Summer Camp Destroys My Attractiveness Possibilities

So I got a job at a summer camp at a nature center. Goodbye pretty clothes, goodbye fun purses, goodbye cute shoes. Hello sports t-shirts and khaki shorts everyday!Basically I'm trying to excuse why I haven't updated in forever.


Instead of necklaces and jewelry I wear a lanyard with a plastic name-tag and keys attached. Plus my dad's man watch (I actually kind of like this addition).

I also wear tie-dye now. No, I'm serious.




Aaaand I wear these combo hiking/river shoes. They're like legitimate crocs. Oh yeah, I'm serious.



And this is my new carryall.

So I'm sorry I never post anymore, you can kind of see why. I hope you guys are having an awesome summer! And I will be updating, just probably far less personal fashion shots. And I'm hoping to be going to New York in the fall, so my outfits will not go to waste! But admit it, the river shoes are kind of cool...

Givenchy Goes Coed

Can you spot what's new in this picture?

Givenchy designer Riccardo Tisci is "using a transsexual among the cast for the house’s fall-winter ad campaign", a Brazilian named Lea T.

This is utterly fabulous, I love it. It reminds me of an earlier post where I talked about gender and fashion. That model is beautiful and everyone knows I love gender ambiguity, I'm excited for the new ad campaign!

Remember This?

Remember back in February when I was complaining about American Apparel? Well apparently somebody else hates them too. The best way to explain is to quote the site itself (I bolded the pertinent parts):

" 'American Able' intends to, through spoof, reveal the ways in which women with disabilities are invisibilized in advertising and mass media. I chose American Apparel not just for their notable style, but also for their claims that many of their models are just ‘every day’ women who are employees, friends and fans of the company. However, these women fit particular body types. Their campaigns are highly sexualized and feature women who are generally thin, and who appear to be able-bodied. Women with disabilities go unrepresented, not only in American Apparel advertising, but also in most of popular culture. Rarely, if ever, are women with disabilities portrayed in anything other than an asexual manner, for ‘disabled’ bodies are largely perceived as ‘undesirable.’ In a society where sexuality is created and performed over and over within popular culture, the invisibility of women with disabilities in many ways denies them the right to sexuality, particularly within a public context.

Too often, the pervasive influence of imagery in mass media goes unexamined, consumed en masse by the public. However, this imagery has real, oppressive effects on people who are continuously ‘othered’ by society. The model, Jes Sachse, and I intend to reveal these stories by placing her in a position where women with disabilities are typically excluded."

Personally I think this is totally awesome, although it brings up conflicted feelings. On the one hand, it is totally unrealistic and kind of sick that we only use models that look completely different than the majority of people in society, and marginalize anyone that looks different. On the other, if I were a clothing designer and I wanted to show off my new line, of course I want to do it on fit, attractive people (at which point the problem ceases to be with fashion per se, but with the warped minds of the people, which are heavily influenced my magazines, back and forth, on and on. Phew!). You're selling America a fantasy, saying "if you buy this Marc Jacobs dress you'll be 93 pounds and gorgeous too". At least most runways don't claim to host "normal" people, they admit they deal with fantasy. Which is not to say that it makes it OK for designers to do that, just that I appreciate that man of them seem to recognize that they are fostering unrealistic expectations.

I think what bothers me so much about American Apparel is exactly what she says above, their claim to normalcy. It's normal to be stick thin with a huge rack and booty, to wander around all day scantily clad and be as sexual as possible. Hey little girls, everyone is like us, we're normal.

But then again, maybe I'm just taking this all way too seriously. What do you think, of the photos, the reasoning behind them, everything?

ETA: Another "article" on the subject (I say "article" because it's on Perez Hilton)

Check Me Out: Flavor Flav Edition

Check me out, with my new timepiece and snazzy shoes. Funny story, this store Alexi & I both enjoy off the Belmont stop on the red line (that's el talk for all the Chicagoans out there) called Nevermind was having some sort of sale. Despite going there separately, we each ended up with the same pair of shoes. Clearly pretty minds think alike.

dress is thrifted, shoes from Nevermind in Chicago, jacket and hair bow are Forever 21, watch necklace from ModCloth.com

SKINS

I am so completely totally 100% obsessed with the UK series Skins.

Seriously, I'm addicted, I need help.

Maybe at a later (less BUSYBUSYBUSY) date I'll go ahead and post something more in-depth about the fashion on Skins, but for now please enjoy my picturexplosion.

OSCARS

Who cares who won? Let's admire the pretty!

Starting with the "ugh, what were you thinking?" category:




Blech, enough of that. I'm moving on to clothes I like, care to join me?

Shoe Lust

I want these. So fucking badly. The $3480 price tag is pretty off-putting though.
Site you can buy them at
The amazing Luxirare post I found them in.

Charity Case?

Who wants to help me raise £500.00 so I can have this girdle dress? Any takers? No? Fine, be that way...

(P.S. I first saw this from Style Bubble, because Susie Bubble is the shit)

Elitism

"People of Walmart" is a website I think pretty much everyone has seen, and let's be honest, it's really funny. Mostly it has people at Walmart, either dressed trashy or looking completely insane. The things people are wearing go beyond the territory of faux-pas, and straight into ridiculous mockability. However, when surfing the site I can't help but notice that the majority of those presented do not look well off. In fact many of them appear dirty, unkempt, or to be wearing extremely old garments. Which begs the question, is it OK to mock the poor for bad clothing? I would hope the answer is no, but that brings us back to the website, which apparently says it is.

This in turn got me thinking about the problem that many people have with the fashion industry, which is that it is an elitist institution. Not only are the clothes expensive, but they change every season, meaning one has to toss out the old and buy buy buy the new. Not only does that make the lower class (and even the middle) exempt from current style, it's also completely unsustainable. One can always shop vintage or try one of these eco-friendly fashion groups, but the point still stands. I like to argue that fashion is an art form, and art has always been superfluous and ridiculous. However, I'm not sure if that still applies. Is fashion an art and thus exempt from our usual judgements? Is it an elitist intuition? And, is people of Walmart a hilarious blog or a cruel way to mock the less fortunate?

East Meets West

This is a beyond amazing shirt my good friend Sally Johnson made in weaving class in high school. The assignment was East meets West, so she made a kimono style top out of denim with beautiful rainbow silk. I modeled it for her so she could submit it to a contest. I still think this is one of the most innovative yet wearable designs I've ever seen.

In addition to the Sally Johnson original top I am wearing Urban Outfitter's jeans and vintage cowboy boots. Photography done by Sally Johnson, make-up and hair done by Allie Moore (2007).

Lookbook!

I finally did it, I applied to lookbook! I got an automatic response along the lines of "we're not taking anyone new now but we'll let you know when we send out more invites" which probably means "absolutely not" but I'm excited anyways.

Genny Finally Speaks

Alexi is putting me to shame with her plethora of posting, so I finally decided to write something. This weekend I got some decent shopping in and bought these two skirts from Urban, which I'm way excited about. I love studded things, especially studded shoes (of which I own none) and studs were big at fashion week this year.


I haven't worn the tulle skirt yet, but this is how I wore the studded one today.




The sweater is from Target, the skirt, tank, and tights are from Urban.

Two Dolls in the City

Photoshoot in the city!










Genny is wearing a dress found at Ella's Vintage Clothing (Traverse City, MI), Steve Madden boots, H&M socks, and a Salvation Army purse. Alexi is wearing a skirt and t-shirt from a flea market in SIngapore and boots from Zara.