Style me yours

I've been reading fashion magazines since I was about 14 (exact moment: Taking the amtrak to Harrisburg for a family outing, needing something to read, bought Elle magazine with Kirsty Hume on the cover wearing a yellow fur vest--mod was the theme. changed my life forever)--so when I started this blog I thought I'd probably end up blogging a majority about fashion.  But honestly, and I never thought I'd say this, I've been kind of growing out of it...politics, the environment, economics, community, etc have entered my life, and fashion in comparison seems pretty frivolous and shallow. But that doesn't mean i've disowned her, and replaced my sigerson morrisons with birkenstocks--not at all.  I still subscribe to all the fashion mags and save every one, check out style.com everyday, get way too excited for Fashion week, and shop too much too often.  

So it didn't surprise me at all then that I would become OBSESSED with these teenage fashion/shopping blogs (I just added the best one to my blog role--childhood flames.) The T Style Magazine had a piece about them in last week's magazine called "Post Adolescents" and as soon as I had a free moment, I checked them out.  Looking at Childhood Flames (the blogger is a 15-yr old in Portland--ok, I feel REALLY OLD) and the others brought back this wave of nostalgia and weirdly, identification.  These girls care about the clothes, the designers, the models, the personalities, and the magazines like I do: not as a superficial industry based on looks and money (which of course it is), but as a creative industry that promotes self expression and a visual history.  I don't know if that makes sense--it's hard to describe.  It's important to understand the way these bloggers, myself, and any other serious fashion follower looks at fashion, it is not about the person wearing the clothes, it's always about the clothes.  What means more to these girls (and me) is NOT "look at me, I'm so hot, and I have money" it's, "look at these shoes, and the shape of this coat, and do you know what inspired this shirt?"  And that's what I've always loved about fashion, because every piece in every collection has a story, an inspiration, a historic reference.  

I don't know if I could just stop caring about current events and start daily self-portraits or create a closet tour, but a part of me really wants to.  Fashion is a big part of my life, and I am glad for it.  It's like the former fashion blogger for Jezebel said, "I really care about what I'm wearing, but I also read Maureen Dowd, and care what she's saying."  I really butchered that quote---she said something like that, and I'm too lazy to search it out.  But you get my drift.