Today I wore a sweater to school that had the f-word on it.
I thought I would get quite the beating from my peers, and I was totally wrong. And kind of disappointed! Which sounds horrible (it's a good thing that I can be openly feminist at school) but I guess I'm just bored. What was so great about dressing up in middle school was when people got really confused and sometimes even angry and had the most entertaining responses, but now a lot of them think they're supposed to like my outfits because some magazine does, and as a result, I am never challenged. The best was when people found out about this blog, and said things like, "Wow, I would not have guessed you care about fashion." Which I loved -- I don't want to look like someone who cares about fashion. Now everything is justified by the attention this blog receives, the same way I dislike the logo placement on my Miu Miu collar, as if it makes the oddness somehow okay. My goal for this school year was to wear outfits that confuse the people I'm surrounded by every day, challenge beauty ideals...I know it's cheesy to post inspiration quotes, but these are not the kind you will see pasted onto a photo of a sunset and tumbled:
"I like making images that from a distance seem kind of seductive, colorful, luscious and engaging, and then you realize what you're looking at is something totally opposite. It seems boring to me to pursue the typical idea of beauty, because that is the easiest and the most obvious way to see the world. It's more challenging to look at the other side." -- Cindy Sherman
"I know when I first started, I said things like, 'It's really great to be beautiful and powerful and sexy,' and I take a little bit of that back now. What I was saying was that you don't have to look a certain way or have a certain hairstyle to be a feminist; that just because a girl wears lipstick that doesn't mean she's not a feminist. But now I realize that I wasn't really challenging the standard of beauty. A friend said to me, 'Why is it so subversive to be beautiful in the traditional sense? I think it's much more subversive to create your own form of beauty and to set your own standards.' She's right." -- Kathleen Hanna
Speaking of Kathleen Hanna, this sweater is actually courtesy of her! It was made and given to her by Jim Drain and Elyse Allen and the label says Happy Banana. I had breakfast with her and my pal Wendy when I was in New York and it was definitely a highlight of my Fashion Week, even though it was not actually a part of Fashion Week and we hardly talked about fashion. We talked a bit about the politics of it though, and when I mentioned the kinds of things that are, like, really really important to the Internet at this time of year (seat placements, who got shot by which street style photographers, more stupidity) Kathleen said, "Who cares? People are dying," so quick, in one breath, and it was like...duh! I mean, seriously, what a wonderful thing to hear and mindset to get in during a time I have such a love/hate relationship with.
Via
TAVI's blog
