A quick note for the blog…

2009-10-17T13:55:00.000-07:00

Last.fm is like the friend you don't have that just has the cataclysmic taste in music so powerful you find yourself avoiding them because every other word is a song suggestion. And this is not because they’re bad people, or annoying or arrogant… too much good music at once is just overwhelming. And on Last.fm, actually liking what you hear is inevitable because they synch up your iTunes and get all the information on the kind of music you like and create this monster of a radio station that only plays good. music. O_O

So… I limit my use of that transcendent little webbie in order to enjoy new artists one at a time. And fully. And it was on one of those routine walks about the airwaves that a devilish little guy called Voxtrot stuck out his foot and tripped me and made me fall irrevocably in love with a music that spoke out so honestly and voiced all the things that I’d been troubled about all week. And one Voxtrot song in particular, “Brother In Conflict,” stuck out more than the song about sending letters, and the song about the destructive banalities of life or the song about winter. “Brother In Conflict” was the song about humanity. And one line that’s just so so relevant to this whole project rings out like a friendly phone call breaking the silence of days and weeks and months, and it goes like this:

“I turned my back on beauty, it’s a manmade crime.”

And what is more manmade and “beautiful” than the narcissistic animal of fashion? I have a love hate relationship with fashion. I have a lot of emotional stock on the artistic and aesthetic aspects of life. So fashion as art is the obvious justification for being so captivated by it- something to distract you from thinking about vanity.

But that doesn’t change the fact that having underpaid, overworked, blistered third-world country hands sew up thousands upon thousands of versions of the same identical tasteless black dress you got for $15 at Forever 21 for the sake of buying something… is tasteless.

Brother In Conflict by Voxtrot

Sheree

A New Day Dawns

2009-10-12T08:22:00.000-07:00

Today, October 12th, marks the beginning of our journey into a simpler life. Today we begin with our adventure, and honestly, I'm a little scared. I've never been one to stick with things well, and i have a bit of a problem with change. And here I am starting a Fashion Blog! Go figure.

The Challenge: 2 YEARS, no shopping in malls or retail stores; only thrift, vintage, and consignment stores.

The Reason: Well for me, it is as follows in the paragraphs below.

The Guidelines: We'll each create our own.

The Problem: We're teenagers...

Before the beginning of this year when I met Sheree, I never thought much about how much Fashion in the high school system defines us as teenagers. I never thought about that oh-so- practiced ritual of complementing a girl on her "cute dress" or "adorable jeans", followed by the inevitable question of where they were purchased. It's always been nice to tell someone that you think they look good, but why ask where their clothes are from? What good does that information actually do for you? We might not really think about it, but actually deep down we really want to know the cost. Does the praise continue after you tell them that your shirt's from Walmart? No, and the satisfaction of the "complimentee" would be greatly heightened if their response was "Oh, it's from Urban Outfitters" because it implies that their clothes were actually worth something.

Sheree told me about how this mass consumerism depresses her. She's from Florida, and she was telling me that every store here in Virginia is exactly the same as back there; from the untouched, $200 ball gown down to the dingiest reject shirt stuffed aimlessly back into the racks. It got me thinking: is meticulously following the trends and fads really worth losing my individuality? I mean as much as I hate to admit it, clothes define you as a person just as much as personality does. It might suck, but thats the ugly truth.

So here we are taking a stand for everything unique and special that we know teenagers can represent! We want to prove that it's possible for kids to do something different and still be accepted. We want to show people that you don't have to pour all of the contents of your wallet out on clothes without personality and with a huge price tag. Most of all, we want to have fun doing it. We have no idea if anyone at all will actually follow our blog, but we will still update it with pictures, ideas, and such in hopes that our efforts will touch somebody, if not just ourselves.

Blogs like this should have rules to follow, but I'm not exactly the type of girl who's great with those... So here, alas, are the guidelines for myself:

1. It only applies to clothes, no household goods.

2. I can go shopping in malls and stuff on special occasions (i.e: christmas, prom, etc...) but I will my best to stay away. (Yeah, this means that most of my friends birthday and christmas presents will be bought second hand o_O...)

3. For everything I buy at the thrift store, I will document in pictures or words on this blog.

4. I'll do it for TWO WHOLE years!!!

I'm excited for this new experience, and I hope it will work out for the best. Wish me luck!

-Abby

Like A Girl Changes Clothes...

A quick note for the blog…

A New Day Dawns