Welcome to click click, the sporadic review of what I find worth clicking on the internet.
These incredible photographs of elaborate nail art are by artist Helen Maurene Cooper. As a personal coda to my trend ender on nail art, the brilliant writer Brittany Julious recalls her own experiences growing up in Chicago.
- On the Leakiness of Surveillance Culture, the Corporate Gaze, and What That Has To Do With the New Aesthetic – this thoughtful essay converges on the unintentional effects, both practical and aesthetic, that computers are having on modern life. Found via one of my favourite link roundups, recently revived after a hiatus, Owl Pellets by The Grumpy Owl. His internet digest contains the remains of baseball, science, history and literature.
- What a 16th Century Guild Teaches Us About Competition – When worsted wool was developed, guilds tried to take control this new technology. Planet Money is an excellent podcast – also check out A Former Crack Dealer on the Economics of Drugs and The 15-Year-Old Who Bought Two Houses.
- How to be a human being on the internet – reconciling personal and professional identities on the internet is a complex task for anyone, but it seems like there are more pitfalls for writers. Related: Ana discusses her own development as a fashion writer and taking time.
- How To Make It In Blogmerica – Sady Doyle writes an honest post about what it takes to be a young writer that very closely resembles my own experience. It riffs off of an article she wrote about Lena Dunham, in which she points out that for every Dunham, there are many more rich kids that just waste their advantages. Sady also wrote a poignant afterword about her mother.
- The enduring art and artifice of fashion week street style – Stefania shares some reflections on a full month of shooting outside of fashion shows. Related – Kris Atomic pulls back.
Karma in the air…
- artcareercafe.com - a project to support creative work founded by v.p.s. cartographie
- Innovation Meltdown – “a destination for sharing new IDEAS”
- Corrine Monique – “I’m a fashion designer & illustrator, photographer, stylist, & musician.”
- nuitdepluie – “art knows no boundaries, boundaries don’t keep me from travelling, travelling is moving, moving is living, living is breathing, breathing is speaking, speaking is communication, communication is friends, friends are life, life is love, love is art…”
- nouvelle/nouveau - “You’re always haunted by the idea you’re wasting your life.”
- rubyBASTILLE – “books~style~food~fantasticness”
- Zoë Hong - “founded on the concept of “future heirlooms”: beautiful, well-crafted pieces that transcend trend”
- kelseyannedotme – “hey hi hello”
- 21 views and up – “I’m 21 years old and I have views. The Up is about growing older and wiser (I hope!).”
Welcome to click click, the sporadic review of what I find worth clicking on the internet.
Photos of the grounds of Versailles, taken between 1907-1920, via Rococo Revisited. On a more contemporary, less poignant note, I’m going to watch this documentary tomorrow.
Karma for commenters and linkers… a long list of lovelies this edition!
- Lucis 7 – “I’m Luci and this is where I like to post some of my works as fashion designer, random writings and share things i like.”
- Living Life Barefoot – “Sometimes life is a little more fun when the shoes come off.”
- feather spirit – “connecting to creativity, soul, nature and self-care”
- Un Petit Bijou – “a place for my musings on my personal style, building the perfect wardrobe, fashion and the little (often forgotten) things that inform individual style, elegance and grace.”
- Caroline Fryar – “Knitter. Spinner. Designer. Gardener.”
- SSTATUS – “the only blog where the things you don’t care about get talked about like someone cares”
- AnybodySomebodyNobody – “a style blog that is for those who live in Dubai and further afield, don’t like the term ‘fashionista’ and just like to hear about what’s beautiful, unique and coveted in the eye of this beholder.”
- Clare Herbert – “I’m a writer, non-profit communications specialist, mentor & student currently based in Dublin, Ireland.”
- The Mixtape Journal - Tara’s London style blog.
- Planet617 Photography – “Boston based photographer primarily interested in collaborating with fashion professionals to help bring their creative vision to market.”
- Smoking Lily – “Our creations are sewn and silk-screened in-house by a handful of talented women who believe in making quality goods that they love to wear, and hope that you will too.”
- Psynopsis – “I wasn’t only interested in discussing self-adornment, but also in art and the wider aspects of fashion, styling and design”
- The Tea Stylist – “bringing style to the art of tea appreciation”
- Hepwright’s Vintage Fashion – “you will find wonderful hand picked vintage clothes, accessories, homewares, textiles and collectibles”
- Wardrobe Oxygen – “Personal Style by Alison Gary”
- Breeyn McCarney – “works to balance her interest in politics and world events with her drive to create beautiful objects of fashion.”
Welcome to click click, the sporadic review of what I find worth clicking on the internet.
J.C. Leyendecker was one of the greatest fashion illustrators at a time when illustration dominated magazine covers and advertising, idealizing the sophisticated men of his time. This well researched post offers deeper insight into Leyendecker’s career and life.
- The Norma Rae of Fashion Interns – this inevitable lawsuit makes me wonder… if the fashion industry doesn’t “owe” its unpaid interns anything, why does it have them?
- Fashion Week Etiquette Breach – this turf war makes me wonder when the first truly hybrid pit-photographer/fashion blogger will emerge? There’s an opportunity open for a clever blogger with real camera skills.
- you thought we wouldn’t notice – further to the discussion of copy culture, this watchdog site documents graphic gangsterism at its most blatant. However, many of the apparent rip-offs are based on creations that are already in grey areas of image appropriation. Via Nick.
- Why Fashion Keeps Tripping Over Race – this 2011 article by Robin Givhan is worth revisiting. Since fashion’s creative leaders have more aesthetic intelligence than political awareness, the treatment of race tends to be very superficial.
- What’s a $4000 Suit Worth? – you can’t scale skill – which means that master craftsmen will never reap great rewards. Capitalism has progressively killed all occupations that involve hands and human experience, no wonder there are so few great creators left.
Karma kids -
- Another Garçon – I’m very pleased to be among some fantastic illustrators who have rendered Jonathan’s fine features.
- Black & Blonde – “Lindsay offers insightful fashion commentary, beauty tutorials, and a little dash of her Brooklyn lifestyle!”
Welcome to click click, the sporadic review of what I find worth clicking on the internet.
1972projects by John Michael ties the ephemeral nature of fashion to larger themes of creative ambition and death with incredible sensitivity, displayed using unconventional collage style that defies search engines and browsers alike. Dive in with two favourites of mine: PROGRESS – Vogue’s Class of 2000, and SCRATCH – Under Tom Ford’s Skin.
- John Waters – an irreality-check with our “filth elder”. Lucky for us, Waters is promoting a book and blitzing the media, dropping dirty bombs of wit and wisdom just when we need it the most. Via Already Pretty.
- The Rise and Fall of Grunge Typography – I just finished reading the excellent social history Just My Type and so this post was an appropriate post-script. I have always been intimidated by type – as the default font choices on this blog demonstrate. Having given it more examination I’ve realized that it is just another lens, of fashion, like fashion. Via Nextness.
- Life in the Boogie Nights Hotel: #NYFW – if you chase the fleeting attentions of high fashion, you run with the herd at your own risk. Model Cailin Hill isn’t just pretty, she’s perceptive.
- Clothes on Film – fantastic long form interviews with costume designers and in-depth interpretations of famous films and the clothes that characters wear. Via Theatre of Fashion. Also worth checking out: the audio parallel Movies on the Radio.
- How to Succeed in Journalism when You Can’t Afford an Internship – Alexandra Kimball discusses the difficulties of launching a career in a competitive field without external financial support. I wrote a while back about how I’ve bet my career on blogging rather than interning – and it amounts to the same thing; the necessity of doing a vast amount of work up front for an uncertain payout in the distant future, and living at a subsistence level for years.
- Foxy Ladies – an interesting article about the strange oxymoron of extreme conservative glamour.
- The Skirt: Why Are Women Obsessed With Personal Style Blogs? – unpacking the crazy closet that style blogging has become. Aside, as the phenomenon has entered its immature meta-phase some peculiar schisms are developing.
- Pleasure - a delightful short documentary from 1977 about British fetish dressing including fabulous footage of Jordan, the iconic shop assistant at McLaren’s SEX boutique. Via Worn Journal.
Keep the karma…
- Eleanor Büsing Interiors - “I love to create inspiring spaces that reflect the personalities and passions of their owners.”
- from Kitchen to Studio – “a place where I usually do and share my craft activities”
- veronicamarche – “I illustrate fashion figures with a sense of fun, energy and movement, and I love using multicultural characters.”
- NOEMMI – “Design process and inspiration log.”
- a fashion design blog – “a space that curates design, art, music, culture and everything that fashion lovers can drive inspiration from.”
Welcome to click click, the sporadic review of what I find worth clicking on the internet.
My most recent art fascination has been the work of Yves Klein, whose obsession with infinite skies and the colour blue resonates with my own spiritual proclivities so vividly. His signature “international” blue vibrates in my mind, and I don’t want to look away. I long to see this colour without the lens of the computer monitor. I discovered his story through this wonderful BBC series on art and colour, and his photo composite “Leap into the Void” is a new personal philosophical momento of mine.
- Strawberry Fields Whatever - it is amazing when you lose track of a beloved blogger only to rediscover them all over again. Laura Jane Fauld‘s now-defunct site, nogoodforme.com was an old favourite blog, and her new site contains much more to love.
- How I Built A Fashion Brand With No Experience - an interesting talk by a young NYC entrepreneur who created a niche brand, using the internet to bypass as many layers of industry conventions as possible. Via Isaac Likes.
- Shamepuff – the inevitable product of fashion blogging’s crisis of conscience is this site, airing criticism that is harsh but often fair. It seems that finally the painful, un-pretty discussion of whether fashion bloggers are “helping or hurting ourselves” has found its forum.
- Jane Pratt’s Perpetual Adolescence – I was born too late to be a Sassy reader and never liked Jane’s blend of alt-Cosmo celebrity pandering, and I think Pratt’s True Confessions style website represents the worst type of influence on modern female media creators… but I believe her Warholian presence is well worth keeping a wary eye on. Aside, the expansion of The Cut is terrific, and I can’t wait to see it take on NYFW.
- Ask Me Don’t Tell Me - Ryan of For Everybody often uncovers unlikely subcultural artifacts, and this newsreel-style documentary of youth gangs doing community work in 1960s San Francisco is an excellent example.
Karma foreva…
Welcome to click click, the sporadic review of what I find worth clicking on the internet.
Here are two broken-down doll posers found on recent image searches. What do you think it is about a clichéd, busted jumble of lanky limbs that is so perennially appealing?
- Hype! – this excellent 1996 documentary covers the rise and fall of grunge over a decade in Seattle, from the economic and cultural disconnection that allowed a new subculture to develop, to the eventual pop dissolution.
- Can you make any kind of living as an artist? - no, you won’t make a “reasonable living” from creative pursuits, not that you should be concerned with reasonability. Being comfortable inhibits creativity – and as the link above exhibits, so-called success can be downright toxic. As long as you’re adequately fed and sheltered, money is immaterial to art.
- The Terrors & Occasional Virtues of Not Knowing What You’re Doing - I’ve been quite into the idea of unplanning lately, so this story by Jad Abumrad about stumbling his way into creating a new type of radio genre fascinates me. While I’m talking audio, my latest podcast obsession is the Slate Culture Gabfest discovered via Jessica.
- Future Uniforms: The Failed MLB Promo of the 90s – the axis of uniform design, futurism, and baseball represent a subject singularity within a single link for The Grumpy Owl. Ryan also shared a couple insightful interviews recently: Stanley Kubrick and MF Doom.
- Does the Fashion Critic Matter Anymore? – Colin McDowell assesses the dubious relevance of the ephemeral phenomenon that is fashion criticism, whether it is practiced by professionals or amateurs. Does the obscure art of the show review have any afterlife?
Karma to show my appreciation…
Welcome to click click, the sporadic review of what I find worth clicking on the internet.
I have been half-watching Edie Sedgewick’s factory films Poor Little Rich Girl and Beauty #2 in the background as I work this week. These films are full of it. More factory ephemera here.
- Paris is Burning – Anita introduced me to this incredible documentary about the emergence and evolution of Voguing.
- Experts on North Korea Can See a Lot in a Hemline - one of the only contemporary examples of how cultural protectionism functions practically is North Korea, so it’s fascinating to see how small shifts in fashion can be so significant in a very controlled, isolated environment.
- Who let the blondes out? – Kelly Korducki says, “Blondeness is power. It’s post-aspirational.” I agree. Also on Blood.Guts.Hands: body hair and mixed signifiers.
- Condé Nast Salaries: How Much Do Those Editors Really Make? – these numbers were higher than I expected. Then I read about how everyone else thinks they’re quite low. It seems I have a poor sense of what a lot of money is, perhaps because of how much a fashion illustrator really makes.
- What does it mean to be cool? – like beauty and sexual attractiveness, there is a cool ‘ideal’ that is formed when many subjective, individual conceptions of ‘cool’ overlap. This article explores how that overlap has shifted since ‘cool’ became a thing. Found in this excellent link post on Nextness.
- Fabric Bike – creative Canadian girl crush.
Karma, merci.
and finally, an overdue post-script…
- guessing this is about final fashion – wherein I respond to an indirect reader reaction, to explain where a bad post came from. Confusing, controversial, and cryptic digital emissions are cover-ups for something we think we can’t post about.
Welcome to click click, the sporadic review of what I find worth clicking on the internet.
If you’re not already a beard aficionado, Jonathan Pryce‘s charming new photo project 100 Beards, 100 Days will convert you to the scruffy side.
- Colors – if you find the magical and mystifying properties of color as fascinating as I do, you’ll enjoy this radio documentary.
- Manolo the First Fashion Blogger? – a great refresher on the real innovators of fashion blogging, making me a bit nostalgic for the way it used to be. Now that fashion bloggers are aggressively professionalizing, there’s too much polish and not enough sparkle.
- Born to Die: Lana Del Rey and Women using their Sexuality – I love this line of thinking… to me the idea that feminist depictions of women have to be limited to the positive or political or powerful – chains down creativity. We need female Citizen Kanes, female Tony Montanas, female Michael Jacksons… fatally flawed, complicated, difficult stories matter too. We don’t demand idealist perfection from male cultural icons. Tragedy is a valid and valuable form of expression for all human beings. We need bad role models just as much as good ones, or how can we tell the difference?
- Threaded – the new fashion-but-not-just-fashion history blog from the Smithsonian is a virtual treasure box.
- Teen Vogue Will Never Pledge to Promote ‘Beauty in All Forms’ Because It Doesn’t Want To – and personally I admire the unequivocal honesty. Vogue is a fashion magazine, not a women’s magazine. The brand is about hierarchies and hegemony, equality has no place on those pages. Somehow I wouldn’t be surprised to see Seventeen slip into second place for all its good (?) intentions. The real lesson for kids and editors alike, I suspect, is that like life, fashion isn’t fair.
- Q: Why Do We Wear Pants? A: Horses – there’s a bifurcation/equestrian correlation.
Karma -
- Life.Style.Fun – “Wannabe artist, in love-hate relationship with fashion, overthinker, information addict, honest and hypocrite.”
- Anabel Maldonado – “I am a London-based writer and editor.”
- A Creative Reality – “a compilation of inspiration with a focus on creative individuals, events, entrepreneurship and fashion.”
- Ether Fields - “You’re always haunted by the idea you’re wasting your life.”
Welcome to click click, the sporadic review of what I find worth clicking on the internet.
These striking photos record how student demonstrators in Montreal are wearing the red square as a symbol of the right to gather in protest, and access to to higher education. See more and learn more at Worn Journal.
Karma for karma’s sake…
- The Make Escape – a cute monthly craft social in Hackney that I’ve participated in a couple of times. Great way to meet new people and get your hands working on something other than a keyboard.
- vivart dream - “I’m an aspiring designer, author, actress, singer, and artist. In other words…Super Girl!”
- Awkward Stage – “amazing people are working on wonderful empires right in our own back yard”
Welcome to click click, the sporadic review of what I find worth clicking on the internet.
These fashion shots from 1972 were found on The 70′s Fashion Found Archive which directed me to the massive treasure box of vintage fashion imagery collected by dovima_is_devine_II.
Karma rama llama…
- stitch mode - “imagine someone who never stops talking”
- olive yew! – “Petite Simple Jewelry”
- icon m. – “Marta (18) loves sketching&drawing and does it all the time. big fan of art, fashion, interior design and spaghetti.”
- evelyn rowland - “I’m an urban sketcher”
