Newborn

Now. I've been part of the blogland since I had my skin unmarked by lines called in Beauty mags as "Chinese mustache" - that counts as nearly a decade ago - and even based my BA's final paper on the relation between blogs and American politics, but I have never actually blogged about a specific theme on a regular basis (other than monthly rantings on my battle against a family-inflicted inferiority complex). I have always been quite an obsessed reader of novels and magazines, so if I ever was going to choose a subject matter, I've always thought that it would be something related to that: literature, writers, lyrics, the written word and the people who lived by it.

Then, why - oh why - fashion?

'Cause underneath it all I'm oh so vaaainnnn.

No, seriously.

Because I work with clothes these days. But before that, as I mentioned, I've always spent good chunks of my days lying horizontally in order to waste away my rather faulty vision in fictional stories written by other people with even faultier eyes, so I thought my destiny was to become a writer. But I suffer from a rare disease called Lackisis of Concentrationius caused by a combination of noise, movement, time-limit and excess of information, so I never quite mastered the art of sitting my ever-expanding butt to become said writer unless I sat in the stillest, quietest and blankest place I managed to find (never did find one of those, though. Maybe I should try going back to my own mother's womb?). Add to that a nagging inability to understand authority and an uncontrollable urge to express myself in some way, ANY way, and BANG! (that's the sound of my nerves collapsing) - I retreated from the world of steady careers and found vintage clothes.

And those buggers are addictive, let me tell you.

It started as a way to make myself some money while I worked on my own time and found space to develop my writerly ambitions. That was 9 months ago - and here I will use the pregnancy metaphor, because that's what it actually feels like: during this period of gestation I have seen the seeds of my little Ebay shop grow from a tiny fetus into an infant with limbs and fingernails (damn, I must have a biological clock hidden somewhere). What I mean is dealing with vintage clothes brought me many consequential interests and ideas that sprung up one after the other - styling, sewing, crafting, photography, messing about with visual ideas in general. Best of all, working with these clothes actually made me realise that everything is and can be connected: music, words, art, dancing AND the way you choose to wear clothes.

To be honest, until I actually discovered all that, I felt a little bit shallow and brainless for a while. I couldn't get my head around the fact that I was spending my time in consumerism and shopping - which, as a western, educated woman fostered by capitalist values, I DO love, but always felt the pang of guilt. How then, dear God, do one indulge in futiles attempts to express oneself visually without suffering the maledictions of superficiality?

God is just and faithfully replied: "Thou shall check the vast array of Fashion blogs multiplying in the www sea, as fertile as Egyptian coral reefs."

So I did. And I couldn't believe the creativity these (mostly) women were employing to achieve the same degree of artistic exploration of their beloved fashion designers - only without the money and the resources. They made themselves LEARN the whole thing: from researching and making things, to taking pictures, interviewing people, traveling and meeting other creative minds. No age barriers: from the witty 12-year-old mini-genius to the wealthy Texan mother who blogs alongside her lucky teenage daughter (who gets to wear all her mom's shoes - hmpf!), from peniless students to made-redundant but still absolutely talented 30-somethings, they all find a way to feed their passion while also feeding their brains with culture and artistic awareness.

It made me want to write a fash-related blog too.

So here it is.

Initially, me and Jr (my partner in this little project who will take care of most original photography) had an idea we would make this like a sort of Hel-looks website based only in Brick Lane (there are loads of websites that post images of people in Brick Lane, but as far as I know - and based on what my meagre research proved - there isn't one website that ONLY focuses on fashion there). The idea was to start a personal database to use as inspiration to build the looks in my vintage shop, but you know, there is so much more going on that we feel (well, I feel) that an image database will not suffice. As you might note from this first post (well, second), I do tend to extend myself when I think I might have something to say.

'Nough said.