could not justify wearing this big slouchy super-dressed down shirt.  

I need clean lines.  I know I need/want solid, clean lines, and yet I keep trying stuff like this where there is no definition whatsoever.  Whyyyyyyy?

This was attempt #2.  Where I found my iron and wore a shirtdress instead.  An improvement, I think.  And a way to wear a non-shirt that I can throw on and not process and still look okay.  It looks a little like jammies but I guess that makes it okay when I fall asleep on the subway on the way back from work.

Hoo-rah. (!)

I wonder what it would look like with a bow tie?  Or a teeny little scarf thing around the collar?

Mirror Games

One of my favourite drama exercises (in high school and continued into the world of rehearsals) is the mirror game.

Viktor & Rolf just stole my heart.

found via the pretty guide of art

VSquared

I want a new hat.  I've been looking at hats and pictures with hats and I kind of want a new hat.  There's nothing wrong with my go-to soulmate hat I just kinda want a new one....for variety.

Instead I'll revel in the fact that I can take 3 weeks off of my winter shopping with these chocolate booties:

            

Time I can now devote to more noteworthy projects such as contemplating the post-modern view of the world and how it fits into the current post-terrorism psyche before transitioning into trying to figure out why no modern philosophy texts address the issue that modern beliefs have changed since an entire generation came of age trying desperately to be as apathetic as we could toward the war that began around the same time as we were entering our teens.

Or layering.

Backward

My computer is slowly, painstakingly being fixed. Sadly for me, photoshop is yet to be reinstalled (mostly due to the fact that I seem to have Photoshop CS for MAC and my Windows operating system doesn't accept that? Sorry. Windows is not a team player). So I (and you) are stuck with unintentionally unglossed up photos that are as of  yet un-auto contrasted or auto leveled.

Je suis très français avec mon livre concernant la philosophie post-modern et les raies noires et blanches. Oh-hon-hon.

I guess the little sailor-y details of the blazer don't show up in the photos I chose, but it is a very straight and well structured double-breasted blazer. And the 3/4 sleeves with the rolled up pants were interesting....unintentionally together which is nice. Also: believe it or not those are the only pair of flats I currently own. My taupe ones died, and another pair I bought are at the shoemakers so I'm stuck with sunshine on my feet.

For the first time ever I actually dressed with the intention of looking like someone else. Specifically, this was a misguided attempt at Jean Seberg.

I'm not sure why I went with her. She isn't my go-to style icon, nor do I know anything about her or find her style particularly inspiring. To tell the truth, I think I put on the shirt and then thought "hey, this is like that actress.....whatsername" and when I figured out her name, I rolled the cuffs to go along with it (which is apparently a big trend now). While browsing images in order to compare original to misguided attempt, I did find many little outfits of hers that I liked. Elements from them might work in dressing casually - for me. It is all clean, put together, able, fluid. The image is grounded in a certain delicateness that comes from its simplicity. Nothing big or drapey or overflowing, but A, B, and C; plain but not entirely simple.

As in the photo to the right; I really like her hat. I would wear something like it and I would sit like that with same questioning look on my face. I also like the stripes.

But I feel like I could never re-create it to my own personal imagining of it. Like I would fall short in some way, or it wouldn't translate. The same way that a vintage dress from say....1960-blah doesn't have the same look that it did in 1960-blah. This is my backward way of explaining that I have no go-to style icon. And that I have no intention of going to look for one because knowing myself the way I do, I would just get frustrated that I can't re-create it the way it is in the pictures.

Way Later:  Another, more articulate response to that Adbusters article I complained about a few days ago is here; at MarathonPacks.  Along with links to a few more of 'em.

The Space Between.

I've never wanted to update my blog more than this past week, when my life-supported computer finally came to a sputtering, catastrophic stop this week. My dad is slowly trying to fix her, but the girl is old. She's not gonna last for long. I need to save up to buy a new computer (hopefully a laptop, probably refurbished since those are cheaper) which means that my shopping is going to have to be rationed. I have planned on one thing to buy but everything else is being put on hold.

Which is very disappointing considering this is the week that my eyes were opened to Supermarket.

It's an etsy-esque website. Full of independent, unknown designers (some of whom are also on etsly) but at a slightly higher price point. With a cleaner more minimal design to the site.

Supermarket is not quite as well sorted as etsy is (harder to narrow down what you want) but I feel like the quality is slightly higher? Or maybe it's just the pretentiousness or prestige that comes with using Helvicta?

Here are a few examples of what I'm trying to get at:

The Dino-Love necklace by verameat jewelry. You can browse her products by collection, or see all of them at once. And you see through this page and others, the quality of photography is slightly higher. More....produced.

I'm a sucker for design. Half of the reason why I love day trips to Ikea is because they're so simple, straightforward and well produced. Well thought of. I mean, I like one of a kind as much as the next person but I swear: If you come up with a sleek marketing campaign. Maybe throw in a little Helvicta to satisfy my wee hipster heart, I'll be yours forever.

Intelligent illustration that borrows elements from various periods of history while still catering to the childish air this generation is still holding on to, like Little Otsu has on his stationary or an ultramodern frivolous "piece" like the "Container for one thing" from Perch is what Supermarket is great for. Quirky yet sophisticated. A good balance between adult and still cheeky.

Their layout reminds me of Lookbook's layout. Bold straightforward lettering, underlined where need be, no fancy illustrations to distract you from what you are there for: to see great independent design that you would not have heard of otherwise.

Do a search under "designers" and you'll see that these are all people who are dead serious about what they do.

It is yet another site that I will browse for hours and make mental notes of in hopes of one day being able to order something and not feel extremely guilty about it. Maybe, on that day, I'll be ordering and browsing and falling prey to marketing on a beautiful new computer.......probably a mac.

BAHAHAHA Oh, Adbusters.

DISCLAIMER: I didn't edit this, nor am I officially qualified to have an opinion.  I just spew out what pops up in my head, that's sort of the point of a blog anyhow so don't complain. Please.

This article only made me laugh because of the irony that is so neatly and carefully (yet sloppily and recklessly) sewn into it.  I'm sorry but the people who read Adbusters are the glorified hipsters.  The ones who protest to the label, who complain about hipsters while riding around on their racing bikes and who joined greenpeace in order to have real proof that they're pledging their undying allegiance to the fight for Earth.  The ones who complain about Nike and wear Converse.

At least, the people I know who read Adbusters are like this.

And complain as much as we want about hipsters and hipster culture, it is a defined group.  Who are, in their own twisted, copycat way, genuine.  They drink, they party, they shop at American Apparel, they show up to work hung over, they ignore politics until it shows up on a t-shirt, they celeb-watch, they are apathetic and self-absorbed.  It is a fun lifestyle because it is the lifestyle of those who have the luxury of fun.  Oh okay, it used to be underground.  Well maybe now it has enough money to move out of a basement apartment.  It's not the death of anything, it's the mutation of the creature we've been growing in the dark corner of the underground.

I can't help but think it's a reaction to the age we live in.  Where everyone is afraid of....everything.  Being watched, being followed, afraid of what is "over there" and how soon it'll be "over here".  Mass paranoia didn't create people who are attentive to detail and who want to saturate themselves with all the crap that happens so they can fix it.  Instead, all this negativity has created a generation of people who want nothing to do with it.  They want to find a way to pay less attention to conflict because (let's face it) there's no getting away from it.

Maybe that is why keffiiyah (sp?) scarves became such a popular fashion accessory?  If you want to ignore the grand significance of a symbol of social conflict, why not make it a symbol of the apathetic uniform? Enough hypothesizing, I haven't done enough research to really think that through and commit to a strong argument. 

This is an argument and complaint that has been written before.  With the death of punk or hip hop or any other counterculture that snuck its way into the mainstream.  Hipsterdom is the latest in a long line of lost ownership.  That is the reason why people are starting to complain.  The irony and attention to aesthetics tied to Hipsterdom have gotten out of hand, but back before people paid attention to it, it was called "indie" and promoted as an acceptable option, an alternative, to the mainstream that no one wants to be a part of.

It is dead, because it is the mainstream (and no one wants to be mainstream).  

Punk is dead.

Rock is dead.

Metal is dead.

Indie is dead.

RIP  culture, apparently no one likes it when you crawl out of the corner anymore.

*later: my favourite quote: "Are you a hipster"  "'Fuck no' she says, laughing back the last of her glass before she hops off to the dance floor"

Because an article bashing Hipster-ism is basically her answer wrapped up in an eco-friendly, hemp bow.  Oh, and the photos of hipsters are from the cobrasnake

El Beacho.

Went to the beach the other day....

Dilly-dallied around, swimming and lying in the sun, eventually eating a pie and pint of ice cream with a friend.  After swimming, I had a huge cheesy cheeseburger.  With greasy fries.  And then walked that off a wee bit and swam and dove and jumped and laughed and...and...and....ACK!

It was a disgustingly good, lazy day.

Somehow it is a lot easier to look good in a pair of shorts than it is in pants.  Or a skirt.  Because you don't have to match your shoes so closely?  Because people are distracted by skin?  Because less fabric means less colour to match to another colour?

Dunno.

But the fact remains, something about a well fitting pair of shorts does wonders on your self image, more than what a pair of jeans or dress can.  It's easier to run around, and acceptable (even encouraged) to look messy in shorts.  

A proud display of bruises = a good purse.