A post a month

I don't like to draw much attention to the frequency with which I post. It's not the greatest thing that recently it's taking me weeks and weeks to summon the willpower to think of something fashion-related I want to talk about, do a little research, and write something.

But it's all too obvious, and I hate feeling like I owe something. I hesitate to type this, and literally erased the sentence a few times before letting it be, but I'm wondering if fashion blogging is my thing after all. Don't get me wrong: I love fashion with all my heart and will always obsess over things like a hem of a dress in a Dior show or what the models' hair meant in that other show, but it makes me feel very... first-world-ly to try and maintain a blog strictly about that.

What's more, it's the strictly-fashion talk that I've been trying to keep lately that I think makes it so difficult to find inspiration. I'm indeed a busy girl, but it's not like I don't waste enough time every day on other things, so I can't justify my inconsistence on that. Also, I'm simply reading different blogs and other online publications that focus on other things.

The tagline for the blog, scribbled in the header under the title, reads "A little life, a lot of fashion". But there's a spark in me that says maybe it should be, "A little fashion, a lot of life". It sounds a lot less catchy, and I probably won't change it to that, but what I'm getting at is that I'm considering changing the direction of the blog at least a little bit. Make it more culturally aware, perhaps dip into feminist issues, lifestyle things. And maybe then the fashion that will surely resurface will be an awesome, breath-of-fresh-air type of occurrence.

I definitely think this blog needs a breath of life. Or maybe I'm just in finals season again and procrastinating, like when you clean your room to avoid studying.

Why it's OK that you're NOT in the front row

Every fashion blogger fantasizes of being in the front row at one point or another. And while anyone can participate in a shopping mall fashion show, it's the high fashion that entices people. It's actually pretty common that we want to be in the room, not necessarily in the front row.

So why is it OK that you're not prancing aroung New York City right now?

1. Because it's not physically possible. Imagine how big the venues would have to be to fit all the people that would be willing to go. It would end up very similar to stadium concerts. And that's logistically, financially and artistically unreasonable.

2. Because not everyone can really handle it. While it's very pleasurable to envision yourself changing from one fancy outfit to another, glamour is tiring. We all know it's not very easy to make ourselves look our very best, especially non-stop for a month, and the thought that a street photographer is always somewhere near you can be pretty unnerving.

You may not be Leighton Meester, but streetstyle photogs take thousands of pictures a day of everyone and anyone.
Source: wwd

3. Because it would take away from the exclusivity. High fashion is by definition exclusive. Its price tags and limited stocks make it available, whether we realize it or not, to a select few. The 1% if you will.

4. Because fashion lives and thrives throughout the world, in the most unexpected places, not only in the "fashion cities". You can see jaw-dropping style in most any city. The bigger the city, the bigger the chances, actually.

5. Because style doesn't have to be of the "high" variety. We've all seen outfits that were fabulous, despite the fact that they cost a fraction of a designer handbag. Incredible style can come from thrift stores and high-street shops, from that quirky boutique on your street or even from outlets. It's all about what you with what you have.

This is literally 4-5 minutes from my Uni. And there's a Longchamp store to sigh near.

Have you ever been to fashion week? Do you wish you were there?

Arms in the air!

Anything you say can and will be used against you. Kidding, ha. 

But this really is my current state of affairs. I have two exams left (woo!) that I want to do well on, and between that and furniture shopping there's little time to breathe (i.e. blog). 

P.S. Ikea is hell on Sundays. Is there a time when it's really empty? I wanna go and take my sweet time to buy all the decor stuff - photo frames and mirrors - but I can't stand the queues. 

P.P.S. they have the best hot-dogs. Yes I just said that. 

Coffee, why so chic?

I'm not a coffee drinker. My very traditional family maintained that children don't drink coffee and I complied happily after sneaking a sip,when I was 6, from my mum's cup and thought it was disgusting black venom.

photo found here

Come highschool, particularly the final year with all that studying, I somehow managed to make-do with mostly green tea and the occasional cappuccino (strictly for fancy reasons, like with friends over even more chic cigarettes called "Vogue"). I was just fine without it on a regular basis. But I LOVED the idea of it.

Photo by Stefan

Now , between a very demanding Business Administration curriculum,working part-time, blogging, and trying to, you know, actually have a life, I'm hitting up the coffee machine at school more often, sometimes north of three times a week. An icky love affair, because for 60 eurocents, you get a plastic cup filled with a dark brown coffee undeserving of its name, but with the same chemical properties. I snare at at all the girls brandishing steaming Starbucks cups and I sigh. I'm too much of a stumble-to-school-no-time-to-stop kind of girl, not to mention Starbucks is $$$.Or should I say €€€?

Photo from here.

Anyways, the point and inspiration of this post was that coffee is just so chic, non? 

What about you? Are you a coffee drinker?

In defense of fashion

Well, not really. 

The title could just as well have been 'Why yet another fashion blog?' or the ever present rhetorical question that haunts my head, 'Why do you think this time will be better?'. 

It's clear to me that it's not fashion blogs this world needs, that much less the Internet. I know, I know - it seems nowadays that anyone with a point-and-shoot camera, or, even less, an iPhone, or even just a laptop, is blogging about fashion. 

Why? 

I think for a lot of people, it's the dream. We've all heard of Garance Dore, The Sartorialist, Cup of Jo, Fashion Toast or Sea of Shoes. These are Internet, Fashion and Blogging shiny names, and their rave success, with followers that could fill stadiums (respectively, not put together!) make many yearn for the same success. 

It's understandable, right? For one (seemingly) easy and fun job, you get money, free stuff(!!!) and fame. Yay! Let's all be bloggers. 

If only it were that easy. 

Fashion is a complicated and mysterious business/art/industry. It works within very fine, undefined and unclear lines, and blogging just adds to it. For every blogger that makes it into that front row there are hundreds, nay, thousands, that will never even make it to the same city. They probably won't make it to their 100th post. 

Evidently, that last bit is part of the reason why they don't become big glamorous fashion icons. But it's not just that. Fashion blogging is a game of luck, time allowance, resources, talent and perseverence. Having blogged on and off for two years, I know that's the one thing most ardently needed. 

Say it with me now: perseverence. Which, incidentally, is what I'm asking the Universe for this time around.

Who wants to go to Paris, anyway? You have to walk cobbled streets in heels there.