(below are some amusing teacher moments from when I was fourteen..)

SUBJECT #1
teacher: see my writing ? it’s old-time writing. use your new-time writing…you may not have seen this type of writing before, so..just be careful!
: this paper is NOT, I repeat NOT, I repeat NOT to be written on !
: is there anyone who does not know what to do ? LOOK AT ME ! for the second time, is there anyone who does not know what to do ? LOOK AT ME ! for the third time, is there anyone who does not know what to do ? LOOK AT ME !
: look, the more you talk, the less work you get done, the less work you get done, the dumber you get, the dumber you are, the less interesting you are, the less interesting you are, the less people want to talk to you.
: Frank Sinatra’s got nothin’ on me !
:…like hens in a henhouse, like chooks in a chook shed, like human beings in a classroom.
: yeah, as a boy, me and my friends used to peroxide our hair to look like surfies because we couldn’t surf. and we’d walk along the beach with wet hair to try and impress the girls.
: Iron is very heavy hevvy evvy effy fe FE. teaching the class that the element ish label name thing thang for iron is FE
fill-in teacher #1: it’s something about the library, isn’t it ? these round tables make you go ape ! you’re acting like apes ! shakes head in disbelief
: rapid temperature changes break rock. ..that’s rock, not rock and roll ! laughs at own joke

SUBJECT #2
teacher: (our prediction of what her phone’s answering machine message would have been) ‘hi, you’ve reached the beast. please leave your height and weight, body mass index, blood type, shoe size and name. if i’m interested i might get back to you…i do make house calls…i do prefer this type of body shape.. oh shit. you cant see it though the phone..i can personally visit you though…i like legs medium rare; not too slim. meaty is my motto.’
: boy in class had coloured his nails in black with black felt pen what, are you trying to be a girl, a gothic, or what ?!
boy in class to teacher: how do you spell the stars in the Antarctica? teacher: Aurora Australia-is..A-U-R-0-R-A..i think…? girl in class: it’s Australis, not Australia-is. teacher: oh, is it? okay.
feral boy in class: I HATE SOSE. SOSE RAPED MA MUM !!

SUBJECT #3
teacher: i got jarded somthin’ shockin’ !

SUBJECT #4
teacher: Rachel, can I please have a biscuit? self, in fear: no !!! run out of classroom
fill-in teacher #1: as my cousin Elvis would say, ‘ a little less conversation, a little more action please.’
fill-in teacher #2: i can tell you’re arty by the way you do your hair. friend sitting next to me: ..i can tell you’re not arty.

SUBJECT #5
teacher: some dickhead teacher left their writing all over this board ! it just pisses me off ! leaving their crap all over the board for the next to have to rub off !
: okay, i explained it. if you didn’t understand, then you should have listened.
: to girl in class can you sit up straight please ? detention
: Rachel, you have taken your weirdness too far. detention
: collecting like terms; what the hell does that mean ?!

SUBJECT #6
fill-in teacher #1: yeah, i used to get around with no bra on. it was pretty sensational back then. no-one would care now.

lines left on the board from detentions in the English room:
Corey – i am not a monkey, just a misunderstood teenager.
Chewing Gum – i should bring gum for everyone next time, or not at all.
Wagging – being at school is great. why would i want to waste a minute of it.
Behaviour Card – being on a card means that i have to try to be perfect.

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two days before the inauguration, PARADE published a letter from Barack Obama to his daughters about what he hoped for them and all the children of America. the letter attracted international attention. on this Father's Day, we asked the President to reflect on what fatherhood means to him.:

'as the father of two young girls who have shown such poise, humour, and patience in the unconventional life into which they have been thrust, i mark this Father's Day--our first in the White House--with a deep sense of gratitude. one of the greatest benefits of being President is that i now live right above the office. i see my girls off to school nearly every morning and have dinner with them nearly every night. it is a welcome change after so many years out on the campaign trail and commuting between Chicago and Capitol Hill.
but i observe this Father's Day not just as a father grateful to be present in my daughters' lives but also as a son who grew up without a father in my own life. my father left my family when i was 2 years old, and i knew him mainly from the letters he wrote and the stories my family told. and while i was lucky to have two wonderful grandparents who poured everything they had into helping my mother raise my sister and me, i still felt the weight of his absence throughout my childhood.

as an adult, working as a community organizer and later as a legislator, i would often walk through the streets of Chicago's South Side and see boys marked by that same absence--boys without supervision or direction or anyone to help them as they struggled to grow into men. i identified with their frustration and disengagement--with their sense of having been let down.

in many ways, i came to understand the importance of fatherhood through its absence--both in my life and in the lives of others. i came to understand that the hole a man leaves when he abandons his responsibility to his children is one that no government can fill. we can do everything possible to provide good jobs and good schools and safe streets for our kids, but it will never be enough to fully make up the difference.

that is why we need fathers to step up, to realise that their job does not end at conception; that what makes you a man is not the ability to have a child but the courage to raise one.

as fathers, we need to be involved in our children's lives not just when it's convenient or easy, and not just when they're doing well--but when it's difficult and thankless, and they're struggling. that is when they need us most.

and it's not enough to just be physically present. too often, especially during tough economic times like these, we are emotionally absent: distracted, consumed by what's happening in our own lives, worried about keeping our jobs and paying our bills, unsure if we'll be able to give our kids the same opportunities we had.

our children can tell. they know when we're not fully there. and that disengagement sends a clear message--whether we mean it or not--about where among our priorities they fall.

so we need to step out of our own heads and tune in. we need to turn off the television and start talking with our kids, and listening to them, and understanding what's going on in their lives.

we need to set limits and expectations. we need to replace that video game with a book and make sure that homework gets done. we need to say to our daughters, don't ever let images on TV tell you what you are worth, because i expect you to dream without limit and reach for your goals. we need to tell our sons, those songs on the radio may glorify violence, but in our house, we find glory in achievement, self-respect, and hard work.

we need to realise that we are our children's first and best teachers. when we are selfish or inconsiderate, when we mistreat our wives or girlfriends, when we cut corners or fail to control our tempers, our children learn from that--and it's no surprise when we see those behaviors in our schools or on our streets.

but it also works the other way around. when we work hard, treat others with respect, spend within our means, and contribute to our communities, those are the lessons our children learn. and that is what so many fathers are doing every day--coaching soccer and Little League, going to those school assemblies and parent-teacher conferences, scrimping and saving and working that extra shift so their kids can go to college. they are fulfilling their most fundamental duty as fathers: to show their children, by example, the kind of people they want them to become.

it is rarely easy. there are plenty of days of struggle and heartache when, despite our best efforts, we fail to live up to our responsibilities. i know i have been an imperfect father. i know i have made mistakes. i have lost count of all the times, over the years, when the demands of work have taken me from the duties of fatherhood. there were many days out on the campaign trail when i felt like my family was a million miles away, and i knew i was missing moments of my daughters' lives that i'd never get back. it is a loss i will never fully accept.

but on this Father's Day, i think back to the day i drove Michelle and a newborn Malia home from the hospital nearly 11 years ago--crawling along, miles under the speed limit, feeling the weight of my daughter's future resting in my hands. i think about the pledge i made to her that day: that i would give her what i never had--that if I could be anything in life, i would be a good father. i knew that day that my own life wouldn't count for much unless she had every opportunity in hers. and i knew i had an obligation, as we all do, to help create those opportunities and leave a better world for her and all our children.

on this Father's Day, i am recommitting myself to that work, to those duties that all parents share: to build a foundation for our children's dreams, to give them the love and support they need to fulfill them, and to stick with them the whole way through, no matter what doubts we may feel or difficulties we may face. that is my prayer for all of us on this Father's Day, and that is my hope for this nation in the months and years ahead.'

i really miss saxophone.
i miss playing it, i miss listening to it, i miss playing on stage in the open section of the local Eisteddford - amongst the best of the best in the region..i was fifteen, sixteen, against any instrument of any age. there were adults. i think once or twice i placed within the top three.
the girls would wear gowns and heels; sometimes princess ball gowns. the boys were always in shined shoes and sometimes even suits with tails, but always a suit jacket or a button-up shirt in the least.

i miss the feeling of playing a piece well, and of being complimented for my hard work. i miss the satisfaction from practising (though i failed a little in terms of disciplining myself into practising the more technical aspects - scales and whatnot. i often got a little lazy.)

i miss finally, after weeks or often after months, of somewhat mastering a song. when i found that i could do Vibrato - it was a great day.
..in fact actually, that isn't entirely true. i cant pin it down to one particular day..i remember it being a progressive and natural thing, i think. i never remember going out of my way to try and perfect the technique, but i knew from listening to music - and from listening to singers even - that it was a natural expressive element of music. i could tell when it slotted in to songs, when it sounded right. there are rarely songs that tell you 'USE IT HERE IT WILL SOUND GOOD.' i enjoy that about music - you can play a song technically correct and still have so much room to play it with expression at your own will.
in the jazz band at school especially, i found that i would accidentally put it in when it just felt ‘right’ before i had even realised that i was doing so.

in the high school concert band in about Year 11 i was chosen to stand up and play a minute-or-two-in-length solo section at the beginning of a song where everyone else was seated and silent. as a fairly reserved and non-spotlight-appreciating person in general, i surprisingly never felt nerves in playing that section. we would sometimes play this song in front of hundreds of people..but it seemed to feel natural and fun for me. i would toy around with timing and dynamics; it was very open to interpretation. i am trying my best not to sound arrogant in this passage.

the same goes for Awards Night at school. as a student council member in Year 12, i had a major speaking part for a quarter of the evening. this involved scripted presentations of individual students' Academic, Cultural and Sporting achievements while the winners accepted their awards on stage. it also included general introductions for acts and speakers, and thankyous toward the end. for events like this on stage; things of which i am proud to present publicly – the creation of my own music, making speeches that i have written or felt comfortable in reading in front of people (although NOT acting, never am i consensual when drama or acting is involved – the compulsory drama rubbish in English and other subjects at school made me so angry..often to the point where i would be helplessly and breathless crying tears of frustration.. after all..a3iwoejsdiflskdf..if i would have LIKED to have participated in dramatic activities, then i would have signed up to the subject of DRAMA, no?! Jesus CHRIST.)
but back to speaking in public and / or playing music or dancing or modelling on stage or any solo act that involves an art form of expressive media of my own, that i am proud of - i will rarely have nerves or a lack of want to be on stage.

i guess what i'm trying to say is that music was one of the most beautiful things that i have felt i have ever produced – it was something of my own. ..something that i had worked for over a period of a little under ten years..(over ten years for piano – but i didn’t enjoy piano as much; it was not an instrument that i chose to play out of my own choice, although i did enjoy it up until the last few years of tuition and performances. ..but it was an instrument that i started to learn because that was something that other people in my family had done since they were younger. i am glad that i learn it, but saxophone i was more proud of and passionate about.)

i just really hope that next year there will be a casual jazz group that i can join.

i guess i feel like its one thing that i really could do well in.


the following videos are obviously not of me. i doubt anyone will watch them, but they are two of my favourite songs toward the end of my saxophone career circa 2007..

page one:




page one:

the absolute (although short-lived) highlight of my rural music festival experience of 2009

your Great-Grandfather was a great lawyer, and his kid made a mint off the war. your Father shot stills and then directed films
that your Mum did publicity for. i saw your older Sis on the year's best book list,
and your Brother, he manages bands. and you're keen to downplay, but you're quick to betray with one well turned out wave of your hand. you come from wealth, yeah you've got wealth. what a bitch, they didn't give you much else.
i heard cuts by The Kinks on your speakers, i saw Poe and Artaud on your shelves.
while The Last Laugh's first scene on your flat panel screen lit Chanel that you've wrapped around yourself. you've got outsider art by an artist who arguably kidnapped a kid on your wall while your designers have slyly directed the eye down clean lines in your well-lit hall. you've got taste. what a waste that that's all that you have.
you wrote your thesis on the Gospel of Thomas, you shot some reversal film in Angkor Wat..and this book you once read says there's less people dead at this point now than those who are not. ..and this film we once saw was reviled for its flaws,
but its flaws were what made us have fun. ..and the life some folks had might have made us feel bad - why feel bad man, it's nothing that you've done. it's all in your hand, like a gun, like a globe, like a grand.
..and this thing you once said disappeared from my head in the time that it took to be amazed. ..and this thing you once did might have dazzled the kids, but the kids once grown up are gonna walk away. ..and your world is gonna change nothing, and our world is gonna change nothing.
- Singer Songwriter, Okkervil River

they're waiting to hate you, so give them an excuse. they say that it changed you..i know that can't be true.
i came in the entrance the makeup girl went through and waited for ages, i waited there for you.
hats off to my distant hope. i'm held back by a velvet rope, and he's behind the wall the smoke machine has made between us. ..and if he does exist; if camera clicking, green room guests swirl round the man whose real life can be touched, then i will do just that much.
a little lie, a puff of smoke. ..my street tonight's on fire with hope - you'll be there, you'll see us. for every single inch of me, i'm going to make you mean it - with every single cell of me, i'm going to make you mean the words you sigh.
you lie. goodbye.
- Blue Tulip, Okkervil River

all sweetly sung and succinctly stated - words and music he calculated to make you sing along with your stereo on, as you stand in your shorts on your lawn. get completely incorporated by some couple who consummated their first love by the dawn.
by the back room the kids all waited to meet the man in bright green that they wrecked their hearts upon - he's the liar who lied in this pop song.
so here's to car seats so cruelly weighted, and here's the faces already faded at the end of the day when they just threw away the only good thing that they owned
and now they're pinned down and strangulated.
but, at the food court, people lined up to see the man who dreamed up the dream
that they wrecked their hearts upon - he's the liar who lied in his pop song.
week by week it climbs up and comes on and we're feeling all right though we know it's all wrong. i'm ashamed to admit that i cannot resist what i wish were the truth, but it's not.
i truly believe we're not strong, and we'll sing until our voices are gone and then sink beneath that manicured lawn.
this is respectfully dedicated to the woman who concentrated all of her love to find that she'd wasted it all on the liar who lied in this song.
- Pop Lie, Okkervil River

he gets close, but i choke. take your shit, take your clothes and get out of my home. you say your real name is John.
hey thanks John, go sing songs, go rock on, roll your crew on down the road to the next sold out show. think you can get up above me, well i want you to know - you're a figure of fun to everyone beneath lone-star neon blue broken sign. they wish they were you, like i wish you were mine. ..what a dumb thing to do.
how come I shout "goodbye" when God knows i just want to make this white lie big enough to climb inside with you.
another day, lost and gone, clipping pages from the news for the senator's son. well he just strolls through the lobby and glad hands everyone, another day tossed and done.
i go home, take off clothes, smoke a bowl, watch a whole TV movie. i was supposed to be writing the most beautiful poems and completely revealing divine mysteries up close.
i can't say that i'm feeling that much at all at twenty-seven years old.
i am discussed with desire by the guys who conspire at the only decent bar in town,
and they drink MGDs, and they wish they had me. ..like i wish i had fire. what a sad way to be, what a girl who got tired. so i wonder who you got your hooks in tonight? was she happy to be hooked and on your arm, did she feel alive? her head alright?
- On Tour with Zykos, Okkervil River

she was once mine - that smile that shines from the glossy magazine that stuck inside the Sunday Times. ..she was so sweet on Christmas Eve with the snow set deep, when we went walking through the pines. i had just been fired and her first offer had arrived and the New Year would see her flying far away from me, though i didn't know it at the time.
with outstretched hands now she commands a famous figure for every picture, and she stands up strong and she demands - and they deliver. yeah, she's a fixture. ..and it's a mixture of dumb jealousy and fear that i might feel, should she appear, just like it hasn't been three years.
..and there's a distance to her voice over the phone and that's because she stands alone..while i'm still sitting here. girl, you see me here on another quiet night.
and you won't wait for me in some secluded stand of trees some Christmas Eve some God was kind enough to set aside, although i'd love you to; i'm proud of you. ..God knows i'm feeling really stupid now for having ever said goodbye
during the fight i said, "yeah right" when you insisted that i visit, that you'd write. now, i know you're working hard so i never hear from you, and that's fine.
you look the same on TV as when you were mine. i walk in from the kitchen and i finger the remote control. i watch you from the distance - you go walking through the terminal. i remember every instance when you stung me. oh you're so lovely, oh you're so smart.. so go turn their heads, go knock them dead, go break their hearts.
- Calling and Not Calling My Ex - Okkervil River

Australian Fashion Unstitched - The Last 60 Years: Bonnie English & Liliana Pomazan

'i never set out to make haute couture..i was just determined to make the very best clothes. every time i got a bit more successful i just moved to better premises and my clothes got more in demand and attracted more attention.' - Beril Jents (p38)

'i'm part of an industry - part of a society - i don't aspire to lead or to have a particular impact. but what i'm really interested in is collaborating - to be able to work with other creators. so i'm not ambitious to lead the industry, but to work within. that is what i do. i'm very privileged to be able to work with other creators.' - Akira Isogawa (p121)

'it's so much more exciting to work with fabric you have designed. i guess there is some sort of spirituality about the process. it has a bit more haert. we will often include a little story about where the fabric comes from. it makes garments more special.' - Easton Pearson (p121)

arguably, the inspirations for their collections came from a multitude of sources. for example, in Paris in 1998, Sprynskyj and Boyd became fascinated with Greco-Roman mummies and the way perfumed petals, among other substances need for their next life, were placed within particular folds of the funerary cloth. another extraordinary finding was that the fabric had pockets already woven into the cloth. emulating this process, they pressed and created their own pleated fabrics, added layered papers and then used petals within each layer. by becoming highly extraordinary in their design process, they brainstormed different ways of approaching their process.
Boyd wrote: 'S!X has an ongoing interest in the contruction techniques of garments, hence the stripping back of jackets and trousers to reveal the structure and frame. we are constantly researching new techniques and we like to question the status quo, and quite often our garments spring from a recycled base or employ a quick print method via the photocopier. no doubt the trained textile designer would think this unorthodox.'
in the Tokyo Voguy exhibition catalogue, the work of Sprynskyj and Boyd: 'reflects a strong Japanese aesthetic, akin to the deconstructivist nature of Comme des Garçons...using abstract shapes to form a garment base, they experiment by manipulating the cloth and exploring new dyeing and printing techniques. their garments are often made from old garments and incorporate the use of paper, emphasising their interesting recyling.'
like the Japanese, Sprynskyj and Boyd's design processes are developmental - one thing leads to another, whether it is a technique, a fabric or an idea. they incessantly discuss and question their design procedures.
Boyd sayd that:
'in starting a collection you know you are not starting from zero...as soon as you finish it...you already know the problems with it...what hasn't been resolved and that's usually a starting point for the next one.' (p226)

the pre-Twentieth-Century history of the musem can be divided into two main stages. the first, in broad terms, spans the late Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries - the Age of Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason. the second occurred in the Nineteenth Century, when the production and dissemination of knowledge were the focus of the Modernist museum. this type of museum was intended to be encyclopedic, drawing together a complete collection to act as a universal archive.
the Nineteenth Century history of the museum is one of consolidation and extension of the emergent principles of classification, which were often used as a strategy to distance this type of public institution from the contemporary popular museums.
however, the most defining feature of the Nineteenth-Century public museum was that it provided access to public citizenry. this ideal Twenty-First-Century museum adopts a more democratic stance towards its visitors. this democratisation has allowed fashion into the art museum as opposed to just the ubiquitous textiles and dress displays synonymous with museums of earlier eras. (p129)

as argued, the aesthetic study of fashion and textiles poses questions about personal expression, individuality, exploration and experimentation and the notion that 'there is a perfect imperfection inherent in all handmade work'. the art of fashion suggests a cultural paradox, an interface between Western and Eastern practice. it implies the exotic, the atypical, the exceptional. it crosses boundaries in changing, mutating, refiguring and pooling new ideas. the fusion of original textile and fashion production forges a unique aesthetic. this chapter has reviewed the work of leading practitioners in the field and addressed the way each individual has contributed to the transformation of textile and fashion pieces into 'wearable art objects.' in Postmodernist terms, some work was politically or sexually charged, some was laced with humour, and some dismissed cultural boundaries and mainstream conventions. the calibre of the designers' distinctive work is undisputable and, in a commodity-driven world, their refreshing and uncompromisingly self-expressive work provides an inspirational legacy for emerging Australian designers. while all fashion is not art, when fashion does become art it evokes a powerful emotional response that resonates for generations. (p99)

it may seem presumptuous to suggest that today's designers are inadvertently preparing us for the future, challenging the very nature of current fashion practices. perhaps their work poses more questions rather than supplying answers, or promotes momentuous change rather than embracing the 'status quo'. arguably, avant-garde designers attempte to alter and materialise a new perception of the face of fashion in aesthetic, technical or cultural terms by offering new ideas of concepts, extending or advancing new technologies, or underlining new concerns for the environment and humankind in their work.
sustainable design, for example, demands a more responsible design methodology that might consider waste minimalism in terms of pattern-making, seamless construction, closed-loop textile surface design and reusable off-cuts. as we know, new developments in fashion design can encompass drawing, pattern-making, cutting, sewing, construction and decorative techniques, but they can also involve distribution, sales and marketing, and promotional campaigns. in other words, avant-garde practice is not mutually exclusive, but rather embraces a plethora of possiblities. (p219)

the Teen Vogue Handbook - an insider's guide to careers in fashion

'i never had enough money to do what i wanted to do when i was a teenager, but it was never really a problem - it pushed me to be more resourceful. ..that way i could achieve the look i wanted.'
- Marc Jacobs

'what made you decide to launch your label? i guess i always felt that i had it in me and that i had a place in the industry. i felt i had a valid voice and, if given the opportunity to house that voice, i had a good chance of success.
what is your central philosophy? to make clothes that allow women to reflect their inner confidence, help them to be different and be noticed but in a subtle, attractive kind of way.'
- Stella McCartney

'what qualities does a designer need to have? LH:a thick skin! know that you can't please everyone every single time. there are a lot of different tastes in this industry. you need to design for yourself because the minute you start thinking about other people's needs is the minute you begin to limit your own thing.'
- Proenza Schouler

make the most of whatever resources you can pull together right now. 'don't wait until you think you have some genius idea before presenting yourself to the fashion world - show them as you go.
for those who don't live in a big metropolis, what advice would you give them for exploring and honing their craft? just get busy and delve into the materials that are accessible to you. innovation does not necessarily require technology or big-city resources. in fact, design from reclaimed, or reappropriated, materials is both innovative and green.
did you work any odd jobs while trying to build your company? i once worked as the assistant to an interiors painted. a big turning point for me was when i took a job at a restaurant for one night. i thought to myself, you should be eating at a restaurant, not cleaning one. it was a benchmark moment because i learned that i had to work harder at what i really wanted to do. so for two years i went around to stores, selling chandeliers and t-shirts that i had made. i needed to earn money, and making things was a natural form of income that allowed me to hone my craft at the same time. it worked - since then i've been able to support myself through my creative effots.
what would you suggest to young designers looking to sell their pieces to stores? you may have 95 doors close on you before two open. you must be willing to walk out of a store that doesn't want your stuff with the confidence that your work IS good and someone WILL buy it.'
- Justin Giunta

'what is your advice to young people who want to be designers or break in to the fashion industry? are you sure this world is for you? and are you sure you are the right person to survive in this world - the world of fashion - a world with no rules, no laws? answer that question honestly for yourself. are you ready to accept injustice? the idea of the fashion industry may look better from the outside. it can look like the world of dream jobs - for a very happy few.'
- Karl Lagerfeld

if your Dad hasn't got a beard, you've got two Mums

i am tired of seeing the annual (or sometimes even bi-annual) issues and editorials in fashion magazines that show 'average', 'normal' and/or 'healthy' women celebrating their 'curves' and shoving their so-called realness and wellness down our throats. yes, eating disorders and related body-image issues are really major concerns in modern society, and i do realise that it has become more and more important of an aspect of our collective psyche that desperately needs to be continually addressed and corrected in order to make any significant difference..BUT; publishing images of famous / non-famous women that are not in a healthy weight limit seems to me to be no better than the waif-like alien-esque teenagers that are likely to have appeared in the magazine a month before said 'realistic' / 'curves-embracing' editorial.

i am tired of the likes of Amanda from Operator Please, or even Beth Ditto at the extreme, being celebrated for their bodies and confidence. yes, it is important that more healthy bodies are embraced by editorials and articles in magazines, but these women are not ones that i want to look up to at all. there is a distinct difference between a size 4 and their much larger counterparts. why aren't the women like those on the covers of Women's Health, for example, shown in these articles ? they work for their bodies, they eat well, and often have a glowing smile on their faces. i think that these women are glowingly healthy.
but jesus, i am so tired of the media telling me that healthy means 'curves'. it often does not, at least not in so much excess.

i realise that it probably is an important issue to note that Operator Please's frontwoman is absolutely comfortable with herself and works within an industry that can often be very scrutinising and pigeonholing of aesthetics. ..and she obviously isn't morbidly obese by any means, HOWEVER, i refuse to look up to her in terms of health.

take the following images for example:
http://www.skinnyvscurvy.com/hot-models/magazines-plus-size-issue-preview.html
it's absolutely fine with me if magazines want to celebrate women that exist outside of the expected criteria, but it is as if there is no gap between these women and the Victoria's Secret supermodels.

this hasn't been written eloquently at all.. my points are poorly proven, i go round in circles and sound like such an awful person. i will come back to it when i can voice my thoughts with more sense and with more..literary steeze i guess.

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i meant to post the following in early July:
i just sent a message to my partner in crime/louvre hailing the adoration & cardio stress that just took place inside me in regard to Givenchy's recent couture collection - as fragmentally follows:
'...i got butterflies, these garments - in my non-humble opiniahno - were so soso amazing. usually every few months i see something (to do with clothing/fashion)that i find v incredible.. but its a rare - and probably only annual or bi-annual - event when i actually cry/gasp/get stomach ~stuff over clothing..
the Givenchy couture collection that i just witnessed was so on par with everything i want to create; even the ideas behind the collection are all ideas that i found myself throwing around in regard to my own diy pieces in art at school last year..
ahahhhh i'm really just..dying.'
=which is more or less an emotional summary of how i felt in the moment of initial discovery. and still do. i'm just learning to contain my internal goings-on a little better now.
i just..ah.
i will post some imagery of said design brilliance, then link some of my older posts with similar sorts of aesthetic / design symbolism philosophies..:

i really like seeing the backs of garments and models; (ps i LOVE that the background imagery in that post is totally anatomy-based..another love of mine - one i tried to draw upon and highlight its beauty /pureness in a skull drawing i did in school Art last year - as also mentioned below) their bare factor and what is at times a major part of the piece's brilliance often goes unrealised and underappreciated - especially when collections or pieces are only seen over the internet or in photographs, drawings, etc. these gowns and jackets, i found, really relied on the viewing of the back to fully appreciate the whole beautiful package.
i addressed my interest and appreciation for the backs of dresses once when i was just beginning to really appreciate the part that they can play a while ago.

in terms of being 'on par' with issues / aesthetics that i have, in the past, tried to address, i will first-off refer to the review of the collection that was submitted to style.com.:
'the history of haute couture is studded with magnificent obsessives like Cristobal Balenciaga and Charles James. even if Riccardo Tisci's name never makes it onto that list, his latest Couture collection for Givenchy proved that he shares the grandmasters' fanatical devotion to realizing an intensely personal vision through cut, cloth, and, in Tisci's case, extraordinarily elaborate ornamentation. this season, he opted out of a proper show in favor of intimate presentations, where he could better highlight detailed pieces like the painstakingly patchworked leather coat or the dress in Chantilly lace where the pattern of the lace had been duplicated in appliquéd leather (the dress ended in a cascade of dégradé ostrich feathers—Tisci considers dégradé, lace, and fringe-work his signatures).

the darkest color in the collection was the chocolate brown on those feathers. otherwise, everything was white, flesh-colored, or gold, with a salon dedicated to each shade. even the baboon fur that was attached to a swallowtailed knit jacket was spookily bleached. fact is, Tisci didn't need black to exercise his gothic inclinations. (i used tons of shades of off-white, cream, gold and brown in Art last year - colours that are generally seen to be more feminine / uplifting, and somewhat ~positive - and i used those colours juxtaposed amongst my wearable art piece and various skull imagery..the skull included floral arrangements near by, was for the most part white and yellow, whereas my wearable art piece included casts of my top and bottom sets of teeth from primary school when i would go and get mouthguards moulded each year for hockey - a lot of people found the inclusion of these moulds and the twigs and other 'rough' aspects that i weaved into the piece a little morbid, revolting, younameit. i drew the top half of a cow's skull for the same assignment and laced it with watercolour, generally calming and subtle colouring as well as drawing a flower in one of the corners. i really tried to communicate these pre-conceived 'dark' themes and images in a more beautiful light. i'm not sure if i succeeded in doing so, but i feel like Riccardo was really onto a similar thing here. he used a lot of subtle skull motifs and kept the models' looks - apart from the dresses & jackts of course - to an absolute minimum. Couture is nearly always in excess; especailly the make-up, the hair and the headpieces. sometimes the models are even instructed to hold certain facial expressions or stances. for this collection, the models were sullen, emotionless and apart from drawing almost all of the viewer's attention to the garments and their details, i think that he was drawing on the plain / ugly as part of a really beautiful and feminine ideal. so interesting and so on par with my attempted artistic ideals.)he claimed his inspiration was Frida Kahlo and her three obsessions: religion, sensuality, and, given the painter's lifelong battle with spinal pain, the human anatomy. the zipper pulls were little bones, a belt was a spinal column re-created in porcelain. the dominant motif of the collection was the skeleton, laid out flat in the lace appliquéd on a long tulle column, or rendered in three dimensions in obsessively dense clusters of crystals, pearls, and lace on the back of a jacket in double silk duchesse satin. nestled in the middle? a tiny ceramic skull sprouting angel wings. at one point during his presentation, Tisci rather tellingly muttered, "a romantic way to see death."(on par on par on par on par with my anatomy-meets-romanticism attempted thang)
that jacket was suspended in the all-white "ceramic" room. in the "skin" room, Tisci showcased lace catsuits, one decorated with a Swarovski crystal skeleton that took 1,600 hours to create. in the third, "gold" room was a lace dress that demanded six months of work. dresses encrusted with gold paillettes, stones, and beads were almost too heavy to lift, despite being revealingly scissored away at the waist. if the detail was breathtaking, it was also quite numbing in its intensity. the last room featured a giant portrait by Willy Vanderperre of Tisci's muses wearing the dresses, seen from the back. "i love that view," Tisci explained, "the spine of people."(i'm dying. on par ON @$(*&$(#ing PAR!?) walk round the photo and there was the same view from the front, the women all posed reverentially like hand maidens. in obsession is born the cult of couture.

i meant to post the following in early May:
oh god. oh god oh god ohgod. i've never had tears in my eyes when i've seen a runway report before, (this is obviously before i had seen Givenchy Couture 2010, above - the second time in my life in which i had been so emotionally affected by clothing design) despite love skyrocketing through the roof. these are just what i needed. (at that point in time i was only just getting back into designing, after almost 9 or so months of absolutely barren and dried up creativity. i had been upset with my life in general, and was in the most stress that i had ever been in - for both personal and education-related reasons - and this had lasted from around May/June 2009 until i guess toward April/May 2010. un-fun. it was so refreshing to finally be able to ~think again, to use my brain for good or for anything at all, and to do what i loved once more. i was finally getting ideas back on the go, and was starting to again be inspired by things and people around me. it felt so magical and refreshing. i'm so thankful of / for whatever spurred that re-love of design and overall re-appreciation for life. i think a new relationship had a great deal to do with the bettering of my day-to-day living, but i know a number of subtle things must have also been of influence.)

and so i present to you; Dion Lee's beautiful and delicate designs at Rosemount Australian Fashion Week in Sydney. the pleats were what killed me. i cried, i smiled, i got butterflies, i gasped. fashion had never before moved me so much, and that is saying a great deal about his creations because i have most definitely been over the moon and back over a great number of collections / pieces before..

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i meant to post these words in early January:
listening to Good Old War reminds me of a cold and rainy pre-dawn inner-city atmosphere in Melbourne during early Winter. it reminds me of being picked up by the hotel's organised driver on the side of the grey street that lay cold, yet peacefully alone, just hours before it would be bustling with cafe-goers, workers and traffic.
it reminds me of grasping for warmth; wearing layer upon layer of stockings and a number of scarves with suitcase in tow and what was then my newly-purchased Lisa Ho Formal dress in a massive tissuepaper-lined bag juggled between my arms.
it reminds me of good things and good times.
it reminds me of the good life, better than the life i live when i thought that i was gonna go crazy.
..lets go on a living spree.

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50 years of Dr Martins.
to me, AA stands for American Apparel, not Alcoholics Anonymous.

Rachel Felt Well

Elvis Perkins - Shampoo
(you are entitled to strangle this lack of music video)


The Smiths - I Know Its Over
(this one also)
apart from the ENTIRE SONG, how powerful is 2:03 ? 'if you're so funny, then why are you on your own tonight ? and if you're so clever, then why are you on your own tonight ? if you're so very entertaining, then why are you on your own tonight ? and if you're so very good-looking, why do you sleep alone tonight ?'
i've listened to this on loop for so long now. for some reason, the other day i only for the first time had the epiphany that there were so many Jeffrey Buckley vibes on the go - only to find that JB had actually covered the song..and i had it in my music library ? and had not realised / paid it due attention.. self repulsion.


Local Natives - Cubism Dream
(oui i am evidently into excessively good music videos and songs that have music videos)
i always go back to LN. they are one of my absolute most favourite artists and i daresay will be for a long time. i can't even relate to the words or idea, but 'oh, what a fool i was to think that i could get by on a smile and a wink (i had always heard that as 'get by on a smile in a week'); i make a friend, i make you sick..could you even imagine a kiss?' gets me every, every, every single time. perfect commuting music.


Jordie Lane - I Could Die Looking At You
so much magic.
& so genuine.