Dear Elsa Schiaparelli:

thank you for introducing fashion to surrealism. I really hope the new team at your house does justice to its name. Also, you really shouldn’t have smoked, but I guess it’s a little late to tell you that…

7 January Permalink

I have decided

For the past few years I have relaxed into the dangerously comfortable pattern of throwing on the first decent set of clothes that I can find in the morning that don’t completely repel each other. I’m the chick who actually looks better on laundry day, because the jeans and tees are out of stock and all that’s left is a handful of dressy blouses that make everyone feel obliged to ask me if I have an interview lined up.

For as long as I can remember, this has been my simple one-liner excuse: I have no personal sense of style. I’ve never been one of those girls whose innate eye for fashion keeps her from buying redundant, boring pieces that look like everything else she owns, and allows her to dress like everyday is fashion week. This doesn’t mean I don’t know good design when I see it - I’m a fashion student, for heaven’s sake - it just means I don’t know how to use it very well. It’s like having a car and not knowing how to drive one. Rather useless, no?

I attribute the gross underdevelopment of this skill set to these factors:

- I wore a uniform throughout my school years. I only had to plan 3 outfits a week: what I would wear to youth group on Friday, what I would wear if we went shopping on Saturday, and what I would wear to church on Sunday. While this same scenario is a personal style incubator for some, it made me lazy.

- I’ve always lived in very simply dressed communities. Before Cape Town, I had never lived any place where people actually cared a great deal what they put on and paid a considerable amount of attention to what other people wore. I hadn’t fallen in love with fashion for fashion’s sake yet, so I thought, what was the point of the effort it took if there was no one to appreciate it?

- I never really put any work/thought into styling myself, assuming that my love for and appreciation of good design would somehow spontaneously play out in my ‘look.’ I have only fairly recently discovered the amount of work that goes into developing a look of your own. Also, I revere simplicity. I am the antithesis of Anna Dello Russo (love her though).

- I’m a little bipolar about style - I love everything. I’m not partial to one or two aesthetics; each is beautiful in its own way. I don’t like all of them, but I like too many to pick just one. Always my problem…

But all this changes today. Today I have decided to develop a personal style that takes all this into consideration, and allows me to express my indecisive, finger-in-every-pot style personality. Jeans and tees are alpha and omega, but I need to learn the rest of the alphabet (deep, right? no? oh well). So I’ll be honing in on some new style icons and trying out some concepts. Undoubtedly, there will be days when it looks like the monster of a million blogger closets threw up on me, but I am prepared. The great thing about learning not to care about other people’s opinions - and the sneers and whispers that come with them - is that you live more - everything is more fun with less self-consciousness and inhibitions.

I’m calling my new style ‘Basic Experimental’ (because Exper-ordinary just sounded weird): an investigation into what I look good in, no matter what style it is.

31 October Permalink

Squeal! - Mr.Price opens up online store

I am happy today.

I am also sad.

Ask me why.                  

Seriously, ask me.

I am happy because Mr. Price opened up their online store on the 30th of July. I am happy because they timed it well, opening up their store just when SA is finally starting to catch on to the whole online shopping thing. I am happy because over the past few years, they have really raised the quality of their designs (production, not so much), and started featuring capsule collections like Amber Jones for Mr.Price and collaborations like Holmes Brothers and Mr.Price. I am happy because Mr. Price’s new approach means great things for South African design talent. I am happy because of their plans to expand on the African continent and the jobs they’ll create by doing so.

I am sad because despite how much I love the new Mr.Price, I spent a truckload of money at Dermalogica this month and I am now kinda flat broke.

But such is life. Have a great weekend. :)

10 August Permalink