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dolorosa_12...If you got the goods they'll come and buy it just to stay in the clique.'
I generally don't talk very much about fashion, because I can't see how the thoughts of someone who is contemptuous of the entire fashion industry are at all useful. However, after coming back from London, where I noticed many shops were stocking thigh-high boots, I knew I could keep silent no longer! I suffered in silence through the past year of ridiculous high-heels that look like weapons, but thigh-high boots were a step too far.
Up until about 2001, I followed fashion. Well, I followed it in the way that all Canberrans do: I bought each year's pair of It Jeans (severely flared, button-fly Grip jeans in 1997, red thread Levi's in 2000), I wore ridiculous platform sneakers and delighted in T. shirts adorned with kanji, dragons and butterflies, I wore body-glitter and sparkly ice-blue nailpolish and clips with butterflies and flowers on them. It helped that I was a bit of a wannabe hippie during the 90s, which were like a decade-long 70s love-fest.
In my idle way, I read articles about fashion. I have a very vivid memory of reading a group interview with lots of Australian fashionistas, all of whom were asked the same questions. One of them involved their 'greatest fashion mistakes'. As it was the late 90s, when all things 80s were anathema, most of them said things like 'bubble skirts'. Then, about two years later, I read another article where these same people were saying gushing things about 'fun, flirty bubble skirts'. That was it for me. It probably sounds incredibly earnest, but my stupidly good memory (well, great at remember two-year-old interviews in Good Weekend, not so good at remembering to turn the stove off when I'd finished cooking) helped drive home the appalling hypocrisy of the fashion industry.
And I never looked back. Although on some days I look like I've stepped out of an American teen movie circa 1999, I have no regrets. I wear clothes in styles that suit me, rather than things that suit other people's bank balances. (I try not to feel smugly superior about this. Sometimes it works.) While around me people clump around in shoes that look like something out of an S and M club, in skirts that make them look like balloons, in (God help us) jumpsuits and high-waisted jeans and bumster jeans, I say nothing. I spend all my money on expensive food and fantasy novels, who am I to judge their shopping decisions?
But really, thigh-high boots? On what planet are they attractive?
Internet update
I'm still without working internet at home, and my computer is still broken. I'm in the process of trying to buy a new laptop, but I need to work out whether it's cheaper to do so in the UK or in Australia.
What I regret most of all is not that I can't watch TV while I eat dinner or participate in Moonfair over on Obernet, it's that I was away from the computer when![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
fandomsecrets posted its 1000th secrets post. Fandom!Secrets is my favourite corner of the internet; I adore its cheerful, anarchic celebration of the bizarreness that is online fandom. The 1000th post was meant to be all positive secrets about fandom; many of them are along the lines of 'fandom saved my life'. You all know that I feel a similar way about fandom, but I thought I'd take a moment to thank my fandom friends for being wonderful, wonderful people. You welcomed me when I was my most unhappy, you've been with me when I was my best and celebrated with me, you've been with me when I was my worst and saved me. I love you all, and cannot even convey with words how much you all mean to me. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
I generally don't talk very much about fashion, because I can't see how the thoughts of someone who is contemptuous of the entire fashion industry are at all useful. However, after coming back from London, where I noticed many shops were stocking thigh-high boots, I knew I could keep silent no longer! I suffered in silence through the past year of ridiculous high-heels that look like weapons, but thigh-high boots were a step too far.
Up until about 2001, I followed fashion. Well, I followed it in the way that all Canberrans do: I bought each year's pair of It Jeans (severely flared, button-fly Grip jeans in 1997, red thread Levi's in 2000), I wore ridiculous platform sneakers and delighted in T. shirts adorned with kanji, dragons and butterflies, I wore body-glitter and sparkly ice-blue nailpolish and clips with butterflies and flowers on them. It helped that I was a bit of a wannabe hippie during the 90s, which were like a decade-long 70s love-fest.
In my idle way, I read articles about fashion. I have a very vivid memory of reading a group interview with lots of Australian fashionistas, all of whom were asked the same questions. One of them involved their 'greatest fashion mistakes'. As it was the late 90s, when all things 80s were anathema, most of them said things like 'bubble skirts'. Then, about two years later, I read another article where these same people were saying gushing things about 'fun, flirty bubble skirts'. That was it for me. It probably sounds incredibly earnest, but my stupidly good memory (well, great at remember two-year-old interviews in Good Weekend, not so good at remembering to turn the stove off when I'd finished cooking) helped drive home the appalling hypocrisy of the fashion industry.
And I never looked back. Although on some days I look like I've stepped out of an American teen movie circa 1999, I have no regrets. I wear clothes in styles that suit me, rather than things that suit other people's bank balances. (I try not to feel smugly superior about this. Sometimes it works.) While around me people clump around in shoes that look like something out of an S and M club, in skirts that make them look like balloons, in (God help us) jumpsuits and high-waisted jeans and bumster jeans, I say nothing. I spend all my money on expensive food and fantasy novels, who am I to judge their shopping decisions?
But really, thigh-high boots? On what planet are they attractive?
Internet update
I'm still without working internet at home, and my computer is still broken. I'm in the process of trying to buy a new laptop, but I need to work out whether it's cheaper to do so in the UK or in Australia.
What I regret most of all is not that I can't watch TV while I eat dinner or participate in Moonfair over on Obernet, it's that I was away from the computer when
fandomsecrets posted its 1000th secrets post. Fandom!Secrets is my favourite corner of the internet; I adore its cheerful, anarchic celebration of the bizarreness that is online fandom. The 1000th post was meant to be all positive secrets about fandom; many of them are along the lines of 'fandom saved my life'. You all know that I feel a similar way about fandom, but I thought I'd take a moment to thank my fandom friends for being wonderful, wonderful people. You welcomed me when I was my most unhappy, you've been with me when I was my best and celebrated with me, you've been with me when I was my worst and saved me. I love you all, and cannot even convey with words how much you all mean to me. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
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no subject
Date: 2009-10-03 10:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-03 12:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-03 03:52 pm (UTC)maybe people are trying to pull off some sort of S&M look with the thigh-high boots? iunno.
no subject
Date: 2009-10-05 03:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-03 02:42 pm (UTC)I'm very much against those tights that are printed to look like jeans - there is no way that any sane person could have thought those a good idea ...
no subject
Date: 2009-10-05 03:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-04 12:05 pm (UTC)One of my favourite jackets is about 5 years old, and I have a top from about 10 years ago that I still love and wear occasionally (I've looked after it :P).
no subject
Date: 2009-10-05 03:07 pm (UTC)