It's odd to be posting after such a long absence - nearly a month and a half - but I felt like I should re-invest myself into this blog before I find myself completely out of the loop. I have thought about why I have lacked any means of motivation to post and I find it is two things: one, the weather has become an obstacle for it does not permit me to layer and thus I have found myself incessantly moping around and about my closet and as a result: two, my personal taste in style has been making a bit of a transition. Finding I can only generally wear one article of clothing at a time, I began acquiring a taste for collared shirts (don't ask me why because I don't know either. Miu Miu Spring 2010 could possibly be the catalyst but as much as I adore the collection I don't believe it had that much of an overwhelming influence in relevance to this 'style transition' I'm currently discussing. Also I feel like reading Virginia Woolf's The Waves had something to do with it but I haven't really discerned this yet and I'm beginning to digress so). Irrelevantly, I've found myself growing fonder of late 19th century and mid 20th century style as of late, a contrast in taste considering my favourite designers consistently challenge the constructs of what we know as fashion through their radical designs (McQueen and Chalayan primarily come to mind for a multitudinous amount of reasons). I'm not implying that I only admire post-modern designs, simply that they attracted my admiration more than collections that derived inspiration from the eras I currently admire with such a simplistic approach. Possibly now I'm just broadening my view rather than completely changing my style. I can't be entirely sure just yet. I'm writing this post with my mind in a rut regarding this topic so I might come off a bit misunderstood. Still trying to put some pieces together. However, I believe I should work on doing that in a different fashion than digressing in an oppressively constant manner on this here blog, don't you think?

So yeah. I've been relentlessly browsing vintage photographs of the past as of late, generally from the Tumblrs I follow or the Google LIFE archives. I've been posting the photographs consistently on my Tumblr so you can frolic over there if you want to see more but for now I'll simply post a few here for a taste.

Teenage girl having nail polish touches added to her sunglasses. Oklahoma, July 1947.

Teenage girl styling her hair. US, December 1948.

The Indian Tribal version of Givenchy Fall '08!

Teenage girl talking on a telephone. Missouri, December 1944. Photograph by Nina Leen.

Victorian era bourgeois sisters I'm presuming. Date unknown.

Young girl blowing a big bubble from a bubble gum. Photograph by Bob Landry, 1946.

"Young Pioneer Palace in Leningrad", year unknown.

St Louis, 1944.

I wore this outfit several weeks ago on a day where the weather finally allowed me to layer without dying if I stepped out into the blistering heat for more than five seconds.

(Pink blouse from Old Navy. All the skirts and the apron are thrifted except for one of the tulle layers which is a tutu from the kid's section as H&M five bucks baby. The socks are from the men's section at Urban Outfitters.)

Basically being in a style limbo plus lacking motivation for doing anything are the catalysts to my infrequent posting. I want to say I'll post again soon but I don't want to lie to you. I'll end this post here with something I wrote a while ago because I have started writing again on a regular basis just recently. Later days dudes.

it is true i attempt to suppress the feeling of indigence that perpetuates whenever memory is rekindled, mentioned in a whisper through the crevices of thought, working it’s way deep into the core of my mind. i blame my present tense by contemplating my recent past, and the actions committed regarding the circumstance. but this suppression is merely that - an attempt, susceptible to a demise like a human heart after death. that potentiality begins to decompose until it is nothing but a canvas marked with blank failures. as i realize this, the contrast of body and emotion begins to wither and they begin to form a link; they are brought together by collision in an objective sphere. my mind focuses on the fluctuation of resentment while my body battles its uncontrollable nature, and for an instance my being is at war with itself. but only for an instance, for one side eventually overpowers the other. in the end, my emotions become a lover’s figure under a silk slip, unsheathed at once, instantaneously.

After weeks of working and having basically no time to go out and get dressed! up! I finally was given the opportunity for my town's heritage day (which is, incidentally, today, therefore I'm wearing this outfit as I type). I decided to play it safe because of the weather (which is so humid it's on the verge of thundershowers) and wear my tutu with as many layers I could have possibly integrated without melting like witches in Oz. Clearly I didn't get very far!

Moving on - I really do hope to update this here blog more often than I have in the past month. I don't know if I will fully comply to this self-proclaimed affirmation until about July 1st though. Which is also known as the day I move from here and into my TORONTO HOUSE. I don't even want to think about it right now however, for then I will be reminded of the two and half weeks of waiting I must suffer through until that wonderful day. UGH I CAN NOT WAIT.

Back to heritage festivities now.

All thrifted with the exception of the tutu and socks, both from H&M.

WAIT ONE MORE THING. See this? I'm dying my hair this colour in a few weeks. (Then back to pink possibly? We'll see). I doubt you even know what colour her hair is because you're so hypnotized by the beautiful thing on her back; Miu Miu AND Comme des Garcons. This is literally a masterpiece.

(via stockholmstreet)

Anywho. Later days.

a thought on La Jetee

if you’re a photography major like me and you ever doubt the credibility of your program and what they make photography out to be, please watch this and trust in everything that lies outside of these educational based contrived claims. tell them that there is beauty in simplistic photographs such as these, those with a raw purity, those bare yet full of expression. a moment stopped in the eye of a lens, immutable, lingering forever through mutable reality - these are the photographs that make hearts feel pleasurable pain, like a warm emptiness realizing these easy moments have come and gone. they are once, always were once, will continue to be once, until death tears us from time and space like life tears a child from its’ mother’s womb. moment after moment after moment, never repeating, never returning. the only manner in which we may return, aside from a subconscious reawakening, is through the photograph. we recall each moment, let it be a tedious one or a dismal one or a glorious one, as a moment of our past caught in the web of present. one of the most beautiful things are these photographs, where a moment you will never relive or be able to replicate is shown to you in all it’s simplistic glory, just as you remembered it.

i get tired of people telling me that photography should be dramatic and salient and obvious and look! at! me! because i don’t think that’s what it necessarily should be. it should be all about moments. naked photographs are just as striking in it’s subtlety.

a moment in an ordinary life. no other kind of photographs matter.

(La jetée, Chris Marker, 1962)

Still mulling things over with the zine so I won't bring it up now, instead I think I'll dedicate a full fledged post to it.

Here are some pictures from several weeks ago I had just chillin' in my camera. This is what my room looks like at night.

Just really quickly what I wore last night, plus black lipstick I was just trying out from a halloween costume makeup kit I bought for a school project. I think I was going for a Courtney Love/Lydia Deetz integration with a bit of a Miu Miu twist (the bejeweled collar combo). It's a bit too simplistic considering what I normally tend to wear, but regardless I like it a lot.

I have some pictures of my room I took several weeks ago that I'm going to post soon, as well as my idea regarding a zine still in it's rudimentary stages of brainstorming. It's going to be about Dreamers - I don't mean all about the subconscious, I mean about people who approach art and language with a mentality that contradicts reality; they remove themselves from it to create something illusory and pensive that material reality constantly seems to lack. They thrive off the notion of a utopian world yet simultaneously acknowledge that this world we inhabit will always be tainted with imperfections. What immediately comes to mind that falls under this category is everything about Speed Levitch, Alison Scarpulla's photography, Richard Linklater films such as Before Sunset and Waking Life, and Tim Walker's editorials.

I will discuss this more in depth next post when I have my ideas regarding 'Dreamers' have become less hazy.





Sequin collared shirt is vintage. Dress from Forever 21.

Just a really quick write about this particular piece from designer Dion Lee's S/S10-11 collection at RAFW.


This blue pleated dress was probably my favourite (aside from the crystal heels). The architectural symmetry composed by the intricacies of the knotted pleats made my eyes literally widen (to be quite frank I almost audibly gasped). I’m constantly reminded of the almost rudimentary stages of a Roman soldier’s uniform when I see this dress, the shape the fabric over her shoulders and the taut wrap of the pleats a presumable catalyst of this reminder. Though the harshness is negated by the visual fragility of the dress. It’s almost as if the only thing left to make these uniforms out of was brilliant powder blue organza, so the Romans had nothing more to do but work with the resources they had.

(Photo via Jak&Jil)

Sorry for being such a bad blogger guys; my Macbook broke several weeks ago and I've been busy weeping/petting it/moaning for it to revive itself. Since then I've been using my old pre-modern chunky desktop Windows which whurrs like a dying beehive whenever I turn it on. I sound ungrateful even though this is technology! and I should be grateful! (quote unquoting all of my foreign relatives) , it's just that once you've gone Mac it's hard to go back. I'm also hesitant to send it in for repair; the guy behind the counter at Future Shop said my entire hard drive has the possibility of being completely erased and when he showed me the price of a temporary hard drive I probably had all eyes in the store curiously glaring in my direction (wouldn't you glare too if you heard a little girl's voice frantically screaming FUUUUUUUU- in a basically silent electronics store?). POINT IS, I need to get it fixed so I can up some clothes photos STAT.

While I'm here for appearing to be the opposite of negligent's sake, I want to show you a few of my favourite stylists' works. I mainly post this on my Tumblr since I practically reside there whenever I find I am on the internet browser (which isn't Safari thus it angers me, but holy shit am I digressing), but I felt it was necessary to acknowledge them here as well since the tumblr is merely an inspiration board and not a very credible manner to cite my endearing sentiments towards the editorials they style. I'm going to narrow it down to three today even though I could definitely mention more (sorry Camille-Bidault Waddington :c).

NOTE: Clicking each picture for #1 and #2 will link you to a post on TFS which has the source + complete editorial.

1) Panos Yiapanis
I don't even know where to begin regarding my love for Panos' work. This dude's layering skills are absolutely incredible, and he does it without making it appear ostentatious. I first stumbled upon the editorials he styled via Tumblr (I'd probably discover more stylists/photographers/the like if some people credited what they were posting, in the cases where they consciously are aware of the source). I was in such adoration with the variety of textures, prints and vibrant colours so evident in the outfits he put together that I had to see more. His work integrates this sense of destruction and neurotic tendency within the aesthetics, and these contradictions work together to create this imperfect perfection which should overwhelm the viewer if successful. And his outfits without a doubt do (I can't stress enough how much they do). I'm really at a lack for articulating myself properly when it comes to his stuff. All I know is it makes my heart swell and my knees buckle. So fucking good.









2) Marie-Amelie Sauve
I came upon Marie-Amelie after I began getting really interested in who was behind all the outfits in my most cherished editorials. After extensively searching the "Behind the Lens" sub forum on TFS I came upon her thread, and after dissecting each post within I realized that she was the stylist for nearly every. single. editorial. I've swooned over in the past. I find she has similar stylistic tendencies as Yiapanis, particularly in the layering, which is probably why they are the stylists I am fond of the most. There are several blatant differences between their individual styles however; for example, I find Sauve approaches her work by manipulating the way she styles to coincide with the mood of the editorial, whereas Panos' manner of layering is so determined that I find it's actually his outfits which affect the mood, rather than the other way around. Also, Sauve evokes a femininity that Yiapanis' editorials lack - not to imply that this missing effeminity negatively impacts his work, there is just a notable difference which creates this distinct individuality in the manner that they style. Finally, I find Marie-Amelie focuses on appropriate colour schemes more than Panos does, but not as drastic as to go into detail about the fact of the matter. Regardless of these comparisons and contradictions, both of these stylists rock every fucking editorial they style. 10/10. They are literally untouchable.



3) Catherine Baba
With Catherine I find her personal style bleeds into her editorial work much more than the previous two. I know this is probably breaking some sort of artistic code, one which states that the artist is not a representation of their work; that although their creation, the work they produce is channeled through a different perception of understanding, extinguishing the artist's personal characteristics and acknowledging this mirrored version of their being; the removed version that creates the art objectively as much as the viewers see it objectively. What I'm trying to essentially state is that there is this inevitable rule, in music, in art, in literature, where the outer party see the work of the artist as an autobiography of their psychological state. And although I typically prefer art that contradicts this notion (where the artist removes themselves from their art), I find Catherine Baba is the ultimate exception. This editorial from 10 Magazine Summer 2009 highly exemplifies that.






Here are some street style photographs further exemplifying this integration. (Both photographs via Jak&Jil.)

So several weeks or so ago, Melissa Luk emailed me asking if she could take some better quality photos of previous outfits captured with a bad quality cam (aka Photobooth on my mac), and I accepted. This project was extremely convenient for we both attend the same university, so we decided to meet up one day during finals week (procrastinating the efficient way) and just roam around and photograph and whatnot. It was a new experience for me seeing as I'm typically the one behind the camera and not in front, so it was a bit awkward at first. Eventually I got the hang of it though (I think I don't even know dudes). But the pictures turned out great and I'm happy lappy (thanks again Melissa!).

Outfit numba two!

Ghost World! Fun fact: I'm staring at ("reading") my favourite part from the entire comic.

You can see the entire set here (I'm technologically deficient and can't figure out how to blog all of these flickr photos at once using the Blog This button, so this'll have to do).