bits and bobbins

-following a link from a post on buzzfeed (one of my fave RSS feeds, it never fails to amuse/inform me!), i recently learned about the fashion blog of a 12-year old girl named tavi: style rookie. her site follows the familiar format of many a fashion blog: it’s filled with the requisite daily outfit photos, plus photographic documentation of her style experiments and (thrift and retail) finds, and snippets of this or that from the culture at large that amuses or inspires her. said blog and it’s author could be considered precocious by some, sure…but she seems like a fairly well-versed, articulate young lady with sophisticated tastes, despite her allegedly tender age.

and of course, after perusing her journal, i got to thinking…

is there such a thing as being too young or too old to be interested in style, or too young or old to bother with style? should young (or old) people focus on other things? should aged folks leave matters style to the younger folks? or is style ageless? is one’s young adulthood (say, their 20s, or 30s) culturally the only time upon which caring deeply about fashion and style is acceptable? or is that not true at all?

in reference to tavi and her blog: when is it appropriate for a girl or young woman (or boy/young man) to wrest herself from the whims of her/his parents or guardians to express their own sense of style?

see also: minor alterations, a recent feature from the telegraph that focuses upon how a select selection of designers dress their progeny.

-check out this article from the new york times called everyone’s narcissistic, it seems.

narcissism: it’s the word du jour!

and a very misunderstood/misused word, too.

and hey, the aforementioned article is timely and related!

to what, you say?

why, the discussion i started from the other week about whether photographing yourself/your style = narcissism?

heh. hee.

-what do you think about ink?

some are of the opinion that tattoos are a regrettable trend that will fade and are a blight on otherwise beautiful skin, some feel they are a taboo that goes against the will of god, while many, MANY others find them exquisitely beautiful. (via the telegraph, and the new york times) how many? well, according to the telegraph article, 1 in 2 americans (and 1 in 5 brits) has a tat.

any way you spin it (as i see it), tattoos are a form of self-expression, a signifier of something that is of importance (or at least aesthetically pleasing) to a individual, culture, or subculture. for starters, at least…

but i ask you:

are tattoos a trend that are on their way “out”? or is the art making inroads, just now seeing greater acceptance? conversely, does their acceptance have a long way to go?

are persons who have tattoos to be taken less seriously than those who do not have them? do tattoos say anything about class or class structure? i.e., are those that have them of a lower class, or perceived to be of a lower class by society at large?

from a style/styling oneself sort of perspective: if you have tattoos, do you consider them when getting dressed? are they a part of your style, or separate from it in some manner (i.e. you don’t think about them in relation to your wardrobe/what you wear)?

as far as the quick and dirty this week, why don’t YOU comment with cool crafty/fashion related things that YOU have spotted around the internet(s) this week?

ready, steady…GO!

remember that book (what i wore today: online fashion narcissism from beijing to berlin) we were talking about in the photographing yourself/your style = narcissism? discussion from a few weeks back?

curiously…it looks as if they changed the cover title, AND image.

it’s now titled what i wore today: fashion remixed online from beijing to berlin.

heh, “remixed”???

INTERESTING word choice. again.

(to me anyway!)

i’ve been a long time fan of built by wendy, the nyc-based indie design label by wendy mullin. like, say, since at least the mid-1990s? yeah. i distinctly remember seeing a spread on her in seventeen magazine sometime back then, which i saved as inspiration…

for those who may not familiar with wendy and her eponymous clothing line (where have you been? heh.), do check out her website, built by wendy.

in addition to having stores in major cities across the u.s. (including NYC, chicago, SF and LA), wendy’s also the author of two books focusing on sewing, sew u, and sew u: home stretch (which i promise to review here one of these days, hopefully sooner rather than later!), and has a line of super cute, super chic little sewing patterns, available via the simplicity pattern company.

anyway, i love the aesthetic of wendy’s designs…it’s all a little bit of a throwback to decades past, a little nostalgic, but always sweet and girlish. her work has a distinctly crafty ethos…which is directly reflective of who she is and where she comes from. she claims she just wanted to “make things,” from the get-go. that desire led to all of her future endeavors and successes in the design world. and clearly, she’s remained humble through it all, and willing to share her secrets and inspire crafty young women the way she was inspired.

so, on those notes, i was delighted to run across this video this past week from etsy that features wendy and her work, called handmade portraits: built by wendy. i thought i’d share it!

enjoy!