-i've been frequenting some sustainable/green-focused blogs in recent days, and i stumbled across this post by no impact man, the subject matter of which crosses paths with that which i discuss here on bits and bobbins (most of the time, anyway!): fashion, and the urge to create (in my case, primarily, that which adorns the body). he poses a pointed, of-the-moment question pointed at the designers, manufacturers, and makers of the world and the consuming culture at large in which they exist: "how can we reduce the use of resources without squashing the creative drive...? how can we not throw the baby out with the bath water?" -on that same or a related note, check out this article by environmental health perspectives, called waste couture: environmental impact of the clothing industry, that's been making the rounds on the internets lately.
-liisa-maria is the thinking woman's fashionista: she's a fantastically stylish finn with a covetably large marimekko clothing collection, who has a fine arts background, and is now after her PhD in cultural studies. i dare say her brain is one of her finest accessories! i interviewed her back in june 2007 for my remix(ers)_revealed series. she's started a new blog, entitled the suburban queen. it's quickly become one of my favorites, as she eschews the typical fashion-blogger fare, instead taking us for a journey down the fashion road less traveled: chatting about the crossroads of fashion and sustainability, championing quirky personal style, and upholding her mission to fill the uninitiated though interested in on some amazing local scandinavian creative talent that may not be well known outside of those fine countries. AND...she just posted about a marimekko coat i've been secretly coveting for some time now! fabulous.
-a quote i can relate to about fashion itself and the meaning of clothing and adornment, from the new york times style section article entitled admit it. you love it. it matters. (via final fashion):
“I hate it,†Miuccia Prada once remarked to me about fashion, in a conversation during which we mutually confessed to unease at being compelled by a subject so patently superficial.
"'Of course, I love it also,' Ms. Prada added, and her reason said a lot about why fashion is a subject no one should be ashamed to take seriously. “Even when people don’t have anything,†Ms. Prada said, “they have their bodies and their clothes.â€
They have their identities, that is, assembled during the profound daily ritual of clothing oneself; they have, as Colette once remarked, their civilizing masks. And yet, despite its potential as a tool for analyzing culture, history, politics and creative expression; as a form of descriptive shorthand used through all of written history (including the Vedas, the Bible and the Koran); as a social delight, fashion is just as often used as a weapon, a club wielded by those who forget that we are saying something about ourselves every time we get dressed — not infrequently things that fail to convey the whole truth."
-remember the review i did of swede cilla ramnek's book, knitprovisation, some time ago? i love her work. apparently she has a blog (though it hasn't been updated in a dog's age), and is now designing textiles for IKEA! am i the only one who yearns to use IKEA's fabrics for clothing rather than interiors? so colorful and so graphic...just the way i like that which surrounds me, natch.
