January 29, 2010

"I hope she sees her blog as the thing, rather than as a path to somewhere else."

I put that quote in the banner (for now) because I really, really believe in the sentiment, but the "she" referred to is not me. It's Tavi Gevinson — the "tiny 13-year-old dork that sits inside all day wearing awkward jackets and pretty hats" who is a big star in the fashion world. I'm a little suspicious of the quote, because I think someone who says that about a blogger may really be thinking: I hope she stays in her place and doesn't imagine she can enter the truly important world that is my domain. But for a blogger saying it about herself — I think it's exactly the best way to feel.

I'll leave it to you to extrapolate what that means in the lawprof blogger area of endeavor.

56 comments:

bagoh20 said...

Depends on what you got and what you want. I have no problem with using a blog to other ends. It's not holy. You still need to do it well or it won't accomplish the goal.

themightypuck said...

So wait. Gossip Girl is actually real?

robinintn said...

"tiny 13-year-old dork that sits inside all day wearing awkward jackets and pretty hats"

Anyone capable of foisting that verbal swill on the unsuspecting public deserves for her domain to be invaded and conquered forthwith.

wv: sceriu. It's scary the way you write.

Scott M said...

Blogging sucks and anyone that comments on them is an idiot.

Anonymous said...

I'm with bagoh20. On the maps of most blogs is a path to somewhere else. The end of that yellow brick road may be the Emerald City of an enhanced reputation, driving away loneliness, or even selling furniture or whatever else you may have on offer.

There is something to be said for being "in the moment" in any performance, and blogging is no different.

But, like any performance, it will have consequences. In point of fact, blogging may well loose the winged monkeys, and you will be lucky to have a bucket or two of water at hand.

Paul said...

I am reminded of the scene in "The Matrix" where Neo takes the red pill offered him by Morpheus and learns the truth: people exist in a passive state of suspended animation inside of pods, their bodies connected by wires and tubes to a vast network of pods controlled by soulless machines. What they take to be reality is only the Matrix, a simulated construct of the world as it looked in 1999, maintained by the computers for the purpose of keeping humanity docile in its enslavement -- bread and circuses.

Anonymous said...

I should add that some bloggers and commenters have fire hoses.

Skyler said...

It's not that the 13 year old is so good. It's that the "professionals" are so bad.

G Joubert said...

I think someone who says that about a blogger may really be thinking: I hope she stays in her place and doesn't imagine she can enter the truly important world that is my domain.

Tavi might already be ahead of would-be rivals and competitors, and they don't even know it.

bagoh20 said...

"the Matrix, a simulated construct of the world as it looked in 1999, maintained by the computers for the purpose of keeping humanity docile in its enslavement"

I wonder, was the movie "Matrix" part of that constructed world?

bagoh20 said...

Some bloggers might even use their blog to trap a husband. Now what?

themightypuck said...

Cut her some slack. It isn't her fault she has been raised up by professionals who think they can leverage a relationship with her.

john said...

Gevinson's blog was initially assumed to be a fake created by fashion insiders because it was so professional, and features analysis of magazines and photographs of her daily outfits .

That's a funny lead sentence because the remainder of the article does nothing to refute that initial assumption.

I hope that it is fake. Barely-teen girls should have less contact with that glamorous world of anorexia, bulimia (and molar and bicuspid removal).

traditionalguy said...

The story is that amazing world of blogging strikes again here by publishing ideas of the best and the brightest unfiltered by The Establishment Media. That is like watching a miracle of creation put inside of a special person by God that can no longer be kept under wraps by a High Priesthood of publishing with their compromising alliances and zero ethics.And as a result the Truth is marching on again, while the Chinese Communist Party is trembles at its approach.

themightypuck said...

I wonder how anyone found out about her blog in the first place. Randomness or connections? In any case, she wouldn't be the first precocious child mined for entertainment and (profit?)

Trooper York said...

The whole idea of fashion blogging is nonsense. They focus on the glitz and the glamour when the reality of fashion is little old ladies pulling rolling suitcase with rhinestone glasses hanging from a string as they walk up and downt the aisle of a trade show like Moda or Magic or Intermezzo or Curve.

Those are the people who pick out what you get to wear, not the editors of Mode Magizine.

bagoh20 said...

"molar and bicuspid removal"

Why the hell do they do that? I mean I probably would like that in a girl, but not for any outward appearance reason. please explain.

Trooper York said...

A thirteen year old girl will have just as much insight as any fashion writer. Which is zip actually.

john said...

Tooth removal sucks in the cheeks. Whatever it takes to get that emaciated, heroin chic look.

Skyler said...

Water bag,

Those are the rear teeth. Removing them tends to make the cheeks look more hollow and give a thinner appearance to the face.

themightypuck said...

There really is a market for high fashion. It may be a subculture but it is a rich subculture and so it wouldn't suck to have some traction there for an interested and ambitious person. I cheer this girl on although I'm skeptical of the narrative surrounding her success.

Larry J said...

The whole idea of fashion blogging is nonsense.

Fashion is nonsense. Fashion is for suckers.

wv: ammen: As in "Let me hear an Ammmen!"

AllenS said...

Anyone can start a blog. The question is can she create a vortex?

Trooper York said...

Dude, don't ask that question. That got Pete Townshead in a lot of trouble.

themightypuck said...

I agree with Larry and in a perfect world I am in jeans and a t-shirt and possibly a hoodie if it is chilly out.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I'll leave it to you to extrapolate what that means in the lawprof blogger area of endeavor.

Has there been a chilling effect/retaliation over your passionate Alito defense?

I hope its just my imagination.

Trooper York said...

Hey, try a pair of jeggings!

It will make your ass look really cute! And your legs look really slim. Much better than skinny jeans!

Freeman Hunt said...

A high fashion show is like a museum. You go there to appreciate the art. No, you're probably not going to wear anything featured, but you are probably not going to put a gigantic million dollar painting in your house either.

I've read Tavi's blog before. It is very good.

The quote in reference to her is very condescending. She's thirteen, and she's running circles around many of these people. It's up to her what she does with her blog and where it takes her. If she wants her blog to be a path to something else, that's her business. Or maybe the blog's the thing. Whatever she decides.

Trooper York said...

Actually, I would rather listen to what a 13 year old girl has to say because you can get a youthful persepective. She is a lot closer to the junior market than any fashion writer you might care to name.

High fashion shows are like the circus. I have been to the tent shows during fashion week and it all a lot of crap.

Freeman Hunt said...

If you look at her blog, you will not be at all surprised that it's highly regarded. She really is good. Her success is deserved.

themightypuck said...

Jeans with spandex in them are jeans with spandex in them. Jeggings? Really. Jeggings.

ricpic said...

Be in the moment,
That's the place to be.
A life of looking forward
Leaves no place to see.

themightypuck said...

I was the shadow of the waxwing slain.
By the false azure in the windowpane;
I was the the smudge of ashen fluff--and I
lived on, flew on, in the reflected sky.

Trooper York said...

Hey that's the new term. You have to roll with the changes. What are you, an old fogie?

Most premuim jeans for woman have some spandex content. A jegging has considerable more for a much tighter fit, more like a legging.

It is actually a flattering style since many women have great legs and the jegging shows them off to a great advantage. I had ten pairs in and sold nine in two days. Can't keep em on the shelves. Just sayn'

Anonymous said...

My own 15-year-old started a blog a couple of years ago when he was 13. It was about his favorite online game.

I could not believe how professional it was and how well-written. I would have assumed it was by a 20-something geek who had paid attention in English class. He had all kinds of examples of strategy, complete with screen shots and videos. He also had lots of history and profiles of current top gamers, etc. He was getting thousands of hits a day.

He began to sour on it, though, when flame wars broke out in his comments section, and he began to get threatening e-mails both from lawyers about copyright issues, and from the usual Gollums who infest the gaming world.

Needless to say, I pulled the plug with his hearty assent. As I said upthread, there are consequences to blogging.

Now he says, "Blogging is for old people and losers, Dad." When online, he's mostly on Facebook, or he's texting with his friends on his cell phone.

He still spends a lot of time playing online games, but only on his X-Box 360, where he can wear a headset and talk to his friends and other gamers live, with nary a lawyer or Gollum in sight.

ricpic said...

Never leave the house without a hat and you'll be a fashionista.

themightypuck said...

I guess I am an old fogie dammit. I'm not really that old but hip to fogie is a cliff. I remember some pretty hot tight spandexy jeans back in the early 80s. When I was in highschool, the camel toe was a fashion statement.

Trooper York said...

Oh I agree about camel toe. It's back!

But jegging don't give you camel toe since it fits like a jean at the crotch. Just sayn'

kjbe said...

Agreed, Freeman. She's young enough to not (yet) have gotten caught up in the fashion world's underbelly. She's having fun and is good at it (it's kind what we're all looking for, right?).

Scott M said...

@ricpic

Never leave the house without a hat and you'll be a fashionista.

I dearly hope that wearing hats and cloaks comes back within my lifetime.

WV - "oughtfu" or ought-fu, the martial art of convincing somebody of something by using the weight of their argument against them.

lol

themightypuck said...

@TY, haha. The first thing I noticed about those jeggings was no camel toe. Probably a feature among the demographic.

Trooper York said...

I have to say that every woman that tried them on bought them. Just don't get fooled and buy a cheap version with an elastic waistband. That doesn't work.

Chip Ahoy said...

Each episode of Project Runway Heidi Klum introduces in clipped Teutonic accent, "Designers. As you know, one day you are innn, and da next day, you are owt." The word 'out' compressed to connote abruptly coldly out. Which automatically forces me to think in Teutonic accented thought, "Yet. Here are yew. Season after season."

Peter Hoh said...

Portrait of Holden Caufield as a young blogger.

themightypuck said...

"sits inside all day wearing awkward jackets and pretty hats" is a pretty awesome line. Not as awesome as Slade's poem in Pale Fire but still. Pretty awesome.

muddimo said...

Check out Tavi's blog before commenting. It is definitely the path to somewhere else. She has a unique style, visually and and in prose. There is a market for that.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

There is a market for that

Yes but, is there is an app for that?

Christy said...

Don't you think that is the comment of someone who always acts with an agenda? Someone we just know is probably trying to manipulate us? Also, it sounds more than a little jealous.

Good for Tavi.

I have jeggings and didn't even know it. Yesterday at the fabric store, I was amazed at the variety of fabrics with a spandex blend. I'd say if it is in the emporiums in middle America, it's on the way out.

Trooper York said...

Not true Christy. They are pretty hot right now. Things go out to the masses a lot quicker now.

Of course they have to be made of denim not another fabric and appoximate the look of a jean and not have an elastic waistband. That's a dumbdowned, rip off version. Just sayn'

Trooper York said...

Spandex or lycra will be found in most fabrics that need any degree of stretch. It is in many more fabrics than you realize.

themightypuck said...

Old Navy used to have the best jeans. Jeans are a random thing. They must fit right and hang off the hips. For a girl, I can see how a good fit around the waist with spandex to make the legs work could be a big hit. They were already trying to find the look and spandex just ramped it up to 11. Only a fool would think elastic waistbands were OK.

Trooper York said...

You have to expand you horizon to premium jeans. Old Navy jeans have the unfortunate habit of falling apart quickly. In my humble opinion. Of course price is a huge factor and will determine what you buy. But I believe that you should spend a little more for premium denim that will last longer and wear better over the long haul.

Generally what happens is that the jean company makes the waist too small so people go up a size or two. When you go up for the waist size, the legs are also larger so you look like you have much bigger legs than you really do have. What jeggings do is hold tightly to your legs and stretch because there can be up to 28% spandex in them so you can get a waist that fits but the legs don't look like tree trunks. That is why they have become very popular.

Of course with any popular trend, the rip off artist get in and pervet it and sell crap very cheaply. If you get a quality jegging, I think you will like the look.

I just know too much about womens clothing. It's freaking me out man.

themightypuck said...

Jeans are first about fit and then about wear. Fit has always been a problem for me so I never really worried about wear. I'm not saying Old Navy are better than high end jeans but for me they beat the hell out of anything under a $100. The best jeans I ever tried on were from some hole in the wall on the west side of Los Angeles. The place had it's own tailor. Only problem was they were $250.

Trooper York said...

Fit seems to be a problem for all aspects of womans clothing. That is why we are making our own clothing to fit a real womans body while searching out those companies that produce the same.

Stay tune for a jeans skirt that we are producing that will be great!

Synova said...

I wanted to say something about this.

My oldest daughter is an incredible artist. When she was 12 and 13 she got a lot of encouragement, and I got advice such as "get her an agent because she could do work illustrating."

Now, frankly, she couldn't have. Not then. People are sometimes too impressed with the *unexpectedness* of the talent level and aren't objective. But she could do professional work now and she is still a teenager.

As a parent my feeling was very very much like what I see in the longer quote from the article.

I was very aware of the fragility of that early talent. Making it into work for her would have been fatal. It's an entirely different thing to do something out of joy than it is to find one's self in a situation where one must produce.

It's very easy for people to get excited about remarkable talent in a young person... total strangers will get ambitious visions of what that talent can realize and they tend to want to see it happen.

And sometimes it's just not time for that yet.

themightypuck said...

Talent is relative and it is a conundrum in the modern world. How good do you have to be in a world where pretty much anyone has access to the best. Imagine the difference between the best singer in your 200 member tribe vs. the best singer in the world. I'm sure this has some impact on high SSRI sales.