I have always been inspired by fashion. When I was younger my sources were Coca Cola and Elvis; as I got older the appreciation for vintage has always stayed with me, but the hunger for new and modern was developing as well.
I have always had this indescribable thirst, a very ravenous craving for anything that is fashion. I would get extremely giddy going to the grocery store with my family, because that'd mean I would be able to receive the newest issue of one (or sometimes few) magazines. I would flip through the issues, trying to see which magazine would have the most worthy pages, but being careful enough not to divulge all of the juicy contents of my soon to be possession. It felt like Christmas each time, walking out with that brand new, glossy stack of pretty pictures. I'd get home and start the flipping again. I felt bursts of euphoria just quickly scanning the entire thing, later returning to the beginning and really going through the content.
As I got older, I became a bit wiser. In high school I joined an Environmental Club, later becoming the president, the most important thing that stuck with me is that how much we, as a population, waste. Almost everything that we call "garbage" can and should be recycled and decomposed in the compost. I became a very strong advocate of recycling, and that passion for recycling sort of brought me to the treasure trove. I loved magazines so much, that when we'd make drop offs with the materials that we've brought either from school or home, I noticed A LOT of magazines in the recycling bins. Words cannot describe my elation. Now, of course they weren't all fashion magazines, and I'm not trying to hint at anything, but most magazines we're very green-wise and educational, meaning that fashion folk weren't into recycling....in this area ;)
During one of these drops, I was 17 and I found a magazine that I'd never noticed on the stands before. The title of that magazine was JANE. I say was because a few months after I found that first issue, JANE had ceased it's production, because of poor sales. JANE was one of the best things I've ever experienced. I grew up reading Cosmo Girl, which (coincident?!?) stopped being published...because of poor sales, meaning that I had to search for alternatives to get that fix.
Funny thing was that JANE was like the adult version of Cosmo Girl, not identical but extemely alike. Both published beautiful fashion spreads, truly important stories, were never afraid of providing girls and women the motivation to be the best that they could be (Cosmo Girl had a very meaningful message- Project 2024-when Cosmo Girl readers could run for president) and wrote in a way that it seemed you were talking to a friend at a sleepover. Not a reader and and editor. It didn;t feel like a publication that was only after your salary, but felt like honest tips and advice. I for one enjoyed both of them very much, and have kept all of the copies that had accumulated over the years, of both of the magazines.
I moved on to Seventeen and Teen Vogue as a teen, and had read just about everything as a young adult.
My point being is that, it's not that I was missing the intelligent part of Cosmo Girl and JANE, it's just that the clothes and everything in those pages has started to bore me. I can't recall the last time that I even looked though a magazine. And just today it kinda hit me, I think think that my constant state of lethargy and apathy might, possibly be due to the fact that the zeal that magazines once held for me was lost...and I haven't found a replacement that would feed that craving.
I have always had a very special place in my heart for the 1950s, ever since I "met" Elvis and viewed Hairspray for the very first time (I KNOW it's the early 1960s, but the STYLE is still 1950s). Always enjoying films that have a 50s vintage vibe, like Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Dennis the Menace, The Sandlot, The Little Rascals, and Now and Then. After graduating high school, I spent my summers watching Hitchcock's films (not to mention all of those "B movies") and becoming even more infatuated with Bettie Page and Dita Von Teese, all while spending countless hours over all of my accumulated stacks of magazines searching for vintage inspired modern wear to clip out and use as inspiration for everyday. Later I became enthralled with the 20s, thanks to Buster Keaton, after I watched The Navigator and Sherlock Jr on one of the TMC Silent Sunday Nights, and Angelina Jolie, in The Chnageling. Once Mad Men premiered, I coveted everything 1960's, and went on to view classics like, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Bonnie and Clyde, and Sex and the Single Girl, all thanks to the drive to view more 1960s apparel.
Now that everything seems to have lost it's appeal...even the once very chic and stylish street fashion and models off duty....it seems that film, and not magazines, is where my inspiration is seeping from. I'm constantly reminding myself to watch more movies, very vintage, very classic, everything that is not in the now. But I'm not getting around to it, and that is possibly the reason why I have been so apathetic to fashion as of late. I've also noticed that when I read a book in a certain time period, my favorite are of Victorian and Edwardian time periods, the characters appear before my eyes in the clothing of their time period. And the novel stops being a story and becomes a play, with sets, costumes, accessories and amazing hairstyles. It seems that purchasing a magazine and trying to spark some sort of inspiration out of the inspiration of the designer that he used in something that they saw or imagined is sort of hard to come by. The by product of a by product, a copy of a copy of a copy. It seems easier to go straight to the source. Films and books it is.
I have always had this indescribable thirst, a very ravenous craving for anything that is fashion. I would get extremely giddy going to the grocery store with my family, because that'd mean I would be able to receive the newest issue of one (or sometimes few) magazines. I would flip through the issues, trying to see which magazine would have the most worthy pages, but being careful enough not to divulge all of the juicy contents of my soon to be possession. It felt like Christmas each time, walking out with that brand new, glossy stack of pretty pictures. I'd get home and start the flipping again. I felt bursts of euphoria just quickly scanning the entire thing, later returning to the beginning and really going through the content.
As I got older, I became a bit wiser. In high school I joined an Environmental Club, later becoming the president, the most important thing that stuck with me is that how much we, as a population, waste. Almost everything that we call "garbage" can and should be recycled and decomposed in the compost. I became a very strong advocate of recycling, and that passion for recycling sort of brought me to the treasure trove. I loved magazines so much, that when we'd make drop offs with the materials that we've brought either from school or home, I noticed A LOT of magazines in the recycling bins. Words cannot describe my elation. Now, of course they weren't all fashion magazines, and I'm not trying to hint at anything, but most magazines we're very green-wise and educational, meaning that fashion folk weren't into recycling....in this area ;)
During one of these drops, I was 17 and I found a magazine that I'd never noticed on the stands before. The title of that magazine was JANE. I say was because a few months after I found that first issue, JANE had ceased it's production, because of poor sales. JANE was one of the best things I've ever experienced. I grew up reading Cosmo Girl, which (coincident?!?) stopped being published...because of poor sales, meaning that I had to search for alternatives to get that fix.
Funny thing was that JANE was like the adult version of Cosmo Girl, not identical but extemely alike. Both published beautiful fashion spreads, truly important stories, were never afraid of providing girls and women the motivation to be the best that they could be (Cosmo Girl had a very meaningful message- Project 2024-when Cosmo Girl readers could run for president) and wrote in a way that it seemed you were talking to a friend at a sleepover. Not a reader and and editor. It didn;t feel like a publication that was only after your salary, but felt like honest tips and advice. I for one enjoyed both of them very much, and have kept all of the copies that had accumulated over the years, of both of the magazines.
I moved on to Seventeen and Teen Vogue as a teen, and had read just about everything as a young adult.
My point being is that, it's not that I was missing the intelligent part of Cosmo Girl and JANE, it's just that the clothes and everything in those pages has started to bore me. I can't recall the last time that I even looked though a magazine. And just today it kinda hit me, I think think that my constant state of lethargy and apathy might, possibly be due to the fact that the zeal that magazines once held for me was lost...and I haven't found a replacement that would feed that craving.
I have always had a very special place in my heart for the 1950s, ever since I "met" Elvis and viewed Hairspray for the very first time (I KNOW it's the early 1960s, but the STYLE is still 1950s). Always enjoying films that have a 50s vintage vibe, like Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Dennis the Menace, The Sandlot, The Little Rascals, and Now and Then. After graduating high school, I spent my summers watching Hitchcock's films (not to mention all of those "B movies") and becoming even more infatuated with Bettie Page and Dita Von Teese, all while spending countless hours over all of my accumulated stacks of magazines searching for vintage inspired modern wear to clip out and use as inspiration for everyday. Later I became enthralled with the 20s, thanks to Buster Keaton, after I watched The Navigator and Sherlock Jr on one of the TMC Silent Sunday Nights, and Angelina Jolie, in The Chnageling. Once Mad Men premiered, I coveted everything 1960's, and went on to view classics like, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Bonnie and Clyde, and Sex and the Single Girl, all thanks to the drive to view more 1960s apparel.
Now that everything seems to have lost it's appeal...even the once very chic and stylish street fashion and models off duty....it seems that film, and not magazines, is where my inspiration is seeping from. I'm constantly reminding myself to watch more movies, very vintage, very classic, everything that is not in the now. But I'm not getting around to it, and that is possibly the reason why I have been so apathetic to fashion as of late. I've also noticed that when I read a book in a certain time period, my favorite are of Victorian and Edwardian time periods, the characters appear before my eyes in the clothing of their time period. And the novel stops being a story and becomes a play, with sets, costumes, accessories and amazing hairstyles. It seems that purchasing a magazine and trying to spark some sort of inspiration out of the inspiration of the designer that he used in something that they saw or imagined is sort of hard to come by. The by product of a by product, a copy of a copy of a copy. It seems easier to go straight to the source. Films and books it is.
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