come sail away

I know school dances are really awkward and smelly but, as with all things I like about high school, the novelty/cultural experience/aesthetics can be really enjoyable, especially when moments remind me of movies and teevee. There are a lot of good school dance scenes in popular culture, in case you weren't aware! Carrie, Grease, 10 Things I Hate About You, Pretty in Pink. But my personal favorites would have to include the homecoming from Freaks and Geeks when Sam Weir's depiction of bad dancing got a bit too close for comfort. (I was then comforted by Millie's soothing squeak voice.)

Angela Chase had two school dances in her high school experience that, like Freaks and Geeks, was too short. I preferred the trippy one in the Halloween episode over the one in the episode narrated by Krakow because he is a curly yellow ball of stalk.

The Virgin Suicides' scene is one after my own heart, though. That part when Bonnie says she's having the best time, how Trip and Lux are crowned king and queen, how it's kind of the only time in the movie when you get the feeling that they're happy...that is, til they all kill themselves, LOL! (I am a terrible person) (Yes I did understand that movie as about more than people killing themselves) (Thank you)


And now for photos with color editing almost as ADD as that of The Virgin Suicides itself: Rachel Antonoff's Fall presentation! It was really delightful. Her presentations are usually basically installations, really drawing you in and giving a feel for the ambiance (vocab word from English a few months ago, fancy seeing you pop up in my brain). But it's not like all the balloons and cupcakes were supposed to cover up the quality of the clothes, because there's nothing to cover up! They are beautiful all on their own. If we were in any of the movies or shows mentioned above that would be a line that I would tell my best friend who recently got her first hormonal wave of insecurity.



The Like played, it was pretty special to see them live. Perfect for the vibes too, man.





So many wonderful details! I decided to be annoying and pretentious and only post pretty pictures so this is like the only one where you can actually see the clothes, har har.


The tights were so good. I think knees are really ugly -- along with armpits, elbows, and ears -- so my attitude when it comes to decorating them with cats is not unlike that of Bryce Shivers and Lisa Eversman when it comes to everything with birds.



This actually took place the same day as my own school's dance, but it was the turnabout one so I wouldn't have been going anyway. I'll stick with the aesthetically pleasing and fictional kind as long as I can before facing body odor -- a truth that I fear the most. (I feel you, Elizabeth Taylor.) (RIP.)

Oh and today was my blorg's 3rd birthday. Happy birthday, blorg! I did the retrospective and introspective thing a few days ago so there's no need for that now (and thank you to those who got it for being cool and thank you to those who didn't for only furthering my point). I celebrated by eating cookies and googling bad birthday clip art.

i feel like the photo to accompany this post should be a lot more intense and introspective-seeming but hey! mirrors are pretty introspective!

Betsey Johnson dress, gifted sweater, Okutani earmuffs, Goody barrettes, vintage jacket.

This is the outfit I wore when I found myself sitting front row next to Anna Wintour at the Band of Outsiders show. Yep, found, as though the moment "this is the end" rang out in the room set to Jim Morrison's voice I'd snapped out of myself for fifteen minutes til I stumbled upon a hollow body vaguely resembling someone familiar and decided to run away with it. I couldn't tell you what the clothes presented looked like. I couldn't tell you what anyone was wearing or what I had written in spontaneous texts to spontaneous people while waiting for the show to start (something about math class? What they had for lunch that day, maybe?) And I couldn't really even tell you what I was feeling. At that point in the day, in the week, in the Fashion Week and all those that came before, I think that if I were to respond truthfully to the many obligatory questions of how was I, it would've been "N/A." I felt like I was watching everything going on around me through a window. Usually I could see out of it but every once in a while I was forced to look at my own reflection, which was less fun.

I wanted to be mature and witty and polite and strike up a conversation with Anna Wintour, I really did. But like, it was the end of the day? And I was exhausted, in so many ways? And not prepared to enter a room as the last one to be seated and find out two seconds before sitting next to Anna Wintour that I was sitting next to Anna Wintour? And I was wearing the sweater Kathleen Hanna gave me and felt kind of in the middle of an overdramatic identity crisis, like I had no right to wear the sweater OR sit next to Anna Wintour? And when I did look around a bit, no one looked happy and it was kind of a huge downer? So I let myself be kind of shy and quiet that night, to join the rows of sullen-faced people who looked as though they secretly wanted to be at home with their pets wearing comfortable clothing and eating fattening food.

Anna Wintour was perfectly polite when we exchanged standard greetings and goodbyes. But it doesn’t matter how much you like or dislike Anna Wintour, even if you feel unfazed by her or her sunglasses or Vogue, even if you feel, as I did, like one of the only people in the room who isn’t after her job. You will feel intimidated. It is unavoidable.

Of course, it's more the idea of Anna Wintour than the person, who was just a lady with a bob in a sophisticated dress sitting with her daughter at work. But that's kind of what Fashion Week is, a lot of facades and all that. At this point it would be really helpful if that Doors song had a lyric mentioning smoke and mirrors or something, but it's mostly stuff about sex and a guy killing his dad, so, uh, nevermind.

Fashion Week is weird. It is very high schooly. Someone will take that and decide that it means Fashion Week highschooliness is getting me down hard without realizing how highschooly what they're doing is. I love fashion but it's disappointing when you have to sift through a lot of junk before you get to, like, the clothes, and the whole point of it all. It's more disappointing when the clothes aren't very interesting. Lately I've been looking to other places for a creative outlet and for inspiration. I miss following magazines and obsessively checking style.com the way I used to but something is different about it now. A year ago I got to go to Paris to interview John Galliano at Dior, and a couple weeks ago today he said he loved Hitler and got fired. Fashion photographs look more posed and the Rayanne Graffs I meet at school more inspiring. I only really miss being obsessed with fashion the way you miss any aspect of a former self, in a nostalgic way, not necessarily as part of a desire to go back. Now I'm more intrigued by mixing fashion with the other stuff I've been enjoying. What's that idea that one person had, about combining your ways of thinking so that you could hear a song as a color and taste a food as a pitch in a song? To me that's much more interesting than relating fashion to fashion, to like, combine mediums, and absorb as many songs and movies and stuff that I can and let all the references intertwine until it's something that makes sense to me. I guess that's what my moodboards are, and outfits are a way to translate it so it feels like part of my identity.

And it's nice to not always share all of that. It's nice to keep some things to myself. It's nice to go to school events and V-Day in the church basement and start a band and make collages and zines and mixtapes and keep a diary and write love letters and snail mail.

I guess the Anna Wintour thing just made a lot of that much more obvious. It wasn't until I got home that I realized how vast the difference is, and how one side of it is nicer to just visit every once in a while, get out of it what I get out of it, ignore or laugh at the rest, and bring the enjoyable stuff back home to add to my collection of all that stuff I'm trying to absorb.

That fell apart into being really train-of-thought, but once I used the "reflection" metaphor in the first paragraph I started feeling really ridiculous and overly serious. None of this was supposed to dramatically hint at anything, other than maybe that my blog is turning away from fashion a little, naturally. How depressing would it be if I was that obsessed with only fashion for three years? That's how old my blog will be in a few days. Strange.

nyfw outfits part 1

Things are a little busy around here, in many ways! Fashion Week is good for dressing up though, and it's not like I'm keeping up with the pace of it anyway, so these are from last month.

With wifey Arabelle. Look at us little twee trolls! Awww. I am also taller than her now when I wear clunky shoes. (Sidenote: Teenagers are really funny looking, I only just realized. Like the other day I was staring at this kid who was standing next to my teacher and they were the same height but one was so obviously an adult and the other was like an overgrown 10 year old. This is not a trait specific to him, we are all like this, except the seniors who I confuse with teachers and have facial hair, ew wat cut that out/off.)

This outfit was pretty Romance Was Born heavy, with the leggings and scarf they sent me. I was thinking about crayon colors and childish things. The t-shirt is thrifted and the lumpy shirt is Comme des Garcons and was sent to me by beso.com.

The bag (thrifted) and leggings are so perfect together. Gap shoes, thrifted skirt, and Happy Socks.

Belle is a hair goddess.


Thrifted shirt and yellow slip, blue sheer skirt sent to me by American Apparel, and Miu Miu collar. Going for eccentric granny vibes.


THIS HAT IS GLORIOUS. My pal Laurel gave it to me and I can't get over the perfect mermaid/elf-ness of it. When I wear it to school the security guards are all "NO HATS ALLOWED" but that rule has to do with gang signs and I'm pretty sure I'm not in a gang of elf mermaid grandmas. But if it exists, how do I become a member?

i like "movie site" myself

Ugh, URL scare! In case anyone is accessing this from my blogspot address (ewww going back to that, ewww ideas I had in 6th grade), the new URL is stylerookieblog.com. At least the site makes it look like I have an in with J-Lo and that I am a girl being forced to look like I enjoy college for a picture in a brochure. She may be half-smiling, but I can see in her eyes that she wants to be rescued.

I can help you, College Girl! Perhaps you might be interested in some Watch Free Movie? The adventures of GI Joe? Or simply The Movie, if you are one for ambiguity?

Aaaaanyway, my uniform lately has been a tiara decorated one way or another and a sweater and a long skirt. Blah blah Meadham Kirchhoff blah Courtney blah blah riffs on femininity in the form of girl scout patches and jewelry with images from popular culture on them blahhhhhh.

I had to carry around a box of SweetHearts today when the heart stuck on top would get too worn down.
Duskin dress, Miu Miu collar, Bewitched necklace from Flamingo Cupcake on Etsy, and Cheer patch from Troop Moore on Ebay.

EDIT: More lies! Again! Back to http://www.thestylerookie.com/, yippee.

jumanji


Givenchy was so rad! It's nice to see a sense of humor in a superserious fashion city at a superserious label where the collections are usually superserious. I mean, tacky Bettie Page pinups with ugly 80s Versace sweatshirt chain prints, you guys. Gimmicky motifs are tricky because they sometimes rely on only shock value and excusing something as "ironic" (cough Christopher Kane and Jeremy Scott cough, bless their 90s school supplies-enamored souls,) but the slicker parts of the collection are very slick (the sheer!) and the details are very detailed (those collars!) so these clothes have something going for them other than Jumanji imagery. I highly recommend clicking and zooming in all of the photos.

And for the classier lady, aka Catwoman...

BUT WAIT.

Serious Enid vibes from the cat hat/glasses combination. This collection needs to hang out with the Luella's Ghost World collection so they can walk around and hate stuff together.

voodoo barbie

I was watching Buffy the other night and was enthralled (vocabulary!) by the prospect (vocabulary!) of performing voodoo using Barbies, especially by a witch who switched bodies with her teenaged daughter so she could relive her glory days as head cheerleader in high school.




And so I tried to dress like a voodooed Barbie.

Girly vomit pink stuff with this lumpy Comme des Garcons top sent to me by beso.com and thrifted raggy sweater. I changed shortly after because too many layers got uncomfortable, but it was fun to put together.

Barbie layered skirts: Gap Kids skirt, Prada lipstick print skirt from ebay, thrifted rose skirt, vintage pink ruffle dress, and thrifted boots.

Girl scout patch from troopmoore on Ebay.
The Hole necklace is because their logo uses the Barbie logo font and I guess their aesthetic was pretty voodoo Barbie-y earlier on, with Doll Parts and lyrics about witches and stuff. I bought the Bewitched necklace from Flamingo Cupcake on Etsy. The fairy skeleton charm is from a voodoo shop in New Orleans.

Japanese nail stickers (pearls=Barbie, cat=witch) and some ring from when I was little.

meadham kirchhoff

Meadham Kirchhoff's collections from the past year have been so good that I always felt I had to wait until I had something especially insightful to say other than ADIGHAFKDHFDKJ in order to do them justice, but their new show had me boiling over so we shall go over the past year of greatness now, ADIGHAFKDHFDKJ's and all. Plus I would like to rid of the feeling that one must sound Supersmart and Intellectual when talking about something as Serious as Fashion and would instead just like to babble about how much I like ribbons and sequins.

Fall 2010


This was the one that really converted me, with its floor length veils and bangle piles. It was Courtney Love-inspired (maybe I should just rename this blog I Like Courtney Love already? What if CL saw it? How would she feel? How would that girl who came up to me in real life and said she read my blog and that she thought my Love love was poisonous feel?) but did the kinderwhore grungey thing without falling into cliches, focusing more on CL's DIY skills and broken beauty queen fascination, with pipe cleaner tiaras combining the two most perfectly. The collection was really Grey Gardens in a way, more in theory than in relation to Little Edie's style of dressing. Each look felt like the outfit form of a house occupied by women who were once members of high society but now live isolated with raccoons and creaky floors and an old record player and memories and junk accumulated over time. I think that's my life goal, ultimately. I want a lot of wrinkles and a lot of raccoons and a lot of junk. The Hoarders kind of junk, not the Fergie kind of junk.

Spring 2011

Spring 2011 reminded me of an angsty girl in the formative years trying out different identities, with all the sugary/goth combinations, graphics of faces of anonymous young women, and millions of different colors in each head of hair. ("It's not red, it's Crimson Glow.")

I liked the details more than the overall collection, like the Desperately Seeking Susan jacket and velvet ribbon necklaces (hi that scary story that freaked me out when I was little) and nutty crowns and arts n crafts shoes. I used to draw eyelashes like this on with eyeliner -- I don't know why I haven't in a while -- and it once made one of my teachers think I'd gotten stitches under my eye.

Fall 2011




But this collection, THIS collection was inspired by Riot Grrrl and Chanel, which resulted in tiny shouts of rebellion coming from stiff, uniform-like dresses and knee highs and crosses. There's definitely a Nordic-y sweater vibe happening here too, making it more fall-appropriate. I think my favorite thing about Ed Meadham and Benjamin Kirchhoff's interpretations of angry music like Riot Grrrl and Courtney is that they don't add "punk" elements to their collections with studs and leather (looking at you, Givenchy) (looking at you, Balmain) (looking at you, Y-3) (as adorable as the image of Yohji sitting in candlelight, hand-stitching the ACDC logo is). They turn to the actual concept of DIY instead of the look associated with it so frequently that it's lost any meaning, and create identities that are about being passionate and loud and individual (words that are, again, so overused they've lost any meaning, but at least I'm not charging you thousands of dollars for consuming my cliches!)

ETA: "tee" from the comment section raised a good point: "Isn't there something kind of problematic about trying to mass produce "individual style"/DIY clothing period?" Yes, there is! My point with this was that MK's collection, as art, before we consider the business side, inspires a person (me, at least) to create their own DIY vibez because they make it look so damn fun. Now, when we consider that these pieces are also products that will be made many times and sold places, I don't think the DIY style is problematic because that's just it -- it is a part of their style, but that doesn't mean the clothes are something anyone else could think up or create themselves. It's high in quality and the design doesn't stop at just using DIY elements like pipe cleaners and a million brooches -- they develop those a step further with their own ideas. And yes, it's weird to mass-produce individuality, but Meadham Kirchhoff isn't a brand as inescapably everywhere like the Gap, and, again, I think the styling of their collections encourages one who would buy one of their pieces to mix it up. Like, I don't think you would ever see anyone wearing an MK head-to-toe runway look.
(That was really long, but I think it's about more than just MK's collections, since this is something a lot of designers try and I'm trying to explain how I think they got it right.)

The Riot Grrl shrine full of iconography and flowers and what look like zine photocopies? I can't tell.

The little embroideries were supposed to be inspired by the little doodles in Bikini Kill zines, though.

And this is where the ADIGHAFKDHFDKJ gets used. ADIGHAFKDHFDKJ HOW GREAT IS THIS SWEATER. I knew the graphic reminded me of Hole, but it wasn't til I looked at my Live Through This tape that I saw it's the exact one, though I couldn't find a picture from the album art online. Hole wasn't part of Riot Grrrl, but the sweater still feels perfect in the collection, and maybe the Meadham boys need a bit of CL in everything they do. Also, remember how I was talking about my life goals earlier? Yeah, now it's this sweater.

This seems like a good time to post these pages I made for a fashion/music/feminism zine I started last year. I never finished it and probably won't now because all the pages have been sitting in the corner of my room since the summer and I'm sick of them so I may as well post a couple.

In the interest of combining my favorite Spring 2010 collection and some favorite songs:

And stuff from Fall 2010 that made me think of the following 90s music ladies:






photos from fashion156 and vogue.com