On The F Word blog today there's a really interesting call-for-submissions for a zine on Fashion and Gender, sounds very cool!
I’ve mentioned to some of you my wish to put on a zine about the connections of Fashion and Gender Identity…After procrastinating a lot, I decided to call out for submissions.
The zine will be called FAG (Fashion and Gender)- very original of me….and I’d like to have it done before December when I leave Little England.
Basically what I have in mind is a compilation of personal stories, thoughts and critics involving this theme. no formats, size or limitations required!
The dead line for sending me the texts is September 30. But yeah, email me back if you are interested or have ideas.
here are some suggestions:
-semiotic analysis of trends within the radical queer community
-the way fashion industry defines gender identities
-men/womenwear
-the way you feel when wearing a dress or ‘boyish’ clothes
-the queer costume (the meaning of drag symbols)
-the use of make up and wigs
-fashion magazines and ads -how you feel about them
-refusal of fashion industry
-how the way you dress reflects your personality
You can send your submissions via the response form at the blog itself.
vendredi 22 août 2008
And we're off!
Had my final day of shopping and I managed to talk myself out of buying that preposterously funky dress by virtue of it being admittedly a weird shape (and too expensive), all I got was a beautiful vintage hat from H&M
and a high-waisted skirt from Topshop which technically wasn't new cos I was just exchanging one of my birthday purchases (another Topshop high-waisted skirt that wasn't high-waisted enough!). So that's me! Done for the year.
I'm trying to get back into thrift-shop chic. Today I bought two pairs of trousers from British Heart Foundation with the intention of turning them into high-waisted shorts with the help of a sewing maching and my mum (I have no idea how to use a sewing machine), after having seen instructions in the June/July issue of BUST. The basic principle is that you get a pair of jeans at least 3 sizes too big with a low-hanging crotch, then you pin and sew it and hack off the legs so it becomes a pair of high-waisted shorts (as you can see, I'm kind of digging the whole high-waisted thing). Will let you know how that goes...
Here we go...
Well, today's the last day I can buy any new clothes for a year. I'm going into Belfast city centre with my wee brother today, have my sights set on a preposterously amazing dress from an independant retailer called Liberty Blue which technically I can't really afford right now but seeing as I'm not going to be buying anything else for a whole year I reckon it's not so bad. It was my 21st birthday on Tuesday and my parents gave me Topshop vouchers so I got some really beautiful stuff which I'll post up here in due course.
Tomorrow starts the detox and I've already got a wee project in mind, making some high-waisted shorts out of some charity-shop grandad-slacks which I read about in BUST magazine, I can't make clothes to save my life but I'm going to get mum so give me a hand if possible.
Will do a photo post soon I promise, in the meantime wish me luck!
Tomorrow starts the detox and I've already got a wee project in mind, making some high-waisted shorts out of some charity-shop grandad-slacks which I read about in BUST magazine, I can't make clothes to save my life but I'm going to get mum so give me a hand if possible.
Will do a photo post soon I promise, in the meantime wish me luck!
dimanche 17 août 2008
This is bad...
So apparently Comme des Garçons is designing a line of clothing for H&M, to be released in November 2008. Right in the middle of my shopping detox. This whole 'no shopping for a year business' might prove tougher than I originally thought...thanks a lot guys...
So I'm back at home in Belfast for a bit, and have been reunited with all my old clothes, predictably rediscovering many old items I'd forgotten about. As it's my birthday on Tuesday I'm heading off on one last pre-detox shopping spree in Topshop, where I haven't been in over a year. It's gonna be awesome.
I'm also doing a fair wee bit of research on fashion and popular culture at the moment for my final year dissertation, which I'm writing about fashion, consumption and feminism in The L Word and Sex and the City. It's pretty interesting stuff but such a theoretical minefield I don't even know where to start...
So I'm back at home in Belfast for a bit, and have been reunited with all my old clothes, predictably rediscovering many old items I'd forgotten about. As it's my birthday on Tuesday I'm heading off on one last pre-detox shopping spree in Topshop, where I haven't been in over a year. It's gonna be awesome.
I'm also doing a fair wee bit of research on fashion and popular culture at the moment for my final year dissertation, which I'm writing about fashion, consumption and feminism in The L Word and Sex and the City. It's pretty interesting stuff but such a theoretical minefield I don't even know where to start...
jeudi 24 juillet 2008
Intersections
I like to think of myself (and other people) not as the embodiment of a particular personality-type or way of thinking, but as a site of struggle between different ideas, cultural norms and beliefs, and as such I believe that identity is not something pure but something constantly in flux, being constructed and reconstructed and negociated by your peers, your culture, your upbringing, the media, religion, politics and countless other things that can make us rethink ourselves in ways that can be big or small. The world is just too damn complex to have a rigid identity or belief system, and I think it is normal and healthy for individuals to have several, possibly conflicting opinions about any given thing rather than thinking they have it all worked out.
My thoughts on fashion are at the intersection between my flamboyant personality (which urges me to play dress-up), my feminism (which reminds me that I might be playing into the beauty myth), my awareness of class struggle (which reminds me not to ignore my privilege), my liberal Christianity (which tells me not to oppress others and warns against materialism), the media and fashion industry (which seduce me with images, textures, colours and beautiful clothes).
I also have different peer-groups which simultaneously conflict with and compliment the different intersections of my different thoughts on fashion, glamour and beauty. For a start, I'm dating a girl who, while she is naturally very attractive, has no interest in clothes or make-up, is very un-materialistic, rarely buys new clothes and is probably, in this respect, a pretty good influence on me. Her friends are all pretty much the same. They fulfill the feminist side of me that hates seeing women confined to limited, mainstream, impossible ideas of beauty and told that their looks are the most important thing about them. On the flip-side of the coin, I work for a cosmetics company where I'm surrounded by people who share my interest in clothes and make-up and who fulfil my flamboyant, fashionable side. If I hung out with my queer friends all the time I'd have the ideological side of me nourished but would be itching for some glamour. If I hung out with my work friends all the time I'd probably over time become more concerned with looks and start judging bad dressers and such.
Back in Northern Ireland I have friends who are more of a happy medium - just as interested in clothes as I am, but more likely to get them from Oxfam or a vintage clothes shop than from Zara or BCBG (probably cos they're all students, I might add). I've followed a similar arc to Courtney Love recently as far as style goes - I used to get a lot of really interesting clothes from thrift shops and was punk as all fuck, now I get equally interesting yet classier (and more expensive) stuff from Mango and French Connection, but am a bit of a sell-out. Hopefully this year I'll be able to restore myself to 'Live Through This' Courtney happy-mediumness.
I'll keep posting about and developing the various intersections in my thoughts on the subject, even if that means just linking to posts by others who have analysed it better than I could...
My thoughts on fashion are at the intersection between my flamboyant personality (which urges me to play dress-up), my feminism (which reminds me that I might be playing into the beauty myth), my awareness of class struggle (which reminds me not to ignore my privilege), my liberal Christianity (which tells me not to oppress others and warns against materialism), the media and fashion industry (which seduce me with images, textures, colours and beautiful clothes).
I also have different peer-groups which simultaneously conflict with and compliment the different intersections of my different thoughts on fashion, glamour and beauty. For a start, I'm dating a girl who, while she is naturally very attractive, has no interest in clothes or make-up, is very un-materialistic, rarely buys new clothes and is probably, in this respect, a pretty good influence on me. Her friends are all pretty much the same. They fulfill the feminist side of me that hates seeing women confined to limited, mainstream, impossible ideas of beauty and told that their looks are the most important thing about them. On the flip-side of the coin, I work for a cosmetics company where I'm surrounded by people who share my interest in clothes and make-up and who fulfil my flamboyant, fashionable side. If I hung out with my queer friends all the time I'd have the ideological side of me nourished but would be itching for some glamour. If I hung out with my work friends all the time I'd probably over time become more concerned with looks and start judging bad dressers and such.
Back in Northern Ireland I have friends who are more of a happy medium - just as interested in clothes as I am, but more likely to get them from Oxfam or a vintage clothes shop than from Zara or BCBG (probably cos they're all students, I might add). I've followed a similar arc to Courtney Love recently as far as style goes - I used to get a lot of really interesting clothes from thrift shops and was punk as all fuck, now I get equally interesting yet classier (and more expensive) stuff from Mango and French Connection, but am a bit of a sell-out. Hopefully this year I'll be able to restore myself to 'Live Through This' Courtney happy-mediumness.
I'll keep posting about and developing the various intersections in my thoughts on the subject, even if that means just linking to posts by others who have analysed it better than I could...
Why this probably isn't as big a sacrifice as it could be...
Let me explain something of my current situation. I'm a Film-with-a-minor-in-French student studying in Canterbury, England, but currently completing a sabbatical year in Montreal, Canada, where I've been living, working and practising my French. I've been here for about a year, and am coming to the end of my stay (leaving mid-August). During the past year my shopping habits have reached a whole new level, due, I think, to several reasons (I'm not making excuses, I promise...well maybe a little):
- Working full-time instead of living off my student loan means I have a little more spare cash floating about, so I've become accustomed to being able to afford clothes at a higher price-point than I would normally buy them on my student budget. This is perfectly normal, but does make me feel a little bourgeois.
- I essentially brought over just one suitcase of clothes for an entire year - remember that Montreal has freezing cold winters and boiling hot summers - resulting in little variety and a severe case of wardrobe-boredom. Hence lots of buying new stuff to rectify the situation.
- I work opposite Zara. Nuff said.
- *Cough*Sexandthecitythemovie*cough*...
I'm leaving Montreal in just over two weeks to go back home to Belfast, then have another fortnight after that before I enter shopping rehab. You know what that means? I'll be reunited with all the clothes I left behind that I couldn't bring to Montreal, and will be able to rediscover them all as though they were new. Moreover, mid-September (less than a month after I start my detox) I'll be heading back to Canterbury to finish my studies, where I'll, again, be reunited with all the boxes of clothes I put in storage after I left in May 2007. As you can see, it's not like I'm going cold-turkey from that "new clothes" feeling. I fully expect there to be clothes I forgot I even owned that I have the pleasure of rediscovering, and old favourites to introduce once more to my heavy rotation.
The "yey I have an old-yet-brand-new wardrobe" thing will probably wear off after a while, however, at which point I imagine the urge to buy new clothes will kick in, pretty hard...the fact that my university is minutes away from Topshop, Zara, Warehouse and H&M doesn't help...I doubt very much that I will stop window-shopping for a year.
It has to be said, though, Canterbury has some awesome charity shops.
- Working full-time instead of living off my student loan means I have a little more spare cash floating about, so I've become accustomed to being able to afford clothes at a higher price-point than I would normally buy them on my student budget. This is perfectly normal, but does make me feel a little bourgeois.
- I essentially brought over just one suitcase of clothes for an entire year - remember that Montreal has freezing cold winters and boiling hot summers - resulting in little variety and a severe case of wardrobe-boredom. Hence lots of buying new stuff to rectify the situation.
- I work opposite Zara. Nuff said.
- *Cough*Sexandthecitythemovie*cough*...
I'm leaving Montreal in just over two weeks to go back home to Belfast, then have another fortnight after that before I enter shopping rehab. You know what that means? I'll be reunited with all the clothes I left behind that I couldn't bring to Montreal, and will be able to rediscover them all as though they were new. Moreover, mid-September (less than a month after I start my detox) I'll be heading back to Canterbury to finish my studies, where I'll, again, be reunited with all the boxes of clothes I put in storage after I left in May 2007. As you can see, it's not like I'm going cold-turkey from that "new clothes" feeling. I fully expect there to be clothes I forgot I even owned that I have the pleasure of rediscovering, and old favourites to introduce once more to my heavy rotation.
The "yey I have an old-yet-brand-new wardrobe" thing will probably wear off after a while, however, at which point I imagine the urge to buy new clothes will kick in, pretty hard...the fact that my university is minutes away from Topshop, Zara, Warehouse and H&M doesn't help...I doubt very much that I will stop window-shopping for a year.
It has to be said, though, Canterbury has some awesome charity shops.
The Rules
1. Between the dates of August 22nd 2008 and August 21st 2009, shopping for any of the following new items is strictly forbidden: clothes, lingerie, accessories or make-up.
2. Clause 1: Clothes may be purchased as long as they are second-hand. This includes clothes obtained from charity shops, vintage clothing stores or clothing swaps.
3. Clause 2: In the event of necessity, items which cannot be purchased second-hand (such as lingerie, hosiery, etc) must be purchased from ethical retailers. Thorough research must be conducted in order to justify the purchase (ie. I must be able to say why I chose the particular retailer).
4. Clause 3: New make-up purchases are permitted in the event of running out of something essential such as foundation or mascara.*
5. Any contravention of The Rules must be accounted for in the form of a grovelling blog post.
6. Any success (interesting thrift shop finds, resisting of temptations, clothing swap accounts) should be documented (ie. in a self-congratulatory/gloating post).
*I can justify this as I use Aveda make-up which is mostly plant- and mineral-based and uses little-to-no packaging, as well as being manufactured in a factory that uses wind energy. There is very little consumption involved in me replacing my pressed powder! Full disclosure: Aveda is the cosmetics company I work for at the moment.
2. Clause 1: Clothes may be purchased as long as they are second-hand. This includes clothes obtained from charity shops, vintage clothing stores or clothing swaps.
3. Clause 2: In the event of necessity, items which cannot be purchased second-hand (such as lingerie, hosiery, etc) must be purchased from ethical retailers. Thorough research must be conducted in order to justify the purchase (ie. I must be able to say why I chose the particular retailer).
4. Clause 3: New make-up purchases are permitted in the event of running out of something essential such as foundation or mascara.*
5. Any contravention of The Rules must be accounted for in the form of a grovelling blog post.
6. Any success (interesting thrift shop finds, resisting of temptations, clothing swap accounts) should be documented (ie. in a self-congratulatory/gloating post).
*I can justify this as I use Aveda make-up which is mostly plant- and mineral-based and uses little-to-no packaging, as well as being manufactured in a factory that uses wind energy. There is very little consumption involved in me replacing my pressed powder! Full disclosure: Aveda is the cosmetics company I work for at the moment.
A different kind of shopping blog...
Hi, my name's Aideen and I'm a shopaholic.
I'm not really a shopping addict, but I do love to clothes-shop, and most of my spare cash is spent supporting this habit. I love fashion and make-up and putting together a look. It's a big creative outlet for me (I can't draw, knit or paint, so I experiment with make-up and clothes) and getting new clothes is one of my favourite things to do.
It does, however, come with a price; a slight twinge of guilt at the recognition that I can't ideologically justify all this spending.
I like to consider myself a progressive thinker, and as such I am very much aware of the implications of my little hobby in terms of environment, feminism, capitalism and human rights. While I may admire the fashion industry for it's artistic merit, I also know that it encourages a 'more more more' attitude as well as superficiality and body-fascism. Another issue is where the clothes come from. I can try to ignore the 'Made in Nepal' label but that doesn't mean it's not there. Sweatshops are a feminist issue and a human rights issue and a class issue. Plus the high-turnover disposability of fashion is an environmental minefield. While I gain huge amounts of pleasure from shopping for clothes, it does make me a massive hypocrite. Moreover, the money I am currently spending on clothes could go on other worthwhile things such as saving for travelling, or on camera equipment (I'm a film student and wannabe filmmaker).
So, in an attempt to stay true to my values and avoid turning into Victoria Beckham, I am going to go into shopping rehab and not buy any new clothes, jewellery or make-up for a year.
I've vaguely resolved to stop shopping a gazillion times before, but always end up giving in at some point. This time, I am giving myself a time-span and a blog so I can be held accountable. Shopping rehab will start on August 22nd 2008 (a few days after my 21st birthday - August 19th- incase I get any Topshop gift cards) and end August 21st 2009. There will be a few exceptions to my rule: I'm allowed to buy clothes if they are second hand, ditto jewellery, I'm allowed to get make-up if it's essential stuff like foundation that I've run out of (more on that later), and I'm allowed to get new stuff if it's an absolute necessity that I can't get second hand (such as underwear) and strictly on the condition that it comes from an eco-friendly, sweatshop-free, ethical retailer (and no, I don't mean American Apparel).
During the course of the year, I will keep this non-shopping blog updated as regularly as I can (bearing in mind I'll be in my final year of university and will therefore be a busy busy girl) with my thoughts, feelings, progress, temptations and discoveries. Then at the end of it I'll splurge all the money I've saved on a Betsey Johnson dress...just kidding.
I'm not really a shopping addict, but I do love to clothes-shop, and most of my spare cash is spent supporting this habit. I love fashion and make-up and putting together a look. It's a big creative outlet for me (I can't draw, knit or paint, so I experiment with make-up and clothes) and getting new clothes is one of my favourite things to do.
It does, however, come with a price; a slight twinge of guilt at the recognition that I can't ideologically justify all this spending.
I like to consider myself a progressive thinker, and as such I am very much aware of the implications of my little hobby in terms of environment, feminism, capitalism and human rights. While I may admire the fashion industry for it's artistic merit, I also know that it encourages a 'more more more' attitude as well as superficiality and body-fascism. Another issue is where the clothes come from. I can try to ignore the 'Made in Nepal' label but that doesn't mean it's not there. Sweatshops are a feminist issue and a human rights issue and a class issue. Plus the high-turnover disposability of fashion is an environmental minefield. While I gain huge amounts of pleasure from shopping for clothes, it does make me a massive hypocrite. Moreover, the money I am currently spending on clothes could go on other worthwhile things such as saving for travelling, or on camera equipment (I'm a film student and wannabe filmmaker).
So, in an attempt to stay true to my values and avoid turning into Victoria Beckham, I am going to go into shopping rehab and not buy any new clothes, jewellery or make-up for a year.
I've vaguely resolved to stop shopping a gazillion times before, but always end up giving in at some point. This time, I am giving myself a time-span and a blog so I can be held accountable. Shopping rehab will start on August 22nd 2008 (a few days after my 21st birthday - August 19th- incase I get any Topshop gift cards) and end August 21st 2009. There will be a few exceptions to my rule: I'm allowed to buy clothes if they are second hand, ditto jewellery, I'm allowed to get make-up if it's essential stuff like foundation that I've run out of (more on that later), and I'm allowed to get new stuff if it's an absolute necessity that I can't get second hand (such as underwear) and strictly on the condition that it comes from an eco-friendly, sweatshop-free, ethical retailer (and no, I don't mean American Apparel).
During the course of the year, I will keep this non-shopping blog updated as regularly as I can (bearing in mind I'll be in my final year of university and will therefore be a busy busy girl) with my thoughts, feelings, progress, temptations and discoveries. Then at the end of it I'll splurge all the money I've saved on a Betsey Johnson dress...just kidding.
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