Blog Comments

Here are two of my recent blog comments:

(songofstyle.blogspot.com)

La Mode est Maintenant said...

Hi Aimee!

I just wanted to say that I absolutely ADORE your style. You are such an inspiration to all sorts of fashionistas out in the world and I look forward to your posts every week. Please keep doing what you're doing and don't ever stop! "

Friday, November 30, 2012

(sincerelyjules.com)

[pending approval]:

 La Mode est Maintenant said...

"Jules,

I just wanted to say that your style is impeccable! There's so much class, femininity, edge to every look I'm so jealous! I love the pops of colors you throw in and wild patterns you mix into your wardrobe.

I love your blog!" 

Friday, November 30, 2012

Maison Martin Margiela x H&M

Margiela for H&M

Hello fellow fashionistas! How are you all doing today? Have you heard about the MMM x H&M collaborative line yet? I’m sure some of you have already flocked to your nearest H&M to snag a piece of this hot collection, but for some of those who are not familiar…

Maison Martin Margiela is a French Design House known for their exquisite, avant-garde fashion designs.

H&M has had a history of collaborating with fashion’s most elite designers from Versace, to Missoni, Lanvin and Marni. This year, the massive Swedish fashion retailer has decided to partner with Maison Martin Margiela a.k.a. MMM to launch a 135-piece collection that will range in price from $13 to $399. Pieces from the collection span everything from coats, to dresses, blouses, dresses, shoes, and accessories. Be forewarned though, these pieces take on a more experimental fashion sense and aren't for the average jane.

If you're interested, check out some of the photos below for a sneak peek of what you can expect from the collection! 

credit: fashionologie.com

credit: fashionologie.com

credit: fashionologie.com

credit: fashionologie.com

Trifecta

Hi guys, 

So I apologize in advance for this unconventional post, but I'm actually going to be re-posting revised versions of a few of my previous posts. Please don't ask why, but I hope you do enjoy!

Thanks!

Hello World 

OH FASHION! I LIVE, BREATHE, SMELL, AND CONSUME ALL THINGS FASHION. 

IT’S MY LIFE.
MY SOUL.
MY ONE TRUE LOVE. 
I CAN NEVER LIVE WITHOUT IT.

UMMM…NO. ^^THAT’S NOT ME (and I hope that you’re relieved it isn’t!). That IS however some crazed fashion obsessed girl. Don’t get me wrong though, I DO love fashion and I AM very passionate about the industry but just in a healthy, NOT crazy-obsessed-sort-of-way (at least I like to think so!).

For much of my life I never thought of myself as a "Fashionista," nonetheless seriously interested in the world of fashion. But as I grew older—my love for the ephemeral, beautiful world of fashion grew feverishly. I guess you can say my road towards fashion was a gradual one. 

Here's how it happened:

1. Entry into the Artistic World

I first began to dab in the artistic world when I was a child (between 6 to12 years-old I want to say). This is when I started to immerse myself in painting, drawing, and collaging. Art occupied most of my free time and took center stage whenever I had a crafty school project.

One particular one I I remember was my Solar System model project (yeah you know what I’m talking about…the one where you had to create a Solar System out of styrofoam balls and paint them to look like the different planets?) Yup. I thought mine turned out pretty darn awesome if I say so myself. 

Here's a photo of some other kid's I found so you can get an idea (mine was better though): 

 

Maybe this piece of childhood nostalgia doesn’t exactly resonate with you, but during my childhood—projects like this Solar System one definitely helped hone my skills and love for art, in a very raw and simplistic way. 

In addition, I would also hand-make many birthday and holiday cards for my friends and family, so this is when I began to get a feel of what colors meshed well together and obtained a rudimentary understanding of typography and layout design. 

As I grew older and transitioned into high school and college I became much more highly skilled at programs such as Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop and so my “arts and crafts” projects progressed into more graphic design projects. 

So you may be asking now, where and when the heck did fashion come into play? 

2. Entry into the Fashion World

While I became more and more absorbed with design, I began to look at fashion magazines as a resource for inspiration on unique typography and layouts. This included everything from Vogue to Nylon to W. You name it, I read it.

Nylon Layout

Obviously, a fundamental part of fashion is design, so the more I explored the design principles found in fashion magazines, I became even more enthralled with the fashion found on these immaculately designed pages. Fashion for me included everyone from the Art Directors, Photographers, Editors, Models, and of course you can't forget the clothes!

3. Fashion + Technoloy

And here's how fashion and technology came into play: 

During my college years, I discovered a new set of fashion “bibles” competing against my new found beloved fashion mags: fashion blogs. With the ever changing technological world, blogs are just one of the few new innovations that have changed the scope of the fashion industry. Thus for this blog, I want to discuss this new era of fashion: how new technology is affecting today’s fashion industry. 

I think it’s incredible how the slew of new internet platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram among blogs themselves have all been able to quickly change the way fashion designers communicate to people and how everyday people can now influence designers in a much direct way. 

For those of you who have kept up with today’s latest top fashion bloggers—you should know Leandra Medine (“The Man Repeller”), Elin Kling (“Style by Kling”), Rumi Neely (“Fashion Toast”), and Tavi Gevinson (“Style Rookie”), are just a few of the plethora of bloggers who have made it “big” and been able to reach celebrity status in a relatively short amount of time simply through BLOGGING! 

Leandra Medine

Elin Kling

Rumi Neely

Tavi Gevinson

These bloggers are accruing top dollar to appear at fashion events and attracting thousands of loyal followers just from creating a simple fashion blog. It’s fascinating how much power a blog can provide someone and I think it represents how much power ordinary people actually can have in defining where fashion is now and affecting what it will become. 

 Who knows how the future’s technology will change fashion, but for now we can only wonder.

And with that—I leave you with a quote by one of fashion’s most beloved icons:

 “Fashion is always of the time in which you live. It is not something standing alone.” —Coco Chanel

Blogger Profile

Aimee Song

How many of you are bloggers?

Now I presume maybe at least a few of you said YES since you’re reading this blog (which I hope means you’re at least somewhat interested in blogs!).

Out of those of you who answered YES, how many of you earn thousands of dollars a month through your blog?

Hmmm…Now I probably presume none of you said YES. (Or if you did, WOW good for you! Now why the heck are you reading this blog? You already know all about the Technologics of Fashion so keep doing what you’re doing and rock the fashion blog world!

Alright, but more realistically— for those of you who said NO, have you heard of Aimee Song? If you’re at all immersed within the fashion blogosphere— Song should be no stranger to your ears. 

Aimee Song

But for those of you who haven’t heard of her, Aimee Song is one of the most renowned fashion bloggers on the net right now—having collaborated with everyone from Net-A-Porter, to Botkier, to Seven for all Mankind, and so forth.

Not only that, but Song has been featured in numerous publications from Who What Wear, to Teen Vogue, and New York Magazine. 

Aimee Song- credit: NYMag The Cut

Song’s blog, “Song of Style” consistently garners tons of press coverage and holds an enormous readership base. Let’s just say if the number of Instagram followers Aimee has is any testament to her reach (she has 449,102 followers on Instagram), then you can only imagine how many readers Aimee’s blog receives— which acts as the foundation of all of her content and other social media extensions. 

I think one of the main reasons that Aimee’s blog is so successful is foremost because of her unique fashion eye and taste. I know, I know, typical response… but why else? The quality of her blog’s photos is very rich, her personal voice is vividly apparent, and she consistently posts about 4-5 times in one week, not leaving her readers hanging for new content, but not suffocating them either. 

Aimee is highly involved in all aspects of social media, manning her own Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram pages further eliciting new fans and maintaining interest for her current ones.  

Aimee is strong in providing rich content that is original by incorporating personal behind-the-scenes looks into her everyday life as she snaps photos during her various blogger collaborations (ie Karen Millen), travels, (i.e. Florence, Rio, NY) and simple outings (i.e. Rose Bowl Flea Market). But honestly, when it comes down to it, Aimee has killer style, is very versatile, edgy—yet—feminine, and SO adorable you can’t NOT adore her.

Here are a few examples of Aimee’s versatility found in her posts:

Aimee Song at Karen Millen Event

Aimee Song in Rio

Aimee Song at Rose Bowl Flea Market

Aimee Song

Considering Aimee is a young professional, has a fresh, youthful style taste— it’s obvious who Aimee’s main target audience is: Females, 18-29 year olds who are interested in fashion, art, and/or design.

Aimee is actually an interior designer, so she often posts some inspirational interior design images on her blog, further coinciding with the fashion/design community. 

I think that Aimee’s blog is a great representation of what not only a successful fashion blog is, but what a successful blog should strive to be in general.

With that said—she’s a great benchmark to measure my own blog to as she (obviously) maintains a fashion-related blog and provides readers with original fashion content, but also has an established and unique personal voice for herself, in addition to being very consistent in all of her blogging.

These are all goals I strive towards in my own blog and you should too if you decide to create your own fashion blog after this post!

Who knows… maybe you can be the next Aimee Song?

Establishing Voice

“If it looks like a vagina, then its probably couture.”

Do you know who said that quote? 

 

Leandra Medine. 

She is one of the most prolific [and hilarious] fashion bloggers that exist today. 

Leandra Medine

There’s no denying the power and influence she holds over the fashion community, as I’m sure you’re already aware. However, one of the main reasons Medine has shown to shine above many other aspiring fashion bloggers in such a short amount of time (only 2 years! WTF) is due to her unique voice and sense of humor.

Medine’s dry, unfiltered comedic sense becomes extremely palpable through her offbeat-humorous, yet fashion-related blog posts. 

Let’s examine one of her recent posts, “Precious Details” from October 4, 2012 to see how exactly does Medine exhibit her voice within her writing:

“And here’s the thing about Paris Fashion Week: this particular week tends to set the tone for whatever will become it-trends of the coming seasons. Yes, the trickle affect starts here, well, there.

Unfortunately though, few vaginal inspiration was recorded.”

See below the picture Medine references:

credit: manrepeller.com

credit: manrepeller.com

Clearly the part about "vaginal inspiration" isn’t something a writer from the New York Times would write or the Wall Street Journal; however because Medine is writing on a blog and not in a traditional medium as a newspaper or even magazine, Medine can get away with a much more casual style that is freed from the restraints of typical journalistic writing.

Medine is able to be much more free with her diction, sentence structure, and overall tone. Medine often times marries informative and engaging fashion content (as we will see more as we examine her post) with her humorous/casual writing style. 

In this case, “Classic Leandra Medine” is exhibited by her choosing to use the word “vaginal” in this situation to depict the focus on a model’s lower region when being photographed during fashion runway shows. But obviously in order to get the necessary asscessory shot, the vajajay must be included. I mean, someone at Vogue would never (god forbid) remark about a model’s vagina in a fashion article!

However, don’t get me wrong, even though Medine is an unconventional fashion writer, she still does an excellent job in providing, relevant, insightful fashion commentary.

A great point that Medine points out about “details” is how:

“Now, no matter how lovely a runway show could have been–no matter how immaculate the clothes, interesting the makeup, clean (or messy) the hair, nothing is quite as lovely as a strong detail shot. This, I believe, can be added to the roster of things I’ve learned from Instagram. Allowing viewers the liberty to mentally mock up an image giving them fundamental blocks: e.g. a dash of gold, hint of denim, is far more lucrative and thought provoking than displaying a full look.”

Medine goes on to dissect six specific shows (Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Valentino, Chloe, Celine, and Miu Miu ) she saw in Paris, and the various details each collection adhered to. A few instances where Medine showcases her more informal writing style is when she inserts extra comments and punctuations to emphasize her p.o.v. such as “rendered a collective (three thousand people!) gasp.” or using Oprah’s signature phrase “a-ha moment” to describe a moment between Karl L. and Anna W. (By the way, also notice Leandra's use of hyperlinks to help illustrate her examples. Yay! Good job Medine!)

Medine further validates that even though she’s funny, she knows her fashion:

“Season of the Valentino it-purse is near and this time, it’s not as much a handbag as it is a minaudiere."

(Note how here she uses the word “minaudiere” as opposed to simply saying "clutch.")

She also incorporates her historic knowledge about fashion shows and designers below in discussing Karl Lagerfeld and Chanel displayed between parentheses to provide further context to her statements.

“At Chanel which was–believe you me–the most extensive show of Paris Fashion Week, it wasn’t so much the beautiful bright colors (and they were beautiful) and some indications of a resurgence of trends Lagerfeld loves (see: his collections for Chloe ca. 1990 and the embroidery on closing looks,)”

Medine shows a bit of her fun and comedic sense in her writing quite literally, writing “hehe” and “WTF” within her post below:

“I didn’t notice these red striped pants while at the Chloe show last week perhaps thus proving my detail-oriented (hehe) hypothesis correct.”

And 

“As for the biggest WTF of Fashion Week: Celine‘s fur Bikenstocks.”

credit: manrepeller.com

Medine ends her posts in her signature style, combining lots of adjectives and a humorous metaphor (i.e. “bonafide hooker intimate”) plus colloquial language (i.e. stating “butt-loads”)

Seen here: 

“Nothing will be more relevant than a pseudo-lab coat with bonafide hooker intimate just beneath. And believe you me, it will make for a brand new strain of man-repelling and that we will have butt-loads of fun with.

Never end a sentence with a preposition. That’s a wrap.”

In another short post from October 23, 2012 titled “Contrived,” Medine continues to show her humor in referencing Britney Spear’s popular hit “Hit Me Baby One More Time:"

“This particular series of three photos was taken on a side street in the 6th Arrondisement in Paris last month and while I may not be able instigate your imagination as rigorously as I’d like, I will debunk the wildly brilliant and famous American literary rhetoric of a certain Brittany Spears.

For, what you see is not what you get, baby.” 

credit: manrepeller.com

credit: manrepeller.com

credit: manrepeller.com

Medine then continues to describe how her seemingly perfect, candid street-style photos were not generated as naturally and gracefully as they appear. 

Medine’s posts always incorporate photos and hyperlinks to better exhibit her points and give visualization to her underlining ideas (as seen in both of her posts we examined here).

Medine is a fantastic example of how to portray a distinct character voice, especially within a blog format. However, just because Medine uses humor to showcase her voice doesn’t mean you have to do the same. You have to figure out what method best showcases your own particular voice whether it’s found in your word choice, punctuation, or what not.

Most importantly, just be yourself! Good luck! 

Site Focus: Refinery 29

Today I’m going to focus on one fashion website that has been able to garner a ton of readers since it’s creation and is solely a product from the web, for web users, and born on the web: Refinery 29. Have you heard of this website? I’m sure many of you have a frequent it daily, while others are just hearing it for the first time.

But for those of you who may not be so familiar, this website is dedicated to giving you fashion readers the BEST, most up-to-date fashion news stories ranging from new designers collections, new store openings, bloggers, and everything and everyone in between.

Further—Refinery 29 creates TONS of their own original fashion content spotlighting street style snaps from around the world, bringing you behind-the-scenes slideshows of coveted fashion offices, curating interviews with major fashion influencers, and much much more.

What’s also great about Refinery 29 is that they have different versions of the site for specific u.s. cities and relate their content to that specific city. For example, the website has branched out and tailored their website to fit the clientele of people living in not only Los Angeles and New York, but Chicago, San Francisco, Washington D.C., and Miami.

Other reasons why I love this site is the clean, crisp user friendly interface making every visit quick and snappy if I just want a short rundown in the a.m. or if I have some more time to kill, I can breeze through 10+ stories as they aren’t long, dense Vanity Fair articles or anything of the sort.

Rather, the stories are usually 10 pictures in a slideshow with the headline “10 Quick Accessories to Spice Up Your Fall Wardrobe.” The stories range from fashion specific stories to beauty, living, and entertainment stories as well.

Take today’s webpage for example, the top stories feature headlines like “Update Your Weekday Wardrobe With These Sweet Skirts, ” or “A Quick & Sexy MakeupLook To Power You Through The Holidays” or “Elle Fanning Goes Back To PilgrimChic…And Is A True Pioneer.”  

It’s pretty amazing how the online world has changed the capacity of sharing fashion content and news to an almost limitless degree. If you think about it, before— print publications used to be the sole resource for fashion content, but nowadays, anyone can start up their blog or website and become a leading competitor among these fashion resources and actually make a pretty penny from it *ahem ads galore anyone?

Nonetheless, I’m happy about Refinfery 29 and the plethora of other fashion websites out there that cater to all of my fashion needs.

I hope you do the same and explore the limitless options of fashion news websites out there and find one you particular like, and subscribe to it! It’s nice getting daily doses of fashion news straight to your inbox as opposed to waiting until your monthly edition of Vogue, Elle, Nylon, or insert fashion magazine name here.  

  Happy reading you all!

Sandy within the Fashion World

Tory Burch's Instagram via fashionologie.com

Prabal Gurung's Instagram via fashionologie.com

Photographer, Greg Kessler's Instagram via fashionologie.com

Coco Rocha's Instagram via fashionologie.com

-->

Fashion and Sandy.

Today, I stumbled upon an interesting article, called "How They Saw the Storm: Fashion People's Pictures of Sandy," on Fashionologie.com. The article surrounds the infamous hurricane featuring a slideshow of Instagram photos taken from several prominent fashion editors, photographers, models, designers, and the like.

The photos you see above provide unique insight into Sandy’s destruction on New York by seeing the storm’s effect through the lens of these fashion figures.

In an earlier post, I wrote about the craze surrounding Instagram and how this particular social media platform allows ordinary people to see inside the coveted doors of fashion’s most famed and influential men and women.

Often times, the photos that are found on Aimee Song’s instagram or Eva Chen’s instagram for example often portray the glamorous lifestyles these fashionistas live, but very rarely do you get to see these individuals in the same light as ordinary people. Despite how horrific and devastating the storm was, Sandy puts into perspective that in the end, they’re all one and the same. Despite how much designer clothes they have, how many runway shows they have walked/seen/organized, or how many Vogue features they’ve accumulated; they were all affected in one way or another.

Photos included in the slideshow were taken from Prabal Gurung, Coco Rocha, Tory Burch, Steven Kolb (CFDA CEO) among many others.

It’s not surprising as it is more fascinating how all these designers, models, editors, etc. have decided to showcase their perspective on Sandy via Instagram. It just goes to show the immense power social media holds during major events in one's life whether it's horrific, joyous, or something in between.

The point is, Instragram in this case has in a sense normalized these usual fashion figures we hold on pedestals to be relegated to normalcy—everyday people. Take Coco Rocha’s photo of her standing in front of a massively uprooted tree or Prabal Gurung’s pitch-black photo to showcase his home’s current blackout due to the storm. With that said—during such disastrous events as Sandy, we are all in this together all facing the same thing. That doesn’t necessarily mean that all of our resources are the same once the storm has hit, but it is true to say we were all hit.  

Again, the power of social media is taking strides over traditional forms of media communication by being much more immediate, personal, direct, and visual in its content. Instagram in the case of Sandy, allows everyone from all around the world to see the storm’s effect on every individual (who chooses to post photos regarding the storm) in turn—allowing the viewers to select whose photos they want to see, but also, allowing the photo taker to assume all control over what moment/angle they capture and how they’d like to portray it.

What do you think about fashion “celebs” posting photos about how they’ve been affected by the storm? Do you think it normalizes them in  any way, or do they merely reinforce the notion that they can never be placed on the same playing field as everyone else?  

Establishing Voice

Leandra Medine is one of the most prolific fashion bloggers that exist today. There’s no denying the power and influence she holds over the fashion community, as I’m sure you’re already aware. However, one of the main reasons Medine has shown to shine above many other aspiring fashion bloggers in such a short amount of time (only 2 years! WTF) is due to her unique voice and sense of humor. Medine’s dry, unfiltered comedic sense becomes extremely palpable through her fashionable blogs posts. 

Let’s examine one of her recent posts, “Precious Details” from October 4, 2012 to see how exactly does Medine exhibit her voice within her writing:

“And here’s the thing about Paris Fashion Week: this particular week tends ro set the tone for whatever will become it-trends of the coming seasons. Yes, the trickle affect starts here, well, there.

Unfortunately though, few vaginal inspiration was recorded.”

^^ Clearly the part about "vaginal inspiration" isn’t something a writer from the New York Times would write or the Wall Street Journal; however because Medine is writing on a blog and not in a traditional medium as a newspaper or even magazine, Medine can get away a lot more from the restraints of typical journalistic writing. Medine is able to be much more free with her diction, sentence structure, and overall tone. Medine often times marries informative and engaging fashion content (as we will see more as we examine her post) with her humorous/casual writing style. Which in this case, “Classic Leandra Medine” is exhibited by her choosing to use the word vaginal in this situation to describe the (inadvertent) focus on a model’s lower region when photographing fashion runway shows. 

See below pictures for Medine’s references:

credit: manrepeller.com

credit: manrepeller.com

A great point that Medine points out about “details” is how:

“Now, no matter how lovely a runway show could have been–no matter how immaculate the clothes, interesting the makeup, clean (or messy) the hair, nothing is quite as lovely as a strong detail shot. This, I believe, can be added to the roster of things I’ve learned from Instagram. Allowing viewers the liberty to mentally mock up an image giving them fundamental blocks: e.g. a dash of gold, hint of denim, is far more lucrative and thought provoking than displaying a full look.”

(Notice Leandra's use of a hyperlink above too btw) Medine goes on to dissect six specific shows (Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Valentino, Chloe, Celine, and Miu Miu ) she saw in Paris, and the various details each collection adhered to. A few instances where Medine showcases her more conversational writing style is when she inserts extra comments and punctuations to emphasize her p.o.v. such as “rendered a collective (three thousand people!) gasp.” or using Oprah’s signature phrase “a-ha moment” to describe a moment between Karl L. and Anna W.

Medine also shows that even though she’s funny, she knows her fashion:

Note how here she uses the word “minaudiere” as opposed to simply saying "clutch:"

“Season of the Valentino it-purse is near and this time, it’s not as much a handbag as it is a minaudiere."

She also incorporates her historic knowledge about fashion shows/designers here in discussing Karl Lagerfeld and Chanel:

“At Chanel which was–believe you me–the most extensive show of Paris Fashion Week, it wasn’t so much the beautiful bright colors (and they were beautiful) and some indications of a resurgence of trends Lagerfeld loves (see: his collections for Chloe ca. 1990 and the embroidery on closing looks,)”

Medine shows a bit of her fun and comedic sense in her writing quite literally, writing “hehe” and “WTF” within her post:

“I didn’t notice these red striped pants while at the Chloe show last week perhaps thus proving my detail-oriented (hehe) hypothesis correct.”

And 

credit: manrepeller.com

“As for the biggest WTF of Fashion Week: Celine‘s fur Bikenstocks.”

Medine ends her posts in her signature style, combining lots of adjectives (“bonafide hooker intimate” and colloquial language (i.e. stating “butt-loads”)

Seen here: 

“Nothing will be more relevant than a pseudo-lab coat with bonafide hooker intimate just beneath. And believe you me, it will make for a brand new strain of man-repelling and that we will have butt-loads of fun with.

Never end a sentence with a preposition. That’s a wrap.”

However, in another short post from October 23, 2012 titled “Contrived,” Medine continues to show her humor in referencing Britney Spear’s popular hit “Hit Me Baby One More Time:"

“This particular series of three photos was taken on a side street in the 6th Arrondisement in Paris last month and while I may not be able instigate your imagination as rigorously as I’d like, I will debunk the wildly brilliant and famous American literary rhetoric of a certain Brittany Spears.

For, what you see is not what you get, baby.”

credit: manrepeller.com

credit: manrepeller.com

credit: manrepeller.com

Medine then continues to describe how her seemingly perfect, candid street-style photos were not generated as naturally and gracefully as they appear. 

Medine’s posts always incorporate photos and hyperlinks to better exhibit her points and give visualization to her underlining ideas (as seen in both of her posts we examined here).

Medine is a fantastic example of how to portray a distinct character voice, especially within a blog format. However, just because Medine uses humor to showcase her voice doesn’t mean you have to do the same. You have to figure out what method best showcases your own particular voice whether it’s found in your word choice, punctuation, and so forth. 

Good luck!