the velvet underground

today i found the perfect ivory jacket, by Amy Kaehne. i cannot stress how luxurious it is.

as i almost always avoid any sort of structure within clothing (for reasons unknown), this is perfect for me. though there are some absurdly visible shoulder pads that i am seriously thinking about removing..

so many Incubus astronomy references

i was recently given a copy of the Drape Drape (#1) pattern book by Hisako Sato for my birthday. very exciting. hoping i don't procrastinate v much.
images of some of the pages / included patterns follow:

there are some really great + simple staple pieces to be made, i'm really looking forward to getting around to stumbling my way through the creation of some of the designs.

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a couple of weeks ago, one of my fashion subjects for university held a tutorial that involved discussion on sustainability within the industry. my Tutor asked if any of us actually looked at the care label / origin of manufacture / materials used / etc, + if that affected our reasoning as to whether or not to purchase a garment.
it made me think of my own mental process/es when shopping. i definitely do think of sustainability when purchasing clothing, but perhaps not as much as i could or should in terms of factors like offshore manufacturing + labour / sourcing of materials. i think of sustainability in terms of what i perceive the value of the piece to be (i.e. will it last, is it trend-driven or more of a classic piece - i rarely buy pieces that i will not be able to wear in months / years time - in terms of trends as well as in terms of its quality and resulting lifespan), as well as what it can be teamed with in my current and future wardrobe - and therefore whether or not i am likely to keep it for a long period.
i definitely don't think that i put a lot of thought into whether it is 'me' or not; ie whether it will fit into the general look that i want to be portraying at the time, or anything similar, because i think that the initial filtering of pieces within any given store is almost subconscious; i will always be more drawn to one piece rather than another if it is of a certain shape, colour or texture.
i wonder if anyone else puts so much thought into their own purchasing ?

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currently reading: The Visions of the Children - Janice T. Connell

white women + the privilege of solidarity

- Net-a-Porter Magazine

'i am not speaking as a Sociologist, a Researcher or a Theologian. in other words, i am no expert. i am an activist and I am speaking as a result of my experience as a political activist and, i might add, my own personal sensibility. truth be told, until today, i hadn’t really thought about the question of Islamic Feminism. when i was invited, i made it quite clear that i lacked the authority to speak about Islamic Feminism..that is why i thought i would lay out a few questions that could prove useful for our collective questioning.

IS FEMINISM UNIVERSAL?
what is the relationship between white/Western Feminisms and Third World Feminisms among which we find Islamic Feminisms?
is Feminism compatible with Islam?
if it is, then how can it be legitimised and what would its priorities be?
first question: is Feminism universal?
for me, it is the question of all questions when adopting a decolonial approach and when attempting to decolonize feminism. this question is essential, not because of the answer but rather because it makes us, we who live in the West, take the necessary precautions when we are confronted with ‘Other’ societies. let’s take, for example, so-called, Western societies that witnessed the emergence of feminist movements and have been influenced by them. the women who fought against patriarchy in favour of an equal dignity between men and women gained rights and improved women’s circumstances, which i, myself, benefit from. let’s compare their situation, that is to say our situation, with that of so-called “primitive” societies in Amazonia for instance. there are still societies here and there that have been spared by Western influence. i should add here that i don’t consider any society to be primitive. i think there are differing spaces/times on our planet, different temporalities, that no civilization is in advance or behind on any other, that i don’t locate myself on a scale of progress and that i don’t consider progress an end in itself nor a political goal. in other words, i don’t necessarily consider progress to be progressive but sometimes, even often, it is regressive. and, i think that the decolonial question can also be applied to our perception of time.

getting back to the subject at hand, if we take as our criteria the simple notion of well-being, who in this room can state that the women from those societies (who know nothing of the concept of feminism as we conceive of it) are less well-off than European women who not only took part in the struggles but also made available, to their societies, these invaluable social gains? but yet again, the answer is of no importance. the question itself is, for it humbles us, and curbs our imperialist tendencies as well as our interfering reflexes. it prevents us from considering our own norms as universal and trying to make other’s realities fit into our own.

in 2007, women from the Movement of the Indigenous of the Republic took part in the annual 8th of March demonstration in support of women’s struggles. at that time, the American campaign against Iran had begun. we decided to march behind a banner that’s message was 'no Feminism without anti-imperialism'. we were all wearing Palestinian kaffiyehs and handing out flyers in support of three resistant Iraqi women taken prisoner by the Americans. when we arrived, the organisers of the official procession started chanting slogans in support of Iranian women. we found these slogans extremely shocking given the ideological offensive against Iran at that time. why the Iranians, the Algerians and not the Palestinians and the Iraqis? why should you, white women, have the privilege of solidarity? you are also battered, raped, you are also subject to men’s violence, you are also underpaid, despised, your bodies are also instrumentalised..

what we were saying seemed surreal, inconceivable. it was like the 4th dimension. it wasn’t so much the fact that we reminded them of their situation as Western women that shocked them. it was more the fact that African and Arabo-Muslim women had dared symbolically subvert a relationship of domination and had established themselves as patrons.

another example: after a solidarity trip to Palestine, a friend was telling me how the French women had asked the Palestinian women if they used birth control. according to my friend, the Palestinian women couldn’t understand such a question given how important the demographic issue is in Palestine. they were coming from a completely different perspective. tor many Palestinian women, having children is an act of resistance against the ethnic cleansing policies of the Israeli state.

IS ISLAM COMPATIBLE WITH FEMINISM?
this question is purely provocative on my behalf. i can’t stand it. on the one hand, because it comes from a position of arrogance. the representative of civilization X is demanding that the representative of civilization Y prove something. Y is, therefore, put in dock and must provide proof of her/his 'modern-ness', justify her/him-self to please X. on the other hand, because the answer is not simple when one knows that the Islamic world is not monolithic. the debate could go on forever and that is exactly what happens when you make the mistake of trying to answer.
i cut to the chase by asking X the following question: is the French Republic compatible with Feminism? in France, 1 woman dies every 3 days as a result of domestic violence. the number rapes per year is estimated around 48 000. women are underpaid. women’s pensions are considerably less substantial than those of men. political, economic and symbolic power remains mostly in the hands of men. true, since the 60’s and 70’s, men share more in household duties: statistically, 3 min more than 30 years ago!

HOW TO LEGITIMISE ISLAMIC FEMINISM?
for me, it legitimises itself. the simple fact that Muslim women have taken it up to demand their rights and their dignity is enough for it to be fully recognised.

what do Afghan, Iraqi and Palestinian women want? peace, the end of the war and the occupation, the rebuilding of their national infrastructures, legal frameworks that guarantee their rights and protect them, access to sufficient food and water, the ability to feed and educate their children under good conditions. what do Muslim women in Europe and more generally those who are immigrants and who, for the most part, live in lower income neighborhoods want? a job, housing, rights that protect them not only from state violence but also men’s violence. they demand respect for their religion, their culture. why are all of these demands silenced and why does the issue of leading the prayer make its way across the globe when Judaism and Christianity have never really made apparent their own intransigent defense of the equality of sexes?

i conclude here and hope to have shown the ways in which a true decolonial Feminism could benefit women, all women when they, themselves, deem it to be their path to emancipation.'
- Houria Bouteldja, Madrid, 2010, speech @ the 4th International Congress of Islamic Feminism


more often than not, i can draw more inspiration and general design/every-day clothing choice influence from menswear, due to the greater attention to detail. men are rarely overpowered by their clothing, in the way that women often are.

or oar

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- www.fashionpirate.net

some of the feedback via comments:
'i frequently wonder about the money spent. i wonder if every fashion lover gave away just half of the money they spend on clothes how much social change would come about. or i wonder about the chemicals that go into make up and if its worth it. again, i try to push this aside because i have so much fun with it but it's been a nagging thought of mine that i can't seem to figure out.'
- The Visual Jerbil
'honestly i think fashion has become really important in shaping my personality. i sort of had a style intervention and i am kind of glad. it also makes me wonder what my brain did that automatically did a somersalt.'
- Roma
'on your Tumblr, you posted a quote by Rei Kawakubo that said something to the effect of, 'clothes don't have to make you look better. clothes do not need to represent conventional beauty.'
i was just thinking, that applies to makeup as well. we don't need to use makeup to make ourselves look more conventionally pretty, or even 'better.' we are free to wear makeup any way we want, which includes making ourselves look like twisted old hags or monsters, if that's the mood/story we want to convey. makeup, like fashion, can be restrictive and it can be liberating. it all depends on what you choose to take from it, and how you choose to apply all the influences about it from the outside world to your own life.'
- Hitchhiked
'am i self-conscious and insecure? sure. do i look at skinny, gorgeous models and occasionally want to puke? all the time. i have pretty big hips and fat under my chin, and saddlebags. but for me, putting on make-up or fun, crazy clothes still feels like it did when i was nine and playing dress up and laughing with my mom about putting our red lips on. it's fun. it's never about making myself feel better or not feeling good enough without it. it's never about feeling like i NEED to look a certain way. those thoughts will drive you crazy.
i think it's perfectly fine to be a feminist and like how you look in lipstick better than how you look without it. so what if it makes you feel good? so what if it's shallow or vain? people have been smearing stuff on their faces for centuries for aesthetic reasons. as long as you don't take it too seriously or let it define you, i don't see the big deal.'
- Lydia
'i think Feminism can be both girl-y, and tom-boy. i read one poster that really hits the nail on the head which stated 'Feminism: girls getting raped is uncool on all standards. whether you're wearing slutty clothes, or completely covered. no means no. rape is uncool no matter who it is; we love our sluts.'
which, on a deeper lever, i think really sums it up. '
- Alice
'when i think of the relationships and attachments we make to our image and its manipulation i can only really describe it as intensely human, which i don’t think helps all that much but in the sense it’s very artificial and constructed, yet still creative, subjective and sensory. and so, i quiver with delight at the names of lipsticks which perfectly connect my experiences to a simple colour.'
- anon
'i like to think that my ideal wardrobe is just the clothing i like best, but really, it is constructed out of how i want people to see me.'
- Phoebedeirdra
'Feminism is about choice. for example, that women should have the choice to marry or to stay single. in this instance, women have every right to choose to wear make up every day. if it makes her feel beautiful and confident, then that's awesome. the only problem is if it's because of society's pressures (real or perceived).'
- Yvette

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- the collaborators: University of Bristol virologist Andrew Davidson, glassblowers, Kim George, Brian Jones + Norman Veitch
- inspiration taken from high-resolution electron microscopic images, creating large, painstakingly accurate glass sculptures of viruses and bacteria such as HIV, E. coli, SARS, and H1N1 (Swine flu)
- over 5 years of development + research


HIV

E. Coli

future mutation

i'm B-Side myself

'like so many writing teachers, i've been told i sometimes drive my students to depression or binge-drinking. maybe my reign of misery isn't all bad: it turns out that 'low-intensity' negative moods are linked to better writing than happy moods. as shown in the research of University of New South Wales Psychology Professor Joe Forgas, when we're not walking on clouds or doing a happy dance, we tend to be more careful and mindful of details.

Forgas has worked extensively on the effects of mood, and his most in-depth work with writing was described in the 2006 article 'When sad is better than happy: Negative affect can improve the quality and effectiveness of persuasive messages and social influence strategies.' in one experiment, Forgas's guinea pigs-humans, in this case-watched either a comedy or a film on cancer before being asked to write persuasively. others wrote emails after a similar 'mood induction.' in all cases, the sad folks produced arguments that were more concrete and therefore more persuasive than the happy campers.

writing is just the tip of the mood-berg for Forgas, who recently gave a broad overview of his work in an article for Australian Science called 'Think Negative! Can a bad mood make us think more clearly?' he found that people in a negative mood have a better bullshit detector when it came to urban legends, false trivia statements, and even the sincerity of facial expressions. they are more reliable eyewitnesses. they even overcome stereotypes better, as Forgas found in a disturbing yet revealing test, which revealed that those in a good mood had '...a significantly greater tendency overall to shoot at Muslims rather than non-Muslims... conversely, negative mood reduced stereotype-based aggressive responses to Muslims.' of course, no real shooting was involved, but those results are alarming: being happy really does seem to make us dumb and dangerous.

one huge disclaimer: a 'slightly negative mood' produced sharper thinking than a happy mood, but there's no evidence to suggest that a really awful mood might do the same. watching a sad movie with your spouse might do the trick; being left by your spouse probably would not. as Forgas said by email, "...we were basically producing mild negative moods, the kind of feeling state people have after watching 10 minutes of a sad movie, or learning that they did less well than they hoped on a test, or thinking about a sad episode in the past. the moods are mild and temporary, just the kinds of mood fluctuations people experience in everyday life.'

Forgas said, 'the most likely explanation is based on evolutionary theorising-affective states serve an adaptive purpose, subconsciously alerting us to apply the most useful information processing strategy to the task at hand. a negative mood is like an alarm signal, indicating that the situation is problematic, and requires more attentive, careful and vigilant processing-hence the greater attention to concrete information.'

as Dennis Baron wrote on his Web of Language site about Forgas's work: 'it isn't surprising to discover that in order to improve, writers first have to become more unhappy. after all, lemons make great lemonade, and the literary canon is full of authors who are depressed.''
- Mark Peters, A Happy Writer is a Lousy Writer?, 2009

Truly Great, part one / 'anybody who listens to Primus has therefore abused his privilege of having been born with ears and should have the protrusions promptly removed'

'my best friend stood looking at my CD collection and my bookshelves one day and then turned to me and remarked that i wasn't nearly discriminating enough, that i liked too many things. he proceed to say that i was too forgiving of some things in music and literature, that i needed to pick out what was 'truly great' and then get rid of everything else. and while i couldn't part with everything not 'truly great,' i knew he was right.

there are many different types of music fans and lovers of books. for one, there's the collector. this is the category that I had fallen into. this type has to own everything by their favorite artists and authors regardless of the quality. this is why I own Never Let Me Down by David Bowie and both Tin Machine albums. Bowie is one of my favorite artists, but that doesn't justify the inclusion of these soon-to-be-coasters. i also have everything by Philip K. Dick, and let's face it -- they can't all be Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said.

secondly, there's the 'fan'-atic. this person will follow one, or at most a handful of bands, go to every show when they are in town, own all the tour t-shirts, know every line of every song, etc. etc. but they will completely limit themselves to the one particular group or style of music. fans of jam bands, Tool, and Rob Zombie, you know who you are. in the book world, they end up simply rereading the same books again and again. pale and scabby Anne Rice fans, I'm looking squarely in your direction.

then there is the critic. my friend, of whom i spoke earlier, fell into this category, as i now do myself. the critic is a contradiction at best. he has the experience of listening to thousands upon thousands of albums, millions upon millions of songs, and is able to determine not only if something is great, passing, or crap, but also to tell if the music is original or just some rehashed material. he reads thousands upon thousands of books, knows when something is great literature or, as my friend Marta is wont to say, 'candy.' a truly good critic can also go against the grain and tell when a book or album is given accolades when undeserved. critics are a contradiction because they have to be open-minded while at the same time must be able to come down hard on one side of the fence or the other.
they are critics because they 'critique,' not necessarily because they are 'critical.' personal taste and opinion can always enter into the equation, absolutely, but shame on any critic that takes only his or her personal opinion into consideration when critiquing. as a 'for instance,' i can't stand most music by The Doors, but i can objectively view their contribution to the music world. on the other hand, i can say with complete and total sincerity that bands like The White Stripes, The Strokes, and The Hives may be artistically sound (to some), but contribute absolutely nothing original to the music world.
there are a few requirements of being a qualified critic. they must have experience; they must be open-minded; they must be able to see two sides of an issue; and they must be strong in their convictions.

EXPERIENCE:
i have been listening to music for as long as i can remember, cannot count how many albums i've heard, much less owned. i have read on average three books a week for the last ten years. i have never limited myself to one band, artist, writer, or genre and i believe anyone who does so and still claims to 'know' books or music are fools. one cannot have a CD collection consisting only of Dave Matthews Band and Phish albums and claim to know what good music is.
i can alternately have in my 200 CD jukebox, Brahms' 4th, Philip Glass, A Tribe Called Quest, Johnny Cash, Helmet, Prince, Coldplay, Enya, Radiohead, Death Cab for Cutie, Miles Davis, Dean Martin, and Nine Inch Nails. (sometimes for fun i put these on `shuffle'). i also have lining my bookshelves Shakespeare, Stephen King, Raymond Chandler, Charles Bukowski, Michael Ondaatje, Haruki Murakami, Roger Kahn, Philip K. Dick, Ernest Hemingway, and Charlotte Bronte.

OPEN-MINDED:
although i have been known to make blanket statements like 'all recent rap music is crap,' or 'i'll listen to everything but popular country,' i am a fairly open minded, free thinking, all accepting kind of guy. i have given fair shots to The Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd, supposed 'good books' like Cold Mountain or Birdsong, and have discovered what i suspected all along, that they suck. to be fair, i have been convinced the other way with Frank Sinatra, Ani DiFranco, Built to Spill, Bret Easton Ellis, John Irving, and Patrick McGrath just to name a few that i didn't discover all myself or at least needed a little coercion. i have also been known to say things like 'anybody who listens to Primus has therefore abused his privilege of having been born with ears and should have the protrusions promptly removed.' (and then later i think of using the word 'pruned' to make it the statement not only sarcastic, but alliterative as well.

SEE OTHERS' POINTS OF VIEW:
even though i come down firmly on one side or another in an argument or an opinion, like all good leaders, i can see both sides of a particular topic. take for instance the recent Jonathan Franzen / Oprah Winfrey debacle that played itself out in print and on television. Franzen wrote a magnificent piece of literature called The Corrections. it was released with plenty of hype and i picked up a copy as i was intrigued. the Oprah Winfrey show promptly picked it as its next 'Oprah's Book Club' Selection and as such, books were reprinted with the red, white, and tan logo that i've come to loathe.
Jonathan Franzen gave an interview in which he called into question the caliber of literature read in her club and questioned his own inner conflicts on including himself in the program. Oprah just as promptly dismissed him from the show and her fans returned the books in droves. the two sides that i can see are these:
1) he had a damn good point and should be able to say whatever he likes. he wrote a damn good book and didn't enter into any gag contract when his publisher accepted the book being included on the show.
2) if he was so adamantly against being included in the first place, he should have simply told his publisher and he wouldn't have been considered. i'm sure it was much more complicated than this, but that's how i see it. he also could have waited to bring these topics up on the show itself to at least expose whether or not Oprah actually read every book or at least chose every book herself, and could have questioned his conflict privately until he had the chance to speak to Oprah and find out if an on air discussion on it was viable. he could have affected change in the institution that he had a problem with.

STRONG IN ONE'S CONVICTION:
i remember being in grade school and mentioning to someone that i thought Duran Duran was 'rad.' their scorn at my statement made me feel bad, and although i didn't stop listening to the band, i didn't mention it at school again. i now know, with the wisdom of my years, that i should have stuck to my guns and not given a crap what that one other kid thought. as a lover of music and now as a critic, i have to and do believe, frankly, that my taste is better than yours.

EAT IT, ITS THE TRUTH:
i remember the day that i learned this. it took a homophobic Armenian kid i worked with to harden me. i quietly seethed when he would hurl disdain upon Ethan Canin because he was a 'gay' author. he would dis every band that any other employee would bring up and be smugly satisfied with his own favorites. i finally snapped after he put down Prince and angrily asked him what he thought good music was. when he replied 'The Doors', i could almost feel my muscles rippling and my skin becoming green. i could have easily just said 'Hulk smash, Doors bite!' but instead said something like 'if Jim Morrison's a poet then i'm the Premier of Russia.' his eyes bugged and he began to stammer, and i simply looked him straight in the face and said 'the Doors are the most godawful band in the world, the only thing they had going for them was mescaline, and Jim's lucky that Arthur Rimbaud couldn't sue for plagiarism because the poor sap was dead!'
i then pointed out every gay or lesbian author in the store and sang their praises. most of the time he sat there with his arms crossed, other times he gaped in shock when authors he liked were 'outed'. we never really spoke again. little did i know it, but i had become a critic that day. not only did i have a great little Aaron Sorkin moment, but i cemented my path into becoming what I had always wanted to be.

SELECTIVE:
critics do what they do so that the reading, listening, buying public can make a choice as to where to spend their hard-earned cash. while the fabulously wealthy have the luxury of listening to just about whatever they damn well please, most people live on a budget. most people don't have the access that DJ's and reviewers do. the majority of people have to make hard choices about what goes in their collection. should the reader of the review go out and ignore every stoplight to get to their local record store to pick up the latest hot album? should he wait for a particular book to come out in paperback if he absolutely must have it, because let's face it, this particular book is not worth the hardcover price they're asking. these are decisions the critic helps you make and this is why we are invaluable.

all this having been said; i still had to make a decision about the type of reviews in which to write. i decided to nix the idea of trying to broaden people's listening or reading tastes, the other writers in this webzine and the readers i'm sure, all probably have broader tastes than myself and this effort would be somewhat futile. along the same lines, i also vetoed trying to raise the indie flag, focusing on small label or arty rock and cult writers. i decided that articles putting Pavement or Sonic Youth on pedestals were against what i actually believed. i believe that great music has to move people emotionally. those two bands, while good, just make me want to smoke heavily, drink lots, and discuss philosophy. and while i can say as i did earlier that my tastes are better than everyone else's, like all critics would say, i must admit for all of us that we have our guilty pleasures.
so, in praise of my friend who put me on the right track, no pun intended, my reviews or retrospectives will be trained exclusively on the 'truly great,' either a stand out artist or author (ex.: Jeff Buckley, Haruki Murakami), or the best single works from artists with a larger body of work (ex.: Built to Spill's There's Nothing Wrong with Love, Italo Calvino's If On A Winter's Night A Traveler), or an underrated work from a band with highly lauded albums (ex.: The Clash's Give `em Enough Rope).
essentially i will write about the music that should be in your collection and the books that should be on your bookshelf if they aren't already. i will write about the music that, if you do own it, will remind you to fall in love with it all over again. i will write about the books that are worth a second, or sometimes a third read. read along and enjoy, and in return i promise never to use the following phrases, 'i was into them before they were 'cool'', 'i'm not really into that kinda thing', or 'this album was made when rock was still good.' then again, screw it, i promise nothing.'
- Terrance Terich, 2003

choose your own adventure

i recently purchased a white candle holder from the Bunker Boutique of clothing + homewares (based locally in Brisbane), in order to house some of my smaller pieces of jewellery (backs of earrings, etc) that were getting lost amongst the rest.
i really love when skulls are presented in an elegant manner as homewares, in ~feminine ways.
ever since seeing a skull decanter + beakers used as make-up holders on Luxirare a little while ago, i haven't been able to get the idea out of my head. i have been trawling sites for similar products, as i have so much trouble keeping my makeup shelf tidy. this seems like the perfect, and a slightly humourous, way of presentation / organisation + i really aim to emulate it with similar storage situations in the v near future.:

classic gisele. giselle gazelle. with the speed of a 1000 gazelles. antelope.

(feel free to ignore the 'Sunday' face in photo 2.) i was torn between which white furry + beautifully tactile monstrosity to adorn myself with for university one day last week; i ended up going for option #2.:



the following outfit was thrown together twelve minutes before attending a Fashion/Business talk by the fabulously talented Ana Diaz. she has just graduated from my current course of Business/Fine Arts (Fashion) at QUT, and has become wonderfully successful already, in being selected as the only Queensland graduate representative at the recent Loreal Melbourne Fashion Festival, and has been selected to collaborate and produce a small capsule collection with Sportsgirl - to be in store around this time next year. so exciting ! her talk was really intimate, held in the 'Glasshouse' space within the QUT Creative Precinct in the Kelvin Grove campus. she reflected on some of the reasoning and conceptual ideas behind her recent graduate collection; the final assessment task for the course, which takes the final year to put together from beginning to end. interestingly, Ana even constructed the shoes, more or less from scratch, that were used in her line.
i was reading a review of her show at LMFF and i found it interesting, and quite important to note, that the critic praised Ana for the wearability / commerical aspect of her garments - that a lot of graduates try too hard to be 'artsy' within their graduate collections, perhaps in the aim of gaining attention (which cannot be discounted / discredited, as Fashion is evidently an industry in which it is most definitely about WHO you know instead of, sadly, WHAT you know - at least in the beginning stages of a career).
Ana was wearing the olive green dress, as you can see here, and it was so incredibly detailed in person. so inspring.
my favourite part of the whole session, however, was just the whole sense of security that i further gained in regard to my current position. while Ana has obviously put a mind-blowing amount of time, hard hard hard work, and heart, into her work and final output; there is chance for a real career and for doors to be opened at the end of my degree. it is credible, and people have, and continue to, really go places after graduating. so reassuring.


i just remembered an app called Oblique Strategies that i had on my ex-ipod touch, years ago. it was a deck of cards that provided varying phrases / sentences / words that were created in order to prompt decision-making, and thoughts outside of the box. some favourites:
- a line has two sides
- accept advice
- don't be afraid of things because they're easy to do
- don't be frightened of cliches
- honour thy error as a hidden intention
- listen in total darkness, or in a very large room, very quietly
- remember those quiet evenings
- use an unacceptable colour
- water

note to self: 'see Avatar with Daniel: too late :('

reading at the moment: Henry Miller - Tropic of Cancer, Fyodor Dostoyevsky - The Brothers Karamazov


(Dion Lee lookbook)

what's keeping me awake at night?
CHRISTOPHER KANE / DESIGNER:
1. how much will that dress sample cost?
3. when am i going back to the gym?
ROBERTO CAVALLI / DESIGNER:
4. when i do get to bed, i have so many new ideas running through my head, it keeps me awake.
5. a good movie.
TODD LYNN / DESIGNER:
2. work, i always go to bed late and wake up early.
MARIOS SCHWAB / DESIGNER:
3. BBC Four - i love all the art documentaries.
LORRAINE CANDY / EDITOR IN CHIEF, ELLE:
2. will my seven-year-old daughter's wonderfully original outlook on the world fit in at her new school?
4. what will i wear to work tomorrow? i never ever manage to get it ready the night before.
PAURIC SWEENEY / BAG DESIGNER:
2. recently, leaving parties too late.
3. hybrid mosquitoes.
4. wondering if it all really makes any sense. and, in many ways, hoping it doesn't.
RUTH CHAPMAN / CO-FOUNDER, MATCHES:
4. fretting about phone calls and emails i haven't returned.
5. dreaming about Celine's SS11 wide floppy pants.
JEREMY LESLIE / CREATOR OF MAGCULTURE.COM:
1. fear that i've brought children into an increasingly misshapen world.
2. should i have told Client X to ignore print and go digital?
3. must.
4. sort.
5. tax.
NICHOLAS KIRKWOOD / SHOE DESIGNER:
4. what's the best way to lose weight by not doing any exercise or modifying my diet?
JONATHAN SAUNDERS / DESIGNER:
5. when my boyfriend isn't home.
ROB RYAN / ILLUSTRATOR:
2. thinking about some tiny, inconsequential remark someone made to me 20 years ago that is still pissing me off.
4. thinking about my mum and dad.
5. thinking about being old and then dying.
THEA BREGAZZI / DESIGNER, PREEN:
2. the disco-loving next-door neighbour.
DAVID SHRIGLEY / ARTIST:
3. global warming.
5. knowing i have to get up early and need to sleep.
GIAMBATTISTA VALLI / DESIGNER:
1. the tea i drank during the day.
- p151, Elle Collections SS11


The Art of Fashion: Fashion is Art is Fashion is Art. But Which Paint-and-Canvas Artists Inspire Today's Designers?
JONATHAN SAUNDERS:
i came to design thinking there had to be a purpose to it - there's nothing wrong with something being inspired by the process rather than the reasons behind it.
- p89, Elle Collections SS11

dressing for comfort during rainy days of copious study

i don't know how i feel about Gaga, but i certainly agree with this

'her other fashion hero is the late, great Alexander McQueen. when McQueen comes up, Gaga leans back and a sense of wonder glows from her face. she thinks that after his suicide, McQueen began working through her. "i think he planned the whole thing: right after he died, i wrote 'Born This Way.' i think he's up in heaven with fashion strings in his hands, marionetting away, planning this whole thing." supporting Gaga's claim was the decision by the label--not Gaga herself--to move up the release date for "Born This Way," ultimately to the exact day of the one-year anniversary of McQueen's death. "when i heard that, i knew he planned the whole damn thing. i didn't even write the song. he did!"'
- Lady Gaga, Bazaar

'this is so gross on SO MANY DIFFERENT LEVELS that i can't even handle it.
i mean, does she REALLY thing that her level of creativity and talent is on par with Alexander-f-ing-McQueen? because she is MISTAKEN! not in the way she dresses, not in what she sings, not in the way she dances, not in her adopted name, not in her ANYTHING is she even half as amazing as McQueen was.

i find it amazing that she keeps pretending to be Isabella Blow junior when the extent of their relationship was like "hey here's a song for your show, oh thanks here's an outfit for your video". but no one is saying anything because they're all too afraid the world won't think of them as cool for not getting whatever they're all being sold. no one wants to think on their own and they're all hopping on everyone else's "highly regarded" bandwagons. it's disgusting.

this is the fashion world's new icon? they can keep her.'
- Laia, www.geometricsleep.com

2B or 4B? that is the question.. B what you want 2B

the weather in Brisbane can be quite threatening, + i'm often unsure whether it is going to actually rain or not. + while i'm not v comfortable with the idea of wearing Havaianas to university, i often find myself wearing a pair of lace-ups, both for comfort and practicality.
i have had two pairs of black lace-ups, and one pair of silver, that i have been living in over the last few years, but this year i decided it was important to expand the collection as they are such major staples for me.
recently, i purchased an Acne pair, as well a pair of Deena + Ozzy Lucite Oxfords.
i haven't yet been brave enough to wear them without socks, but when worn with black socks / jeans / opaque black stockings i love the way that the gold toe accent really -pops-.


Fashion Makers, Fashion Shakers - Anne-Celine Jaeger:
what did you learn from running your own business?
'..if we'd tried to keep the shop open every day of the week, we'd have had to start selling stuff we didn't want to sell in order to surive, so we'd have been compromising our concept of the shop. it think it's an amazingly good tip for any young designer starting out: try to realise your dream in a way that is subsidised by doing something else in those early days so you don't have to compromise. i basically worked doing anything i could to make money Monday through Thursday and on Friday and Saturday i'd open the shop.'
- p29, Paul Smith
how would you describe the Dries Van Noten signature style?
'i always aim for the idea of elegance without ostentation.'
- p51, Dries Van Noten

suffice to say it was easy enough to see from where the creeper had crept

National Geographic magazine scan from the 80s


Contemporary Avant-Garde: Cutting-Edge Design:
'the French term 'avant-garde' was used in the early Twentieth Century referencing new and innovative practice, and was particularly germane when it was used in the context of the visual and performing arts. whether this term is still relevant in contemporary discourse is widely debated.
Fashion historian Diana Crane has analysed a wide range of uses of the term, and argues that it has been applied to three types of 'changes' in art: in the aesthetic content; in the social content; and in the norms surrounding the production and distribution of artworks. she also contends that, in terms of Modernist fashion, it was a practice that challenged aesthetic norms and traditions prevalent in the construction and design of Western clothing and that questioned, at times, political and social ideologies rising in prominence at a particular time.
in many cases, it can also escape the powers of the commercial market.
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 resuable 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 possibilities.'
- p218, Australian Fashion Unstitched: The Last 60 Years - Bonnie English + Liliana Pomazan

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'on my way out, three separate people asked if i had any spare change – ‘no, but thanks for asking!’ – which wouldn’t have happened twenty years ago.'
– p43
'i had arranged to meet an old friend and colleague, so i went now to Chancery Lane and caught an Underground train. i do like the Underground. there’s something surreal about plunging into the bowels of the earth to catch a train. it’s a little world of its own down there, with its own strange winds and weather systems, its own eerie noises and oily smells. even when you’ve descended so far into the earth that you’ve lost your bearings utterly and wouldn’t be the least surprised to pass a troop of blackened miners coming off shift, there’s always the rumble and tremble of a train passing somewhere on an unknown line even further below. and it all happens in such orderly quiet: all these thousands of people passing on stairs and escalators, stepping on and off crowded trains, sliding off into the darkness with wobbling heads, and never speaking, like characters from Night of the Living Dead.' – p53
‘we never heard anything more about that once the dispute was over. but give them their due, they’ve increased our hours. they now let us work an extra day every fortnight without additional pay.’
‘their way of showing they think highly of you all?’
‘they wouldn’t have asked us to do more work if they didn’t like the way we did it, would they?’
quite.'
– p58
'the parks used to described on maps as the Upper Pleasure Gardens and Lower Pleasure Gardens, but some councillor or other force of good realised the profound and unhealthy implications of placing Lower and Pleasure in such immediate proximity and successfully lobbied to have Lower removed from the title, so now you have the Upper Pleasure Gardens and the mere Pleasure Gradens, and lexical perverts have been banished to the beaches where they must find such gratification as they can by rubbing themselves on the groynes. anyway, that’s the kind of place Bournemouth is – genteel to a fault and proud of it.'
- p90, Notes from a Small Island - Bill Bryson

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National Geographic magazine scan from the 80s


Fur - The Debate:
Brix Smith-Start, owner of Start Boutique:
'i feel very conflicted about fur but i do wear it. i have a few vintage pieces my grandmother left me and i think buying vintage fur is fine. i totally respect people who have a strong viewpoint against fur, but i equally admire designers who use fur in their collections. the choice is out there so people should do what they feel is right.'
Hilary Alexander, Fashion Director - The Daily Telegraph:
'i wear a lot of fake and a little real fur, some of it vintage. i think we have to take different cultures into account and not impose viewpoints on people. the Inuit and some of the inhabitants of northern China and Kazakhstan, for example, could not survive below-zero temperatures without wearing fur. you could argue their wearing of fur is more ‘eco’ than the man-made substitutes.'
Todd Lynn, Designer:
'working with fur for the past few seasons, i’ve learnt a lot about the industry. i read every protest email that i receive and not one offers any real argument. they all say the same things: 1) animals raised for their fur are treated cruelly and inhumanely, and 2) fake fur is the same as real. one of the most important elements of the fur products i make is that the raw materials are ‘Origin Assured’. the skins can be traced back to the originating farm and i can be certain that proper measures were taken in raising the animals. there is little difference between raising an animal for fur or for produce – the animal dies and parts are used and parts aren't, so, will i wear fur ? yes. the argument that fake fur looks and feels the same as real fur is nonsense. and, if you believe fur is wrong, why perpetuate the image by wearing a fake version? no-one seems to attack things like pesticides used in the prdocution of cotton, which kill a multitude of wildlife. so, the t-shirt you are wearing was responsible for the death of many animals. no one seems to mind paying £2 for a t-shirt on the high street. do they wonder who had to suffer to make it at that price? it’s the same with fur. if it’s cheap, something is wrong. my fur isn’t cheap.
– p91, Elle Collections - AW10 Issue

not a wallflower

'4. One Size and the Return of the Woman:
LAIRD: what about the emphasis on womanly curves? how did Victoria's Secret models show up on the runway this fall? this season there was so much emphasis on size. did size replace diversity?
AMINA: i thought there were a lot of stories about it, and obviously the Cut wrote a lot about it, but i don't want to see a model who looks ike me up there.
LYNN: i do! i want to see a model who looks just like you. ani d just like me. i'd love to!
KELLY: i think it is distracting from the clothes.
LYNN: no it isn't!
KELLY: it is for me. i don't want to think 'oh my God, she wore that dress really well.' do i want to see an emaciated girl? no! i want to see the healthy middle ground.
AMINA: i don't want to see a girl who's so skinny you can play her ribs like a glockenspiel. i want her to be healthy. there has to be a middle ground, and maybe that is Lara Stone.
FERN: but it has to be across the board. there can't be a show with all those girls and then one bigger girl comes out. that's distracting.
KELLY: it can't be 'check it out, here's our token, this is the big girl.' it has to be done organically.
LYNN: see, when you said i want to see the clothes and not the girl, i'm thinking i want to see clothes that look good on a normal-sized person who is over 18 years old. if you can't make something that looks good on a normal adult, i'm not interested.
JEAN-PHILIPPE: i think that would be the most revulotionary idea, to give up on the idea of a perfect silhouette, a perfect body, that people should be thin, people should have long legs, or whatever.
LAIRD: there were so many examples. Karl Lagerfeld was hooting plus size burlesque dances, Mad Men is exerting a bigger and bigger influence on the fashion world, while Christina Hendricks, who plays Joan Holloway in the series, was voted the most desirable body by women.
KELLY: i don't think there's a new silhouette. i think it's a total lie. people need to understand what a consumer is and that we live in a capitalist republic, not a democracy. consumers don't really understand how much power they have. first of all, they're buying into these brands because they want power. you're buying in Ralph Lauren and you feel like you're part of the estate. 'i'm wearing these pants and my name is Chip, and my wife's name is Jasmine and we just played croquet.' people like thin, young people.
in every society, in Africa, in India, in Europe, what people have deemed attractive and the best is lighter, taller, thinner and younger. that's just historically the rule.
FERN: they could still put the thin girls on the runway, but every designer should cut to a size sixteen and sell it in the same department.
KELLY: that's why Yohji Yamamoto and Donna Karan do so well, because they do that.
LAIRD: so, what about diversity?
KELLY: here is the problem: every non-Caucasian designers only want Caucasian models. i know - i'm a fashion show producer. the answer is always 'oops, we don't have any Asian girls, we'd better get an Asian girl!' 'oops, we don't have any dark-skinned girls, we better get a dark-skinned girl!' or 'oh, let's get two so we don't look like we're only taking one!' until the girl gets so big that she's considered Caucasian, like Chanel Iman.
GEORDON: they always try to make it more diverse so that they don't get criticised for having a whitewash.
FERN: it's a defense thing. it's not because they believe in it.
LYNN: i don't think these things are fixed in time forever. i also think that things will change. for example, we see more diversity on television.'
- p173, Bon Magazine: issue #AW10/11

'the purpose of this book is to break down the perceptions of local fashion and communicate its unique voice; to bring you face-to-face with the incredibly talented artists that have not only created wearable collections, but also allowed us to dream, to be inspried and to learn to appreciate. all the while these designers have unearthed the international myths of the Australian regions and its people, modestly promoting a forward-thinking, cosmopolitan nation. these designers are real, and their creativity unlimited. they work in their own shops, they cut and sew, they answer the phones, and, as i'm proud to note, they do it with a sense of humour.'
- pXIII
'Elsom has built a fashion label with a social conscience. mindful that green fashion won't translate to the mainstream if it remains corralled in a hippy ghetto of its own making, Elsom is as passionate about the aesthetics of fashion as he is about producing it with minimal environmental impact.
'most important,' he says, 'is that we do it in a way that is clean, sophisticated and elegant.'
i found that as a customer, just because you support organic textiles or sustainable farming doesn't mean you want to dress like Mahatma Gandhi.'
- p119
'Friedrich Gray is best described as industrial androgyny. Pollitt designs for both men and women and uses high quality fabrics, such as leather and wool, to ensure the clothes last a liftime. inspired by music, art and historical references, he attempts to create pieces that aren't trend-specific or fashion statements, but that are solid, with a strong cut and can be worn every day. the idea of non-trend-specific clothing, that which is innately stylish, equals lifetime wearability.
perhaps the pinnacle of Pollitt's creative vision was presented in his Spring/Summer 2009/2010 collection on the eve of Australian Fashion Week. aptly titled Transgression, the collection explored the limits of subversion, eroticism and countercultlure, building upon his previous work and entering a new stylistic counterculture, building upon his previous work and entering a new stylistic phase. while the clothes maintained the androgynous narrative of the Friedrich Gray label - stretched silhouettes, the binaries of textiles - there was also an exit from traditional colours, instead injecting saturated firm colours and prints which were inspired by David Lynch's use of shadow and lighting in the film Dune.'
- p136
'i'll be walking down the street and see the way a dress gets caught by the wind, and for a second it looks like something completely different. maybe it's just that i need glasses, but it can be quite inspiring.'
- p176
'we use a lot of black and i still maintain it's the colour i love and work with the best. so then we get tagged with this gothic thing. yes there is darkness, but there is also humour and love of summer.'
- p262, Fashion: Australian & New Zealand Designers - Mitchell Oakely Smith

shtick

2011

'loss’s sphere grows wider now, and included in it is all possibility. you reflect on all you’ve missed – how much of your life you’ve forgotten, how much has streamed by you, how paltry the haul in your little net. there are the books you haven’t read, the ones you’ve read but don’t recall, the history you don’t know, the languages you haven’t learnt, the music you haven’t heard, the songs you haven’t written, the things you wish you’d asked your parents, the hugeness of the world, the tiny fraction of it you’ve gleaned, its sadness and suffering and deterioration, the friendships you didn’t have with people you admired, that beautiful stranger you saw in the street the other day who you’ll never know.'
– p490, PK - HtMG


two of my friends modelling for me at the Mackay Student Festival of Fashion '09(?)

'then you think there is no God?'
'no, i think there quite probably is one.'
'then why..?'
Mustapha Mond checked him. 'but he manfiests himself in different ways to different men. in pre-modern times he manifested himself as being that's described in these books. now..'
'how does he manifest himself now?' asked the Savage.
'well, he manifests himself as an absence; as though he weren't there at all.'
'that's your fault.'
'call it the fault of civilisation. God isn't comparable with machinery and scientific medicine and univesal happiness. you must make your choice. our civilisation has chosen machinery and medicine and happiness. that's why i have to keep these books locked up in the safe. they're smut. people would be shocked if..'
the Savage interruped him. 'but isn't it natural to feel there is a God?'
'you might as well ask if it's natural to do up one's trousers with zippers,' said the Controller sarcastically. 'you remind me of another of those old fellows called Bradley. he defined philosophy as the finding of bad reason for what one believes by instinct. as if one believed anything by instinct! one believes things because one has been conditioned to believe them. finding bad reasons for what one believes for other bad reasons - that's philosophy. people believe in God because they've been conditioned to believe in God.'
'but all the same,' insisted the Savage, 'it is natural to believe in God when you're alone - quite alone, in the night, thinking about death..'
- p208-9, Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

'i don’t think of God as a he or a listener or a she..i just love the word. i love using it. it sings, you know? it’s sweet. it’s a sweet word. i’m at ease with it. my ancestors used it. some wonderful musicians and composer and poets used it. they must have been talking about something.’
– Michael Leunig, talking to Andrew Denton (on Enough Rope)


'i played Scrabble with my mother in her final days and, surprisingly, almost won. normally it was a doddle for her to beat me – i could ccount on one hand the number of times i’d toppled her in thirty years – but on this occasion she was labouring and not on her game. i got away to an early lead and she seemed unable to concentrate.
‘would you like to leave this for another day?’ i asked. ‘no,’ she wheezed, ‘i’m all right.’
i pulled steadily away. she was taking longer than normal between moves and muttering occasionally to herself in frustration. she didn’t like losing. with only a few letters left i was fifty points ahead and home and hosed. it was then she calmly played the word ‘qi’, with the Q landing oh a triple going both ways. Q is worth ten.
thirty times two – sixty points.
what’s ‘qi’? i asked. it means ‘the life force’, she said.
‘i thought you spelled that c-h-i.’
'yes, that’s the more well-known spelling. but q-i is acceptable too. it’s in the new edition of the Scrabble dictionary.’
i knew it wouldn’t be worth challenging her. when it came to fiendish two-letter words, she was an authority. who could forget ‘zo’, otherwise known as ‘dzo’, from a long-ago Christmas, meaning a cross-breed of a cow and a yak? (Z being also worth ten.) or the legendary ‘xu’, a sub-unit of Vietnamese currency.
‘sub-unit?’ ‘yes, a hundred xu make a dong, you nong!’
i flailed around with my remaining letters P, H, F (three, four, four) and some others, but i was now well and truly phfucked, stuck with them as my mother got rid of her tiles on her next turn.
defeated by a 76-year-old woman’s life force, i packed up the letters and board ruefully. she gave me a small apologetic smile. a week later she was dead.
– p308, PK - HtMG

Is Fashion Feminist? - Barbara Hualicki:
'is fashion feminist? absolutely. fashion means power for women. as a young woman in the 1960s, you had two choices. you could dress old-fashioned like Mad Men’s anti-feminist attire, dressing for men and their careers in stifling corsets, pointy brassieres and mid-calf hemlines, or you could become modern and lose the brassiere, shorten your skirts and wear flat shoes. in the 1960s fashion had nothing to do with men, as women became independent and were not being ‘kept’. they had their own careers and had left home, at last independent of their fathers. it never occurred to the 1960s generation that fashion was anti-feminist – though the angry brigade blew up Biba ‘for being a slave to fashion’, which still puzzles me to this day.
when i was little, i watched my mother dress up and she exuded this great confidence and power. to me clothes always stood for power. the visual effect she had on the family, especially on my father, was tremendous. how strange that the Mad Men look is now fashionable again: cleavage, pointy bras and high heels. but i guess, this time, its power dressing.'
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Is Fashion Feminist? - Daniela and Annette Felder:
'in a business sense, fashion has enabled women to launch their own companies and to run them successfully which has allowed women to be able to emancipate themselves through the means of fashion.'
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Is Fashion Feminist? - Anita Borzyszkowska:
'fashion is post-feminist, it means you can dress for yourself or for someone else with no misgivings – its about the freedom to make a personal choice, whether you stay true to your own style or play with fashion.'
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Is Fashion Feminist? - Jane Aldridge:
'for me, fashion is feminist. i have never felt crippled by heels i wear or objectified by a short skirt. when women wear something they love, they feel powerful. feminism doesn’t have to be anti-beauty.'
- p96, Elle Collections SS20

i'm one of the most sceptical / cynical people around, but...i'm still secretly terrified

previous post.

an emotional bout of post-April Fools

this morning i headed out in the aim of traversing through the ~two main streets for shopping + dining within Paddington, but for some reason found myself in the city instead. i ended up meeting my soulmate there by chance, and so we grabbed some lunch + visited a store's birthday celebrations.

i looked through two book stores that i hadn't yet discovered; one new, one second-hand. i made two fairly cliche purchases at the latter - a book by Freud + the other by Nietzsche.




i couldn't feel comfortable in anything today, for reasons unknown. i initially tried on my Sara Phillips pleated skirt (belted, due to over-sized fit), and a simple Target tee. something was wrong..so i untucked the shirt, added a scrap of material to hold up the skirt once more, and again threw on a bag that i purchased from a market stall in Istanbul three years ago.
(though i ended up wearing something completely different; a go-to dress that always makes me feel the least uncomfortable on those unattractive days.)