Fashion and Gender zine

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.

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!

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...