Here's a (shaky) video I took flipping through the insert I curated with Edward of Meadham Kirchhoff for the last issue of GARAGE Magazine. It's all included in the intro I wrote, scanned in below, but basically when Dasha asked me if I had any ideas for the debut issue I was feeling really inspired by blogs and zines of girls and young women who wanted to take Riot Grrrl nostalgia a little further through their writing/photography/etc., and felt very drawn to the idea of creating a space for that in a prestigious art and fashion magazine. When I sent all those links to Edward he was inspired by them too and because he basically lives in a vacuum of lace and stickers and ribbons he thought we should decorate their photos and everything ourselves, so everything throughout the insert is a little embellished.
I also moderated an interview between Mellody Hobson and Ikram Goldman for that issue, but the magazine is too speshul to bend and scan and everything. It was a delight, however, to interview businesswomen for a fashion magazine. This is me, recommending that you buy and read it, because there are also Prada dresses made out of fruit, and that's just down right enjoyable.
My friend Kiwi gave me this book of motivational posters from the '70s so I made it into my diary and it turned into a physical manifestation of strange magic.
(listen, watch) (the second one is kind of dumb but my point is that that song is in both of my favorite things)
Once I realized it aligned so perfectly with an aesthetic I like I think I really took advantage of being able to call the melodramatic teen girl-ness of it an artistic choice. Horses! Butterflies! Hearts! Heart lyrics! Fleetwood Mac lyrics! (Or what I thought were Fleetwood Mac lyrics until I looked at the record notes and saw that it's actually "I never did believe in miracles." Oh. Depressing.) Yup, all TOOOOOTALLY ironic. *side eye, snart*
More photos from Fashion Week for GARAGE Magazine's street style contest, STOPS! The names of both of those things are supposed to be in caps, I am not yelling at you.
More stylin' Rookies. It was so great to see Leeann's fashion writing genius manifested into a REAL LIVE OUTFIT. Her sweater sitchiation is very close to this month's half-Sweet Valley High-inspired theme. Ruby was wearing SEAL barrettes that you can't see but which were every bit as crazy good as they sound and more. (Also she doesn't know it but I've adopted her as my little sister even though we are only a year apart. WHATEVER I'M TECHNICALLY HER BOSS I GET TO DO WHATEVER I WANT) (That's like, ethical right?)
Alley of Stylelikeu had this long wool coat-dress that I wish I'd gotten a better picture of -- you can kind of see that the right side is scalloped to fit the shape of the buttons. If I were a cartoon character and had to have copies of the same outfit in my closet and no other options, I'd want it to be this dress. Keiko's hair-glasses combination was already impeccable, but the striped sweater with a leopard print bag realllllly got to me.
My vintage dress started out all clean and pretty and throughout the day got torn and black at the bottoms because I let it drag on the ground, but I kind of really like it this way. Autumn said it's kinda Picnic at Hanging Rock, which my jacket, a gift from Rodarte, only adds to in the best way. I made my headband. Kristina's hat killed me a little, but then her necklace was glasses and her bag scarf had horses on it and then I died completely and this is actually my ghost writing this post, right now.
Today I got to spend some time hanging out with my friends who run Stylelikeu, one of the best things to come out of the internet and one of my favoritest things ever. This you will understand when you get lost in their videos. I recommend starting with Illona and Annakim and Rachel from Supercute. And, it's the best site for procrastinating homework, because you are learning LIFE LESSONS! Getting to talk about style with them in real time was a delight.
Emmaline, who is like if Penny Lane was way more of a badass, and Lei Lei, who is like that lady where you're like, HOW DOES SHE DO THAT? In a you-look-magically-fancy-and-casual-at-the-same-time kind of way, not in a Sarah Jessica Parker kind of way.
Lily made a Stella McCartney sweater seem like its story is just as unique as that of her other clothes -- the scarf is made of bedsheets. I am wearing a Vaselines tee, my Twin Peaks/rosary necklace, a vintage skirt, and shoes gifted to me by Rachel Antonoff. I had a flannel layer and lots more skull and Jesus jewelry but it got exhausting. LIFE IS HARD.
We also had a get-together for the New York Rookie staffers, involving cake and pizza and PIZZA T-SHIRTS.
Lori, acting like it's no big deal that she looks so goddamn cool, and Anaheed, clad in her PIZZA SHIRT and Comme des Garcons and PIZZA SHIRT. Sorry, wanted to make sure you got that: PIZZA SHIRT.
Tonight was the bestest. I held a party with my pal Jonah for a short film he made and I voiced a character for called Cadaver, and after the screening, we danced to the music of a fantastic Jean Ralphio-esque DJ whose name was actually DJ Martial but who myself and my other fashion blog buddies and Rookie staffers referred to as DJ MRAHHHHHH. He asked us for bands to check out and we gave him awful fake band names. Then he was mad at us and apologized for not being cool enough to be in our "pin frown club," because Anaheed was wearing a brooch and I guess we were all frowning. Despite our differences, we bonded over the beauty of Dexy's Midnight Runners and the Spice Girls. MUSIC REALLY DOES BRING PEOPLE TOGETHER.
Here are more photos I took for STOPS, GARAGE Magazine's user-generated style catalog where you can submit your own look and enter in gifting contests for the most creative interpretation of whatever brand or style you're wearing.
Jenna from Jezebel had a really great collar-necklace thing happening, and Claire's dress has faces on it, and the color of the faces' necks matched her socks perfectly, and she has red hair like the faces do, and I freaked out a little bit.
Brodie did a stripes-and-floral situation, also known in all circles that matter as the BEST kind of situation, plus schoolgirl shoes. Meagan was a beautiful witch. Watching her dance was an experience.
Laia solved the problem of wanting to be comfy and dance freely but still look awesome, and her event-appropriate HEART necklace was perfect and looked so good with her tattoos. I wore a vintage Wednesday Addams dress that has 20 buttons on it, tights given to me by the Rodarte sisters, shoes given to me by Rachel Antonoff, and my Twin Peaks/rosary necklace.
For real though, the best decisions I have ever made were starting Rookie, doing Reading Olympics in elementary school, and being on my "Language Arts" teacher's hip hop team in the 8th grade. That footwork is probably the only thing I learned in middle school that I have found myself using often.
I am now at Fashion Week, stalking people whose style I admire to take their picture for STOPS, the street style project of GARAGE Magazine, at which I am a contributing editor. It is one of my favorite fashion magazines ever for how interestingly it incorporates all other kinds of inspiration. I am pleased to work for any fancy publication that would let Edward of Meadham Kirchhoff and I curate our own section devoted to the work of young feminist artists and zinemakers and girls making inspiration diaries from their bedrooms. (I really need to make a video flipping through it soon.) Here are today's subjects, whose pictures I plan on compiling at the end of the week into a game of Guess Who, as well as a quilt, and a giant posterboard to hang in my room that says BEST OF FRIENDS.
I really appreciated MJ's rainbow pills with the black and white crazy pants print.
Arabelle, who also writes for Rookie, could wear sweatpants and still I'd be like OMG YOUR OUTFIT YOUR HAIR, but she also wears vintage lace collars that correspond with her Zana Bayne harnesses and by that point I can't even handle it anymore.
Kristin's very textured self understands my need to be constantly entertained and amused because I kept freaking out about each individual detail. KNEE ZIPPERS OK.
Nicolette was wearing jaguars and polka dots together and it needed to be documented.
And Erin said she hated her school uniform when she was in school and now she is a grown lady who wears that style by choice all the time. I recommend her coverage and lovely photos of Lauren Moffatt's presentation, which fits right in with her adorable outfit.
Here I am, contributing editing. Photo by Arabelle.
Sweater from Edward, skirt gift from Miu Miu, Chloe Sevigny for Opening Ceremony shoes, and I borrowed the bag from Anaheed. The sweater has the little flying heart witch from the album art for Hole's Live Through This, my desert island album. This outfit is kinda like this combined with this.
The necklace is my mom's, the barrettes are all randomly accumulated, and the ring I made by gluing a thing to another thing. Lately all I do is sit at my desk and watch stuff and find things in my room I can glue onto rings or to pipe cleaners to then shape into rings. (I do this using my muscles.) The button my dad got at a retirement party. Little did young Billy (idk) know that he would one day be immortalized on a stranger's sweater! The mints just felt appropriate to include here.
One of my favoritest things in the world is Advanced Style, a street style blog by Ari Seth Cohen of elderly ladies with killer style. Last fashion week, we hosted a party in honor of these women together at the Ace Hotel, and it was really, really inspiring. It was really special to get to hear women with the most interesting style philosophies discuss it together, and guests seemed relieved to be at a non-gross party where people really were just interested in clothing and style and character and celebrating an unabashed enthusiasm for it; the kind of thing that, ironically, often gets lost during a time of year that's supposed to be about fashion. Ari's friend Lina Plioplyte made this video of the night, which makes me smile every time I watch it.
And, while you're renewing your faith in humanity, I really highly suggest watching this trailer for the Advanced Style documentary (!!!!!)
And here's Illona's Stylelikeu video, talking about her eyelashes and being generally amazing.
Wrinkles and scars and imperfections are signs of life, not of being young and naive and sexy and nonthreatening, so if an aging woman doesn't take measures to erase indications that she's built character through experience, if she can no longer be viewed as a sex object or as recently discovered and relevant, she may as well just disappear. It's subversive to age as these women do, making themselves present, because theywant to be. I know now that I'd rather keep all my life scars and be erased for doing so than have to erase them myself. Seriously, these videos are go-to save points for when you feel like the world sucks.
Now I've been combining my aesthetic catalogs with my diary, because it was too hard to carry around a million (or two) books at once and then it's like double the nostalgia and I'll feel really accomplished and complete when I look back and have these cohesive memories and maybe it'll be interesting how the aesthetics end up aligning with whatever diary stuff I am writing about at the time. Wooooo.
Spencer gave me this journal for my Bat Mitzvah. The guys on it are the Young Rascals, because I got that book Five Hundred 45s but I never look at it so I cut out all the album art I want to hang on my walls or use for collaging. The hearts and back are from old wrapping paper from my pal Edward of Meadham Kirchhoff, and the words are from the Young Rascals, too.
I don't have much to write because this one doesn't have a narrative or concept or anything the way some others I've talked about recently have, just a bunch of images and colors that make sense together in my brain:
This is the inside of the back cover of the journal, I forget what 45 it's from.
Album art for Q and Not U, and teacups at Disneyland.
Mary Blair is probably the most important here. She worked at Disney through the '40s-'70s, developing characters and coloring movies like Peter Pan, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Fantasia, and Dumbo. She wore differently tinted glasses every day because she enjoyed the colors, and her nickname at the office was Marijuana Blair. She also designed It's a Small World at Disneyland, which is SUPER IMPORTANT:
I just like Disneyland because it feels frozen in time. Everything is so specific to how it originally was, so even the Churro carts are pretty...
I loved these pictures Spencer's mom let us post on Rookie of her trip there and to Universal Studios in the late '60s and early '70s. When I went a few months ago the trash can in the photo below, on the left, had the same design. See what I mean? I'd just like to force everyone who goes into dressing like Little Bo Peep and then it will finally be the creepy pastel churro utopia I've always dreamed of.
And a letter her friend wrote her while she was there, with matching colors:
Rodarte's Spring 2012 collection was inspired by the rich glowy coloring in old Disney movies, so there must've been a lot of Mary Blair in that inspiration, too. Which then got them to Vincent van Gogh, who used similar colors. The whole thing is a VISUAL DELIGHT.
My French teacher's room, which I was weird and took pictures of during study hall, matches all this.
Kelly O'Connor's collages of It's a Small World, old Disney, and Willy Wonka. The blue and orange diamond one perfectly matches the Churros cart from Disneyland above!
Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka, and the poster font
Munchkinland from The Wizard of Oz
Suzy's entire essence, Frances McDormand's '60s printed dresses, and the font from Moonrise Kingdom
My red saddle shoes, a gift from Rachel Antonoff, and this vintage dress of mine mentioned on the notebook page as "my dress I wore to make churros with Emily & Siobhan." CHURROS ARE SO GOOD YOU GUYS.
Mad Men
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
Old NBC peacock
Colors and prints and shoe/sock situation and slightly prim deal going on with Creatures of the Wind Spring 2012
Colors and shapes in these photos Petra sent me for inspiration
Flight attendant uniforms of the '70s
And here's the snippet from my interview with Daniel Clowes that I wrote about on that notebook page way up above:
What was influential to you growing up, visually? Just the whole world. As a kid I loved the look of the early ’60s, kind of the pre-hippie era, just the haircuts and clothes and the way women dressed, it was really appealing. And then all of a sudden people started wearing, like, filthy clothes and messy hair and stuff. That seemed really hideous and horrible to me. It definitely relates to what was going on in my life at the time because, as with many kids who grew up then, my family was just disintegrating while all that stuff came in, so it represented this chaos that was entering my life. But I still have an affection for that pre-1968 look, that kind of saturated Technicolor look. That seems like the real world to me, or like the way things should be.
