Where is My Mind

It's hard to believe it's been over a year since I first penned these journal entries (remember that I wrote my 2014 journal entries in a 2013 diary?) and a lot has changed since then. These feelings of uncertainty towards my partner have since been resolved, or rather I was able to express them and feel so much better for it. We're back together now but that feeling of freedom and being in touch with my own body and soul was so grounding. Anyway given that I spent a lot of time composing these thoughts and creating little doodles to accompany them I thought they needed to exist online as well as tangibly. Or that maybe someone would find these photos at just the right time and deem it some sort of miracle and take comfort in these words frozen on the page. The human experience is always an embarrassing debacle but there are rare moments of exceptional beauty. Not the stuff of art films but memories which crystallize in our minds and we will hold on to for decades to come. I take comfort knowing that people have extended such kindness and warmth to me in the past, and those moment are just as powerful as being told that I am loved. In those moments words are not needed, I feel it all around me and there can be nothing more perfect or powerful.

I can feel it

I've been so up and down lately it's hard to know whether a feeling will last for more than a moment. Lately all I can do is act as a vessel through which these emotions flow through- try not to freak out and just enjoy it. That's meant crying a lot at uni, wiping away the tears, reapplying makeup and then getting on with the job. Talking about my feelings with good friends, no matter how irrational and strange they might seem has really helped me a lot. My friends have been unbelievably patient and supportive throughout the last couple of months and I feel truly blessed. I didn't have the same support network when I went through high school, then again I never quite felt like this in high school. I chased boys but never was my love reciprocated. In many ways I was a late bloomer, although now I know that not to be true. I mentioned a few weeks ago I thought I wanted time alone and to grow but it turns out all I really wanted was friendship.

1- Naomi Campbell, 2- Angelina Jolie. 3- Larissa Hofmann at Fausto Puglisi Spring 2015 Backstage, 4- Ali Michael shot by Petra Collins, styled by Alexandra Horton, 5- A special MEAT by Nicolas Coulomb by Georgia Pendlebury & Florence Tétier. 7 & 10- Kate Bogucharskaia at Andrew Gn Spring 2014 PFW, 9- Baby It's You lookbook by Shop Tunnel Vision. 11- unknown via. 12- via, 14.
6, 8, 13- Marina Fini tumblr.

Lady Petrov'as tips for Blogging

You may remember several weeks ago I got to attend Lady Petrova's Social Media Socialite Class- this class in particular was aimed at how companies can better use social media to promote the aesthetic of their store, but a lot of these tips were applicable to fashion bloggers too. Obviously I can't give away all her magical secrets (and highly recommend that if you are in Melbourne you attend her next class!) so instead I wanted to present just some of her blogging tips. Of course, many of you will already be familiar with some of these but if you, like me follow blogging intuitively rather than from a manual than hopefully there will be something useful for you. So, without further ado:

1.) Know your audience: for many bloggers, they are trying to attract the attention of like-minded people or inspire others. I try and present an alternative in how to approach personal style and frequently break so-called fashion rules and twist the narrative. Featuring the work of others who I admire is also important as it forces me to consider what I like and dislike about their brand and how it relates to me on a very personal level. I also frequently check what other blogs my followers are reading as a way of expanding my own social circle and think about what my *competitors* are offering.

2.) Every single post needs to add value to the reader's lives. This means no fodder! Often when I review a brand it is important for me to offer a personal opinion or find some kind of pop culture reference rather than summarize what others have already written. Writing style is therefore important, as well as the editing process in order to avoid grammatical errors and inaccurate information. You want to avoid being contacted by a company correcting you, which is the online equivalent to your pants spontaneously dropping.

3.) Organise your social media. If you're like me and studying full-time then it means scheduling content ahead of time. This gives me more time to edit photos and structure paragraphs around a collection, as well as grouping together certain clusters of posts by aesthetic. In case you haven't noticed I'm a bit of a control freak and this works well for me on many levels but if you enjoy being a bit more spontaneous you can schedule some posts.  Unfortunately this means that I don't really have the chance to discuss things as they happen and post in real-time. That's what apps like Instagram are for, which leads me to:

4.) Posting regularly. While I have managed to master regular content on my blog I often forget to update my instagram and twitter accounts regularly. However, these make a big difference in my weekly and monthly stats and I would consider them necessary as part of the bigger picture. It's also important to establish which social media stream is your "home base" and what other channels are accessory to that. So for example, I use Tumblr, Twitter and Instagram (rarely Facebook) to redirect traffic back to my blog and use that as my home base. 

5.) Think about what things look like on your phone. What's the thing we are constantly criticized for? You're always on your phone/ obsessed with your phone/ attached to the phone. There's a theory that if aliens floated down to observe the human race they would probably think these little rectangles were necessary to our existence. However, many teens and twenty-something year old's use their phones in order to connect with the people they feel most attached to, but also read blogs and shop online. A basic understanding of coding will be really useful in aligning every image and making everything look much neater!

While there were other gems of wisdom I picked up throughout the course of the afternoon I would say these are the most helpful, but there's also this really useful thing called the Internet which you can use to search for something as specific as running an instagram account or translating each step of MyIdol (remember that guys????). It's all part of making these everyday things part of your routine in the revolving door of, "hey I exist! I'm here!" whilst offering something unique and different.

1- Acer X Christian Cowan-Sanluis. 2 & 6- Photos by Petra Collins for Dazed Digital.3, 5 & 7- Arvida Byström. 4- Tavi Gevinson & Iris Apfel.

made in japan

By some sort of accident I found this book at a thrift store for $4 containing information about some of my favourite Japanese designers including Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garcons, her protege Junya Watanabe, mainline Issey Miyake as well as Pleats Please and Yōji Yamamoto. I was pretty much speechless that I found something so relevant to my interests and containing a wealth of information in the suburbs of south eastern Melbourne. More importantly the book's preface put the historical nature of Japanese clothing to better understand and contextualize its origins. Importantly it looks at the ways in which the brands advertised, how they conducted their runway shows (with pictures you won't find on style.com) and the way in which people interact with the brands. It's always more interesting to me when people wear their archive pieces, rather than passing their pieces along in order to wear current season.

While you could read it from cover to cover the book isn't quite structured to give the same satisfaction or indeed organisation. Instead it's something that would happily live on a coffee table to entertain guests or spark a conversation. This particular version has also been translated into Dutch and artfully balances the visual nature of these clothes while reinforcing their intellectual content. The above photographs are merely a selection of what I found to be most enjoyable but I suppose there are aspects which it did not include which I'd love to uncover. It echoes this sentiment of 'cool having a certain mystery to it' (thanks Chloë Sevigny). While that's something which I cannot personally live by, I love reading and gaining insight into different things especially when I cannot discuss the subject matter in day to day life. It's a handy little book to hand so if you do come across it in a pokey little book store and you have a love of Japanese designers I implore you to invest in it- you won't be disappointed!