Waifish little whisps living the dream...

While gorging on Style.com's video footage of New York Fashion Week in September, I kept noticing this waifish little whisp of a thing that could’ve been a girl or a boy, I couldn’t tell. This fresh faced imp was getting interviewed from the front row of dozens of runway shows. At the bottom of the screen, instead of the usual title of “Fashion Journalist” or “Fashion Designer” it just said “Fashion Rookie”. Then when I decided to go back and figure this iddy biddy enigma out, I couldn’t remember the kid’s name or figure out which videos the moppet had appeared in.

So when I accidentally ended up on the Teen Vogue site today (after clicking the wrong link on a blog I follow) I was pretty excited to see the prodigal child (a girl, apparently) with her name on the front page. Mystery solved.

So her name is Tavi Gevinson and she’s 13, and she writes a blog called Style Rookie. Apparently the Mulleavy sisters of the Rodarte label discovered her and whisked her away into a fairy tale world of fashion. And now, according to the article on Teen Vogue, she’s the new face of Target.

So naturally, needing to overwhelm envy with awe, I browsed her blog. It is obviously written by a 13 year old, albeit a very intelligent and culturally literate 13 year old. She’s all at once confident and self-deprecating. I see the appeal; she reminds me of myself at that age and I imagine a lot of people feel the same way. Still, the self consciousness palpable in her writing has clearly been tinged by her 15 minutes. So I went further back into her blog archives, and I found an effortlessness that was probably what attracted all of her readers in the first place. Not to mention her early self-portraits lack the “deer in headlights” look inherent to so many of the shots of her taken at shows.

So this pre-teen is definitely pretty cool although still entirely mysterious.  I hope the fashion industry doesn’t make a habit of this. Whatever makes this weird girl anomaly cute and quaint will make the next one trite. Kudos to this one, though. I’m jealous as hell, but equally impressed.

Unpurchased and unpurchaseable thrift store finds...

When I am thrift store shopping, and I want something that I cannot reasonably justify buying I take a picture of it with my handy dandy iPhone.  I also photograph things that amuse me that I would have no earthly business buying.  Here's a few examples from the last few months...

I wish I collected this technicolor kitsch stuff, I find so much of it.

Seeing all this jewelry excites me...

A pile of panties...

That's a lot of knives for not a lot of money.

Only a thrift store would have such a hilarious combination on the shelf.

Is it just me, or is this Virgin Mary wearing too much makeup?

I would've bought this in a heart beat if it wasn't stained.

These are so awesome, but they were too big!  I may go back and get them anyway.

Wouldn't it be nice to have a use for Lincoln...

A Fancier to a Fault

I am a collector, also known as a pack rat, a hoarder, an accumulator, a gatherer, and according to my thesaurus, a fancier. Occasionally a specific collection will become so large and unwieldy that I have to make a conscious effort to stop adding to it. This happened with vintage buttons after hitting the mother-load at an estate sale last summer. I am starting to get this feeling with vintage earrings. My Etsy shop has only a small selection of what I am currently storing. And I’m honest with myself, no matter how many I post only so many will be sold.

I’ve always been a sucker for bright colors and cheap prices, and I doubt I’ll completely stop buying vintage earrings. But I am the kind of thrift store junkie that gets withdrawl symptoms after three days away from the dusty house ware shelves, the endless clothing racks, and the color coded price tags. If I bought every bargain bauble that caught my eye from inside a jewelry case, well let’s just say I couldn’t afford an apartment large enough to store them all. I’m going to have to steer clear from the accessories and continue on my recent hunt for microwave safe vintage plates. Not to mention contact paper, clip-on ties, and jewelry boxes.

Some clip-on earrings from my collection.

Good ol' fashioned dadaism.

During my internet wanderings I was delighted to discover a little bit of dadaistic lovelines on the blog Little Brown Pen.  It's a calendar available for download for free!

I started reading the quips before noticing the title or description.  I began to get suspicious that some surrealism might be afoot, and alas!  I was right.

If you're a poet and/or you have a sense of humor, then go check it out.  And if you have a printer, then I suggest making yourself a gift!