I’m back, people! Several years ago, I tried to start a blog, but I’m not sure what happened, it has fallen apart ever since. I’m an ardent fan of fashion and would like to be a magazine editor in the future so I guess I have to write a lot from now, improving my penmanship for my future readers. And I ended up writing some posts on my Facebook notes about fashion and was quite content about that. But then, I saw these endless streams of fashion bloggers from every part of the world, such as Tavi, Bryanboy, Jane Aldridge (seaofshoes.com), Scott Schuman (thesartorialist.com). All of whom have gained huge recognitions in the world of fashion, got invited to some of the greatest designers’ fashion shows, showed up inside well-known fashion magazines—not to mention they also got all these “perks” in the form of expensive clothes.
It seems time has changed. With great technology we have now, information is moving faster and reaching a wider audience. It looks like we can never get enough of the latest scoop coming from Copenhagen to Kabul. We want to acquire all the knowledge we can have NOW. We have become the unquenchable info junkie. The aforementioned fashion bloggers are one of the fitting examples of this. They voiced their thoughts about a collection just minutes after the runway show through their blogs. Tavi wrote about how amazing the spring 2010 Rodarte collection was. Some of them even set their own trends. Jane Aldrige, for instance, posts photos of herself, clad in the most stylish (and expensive) ensemble one could ever imagine. Meanwhile, Scott Schuman gives us an insight on the most fashionable streets in the world, be it in Paris or New York, through his amazing photography.
I have to admit a thing here: I want to be like them. I love fashion and I love to write about it. So I decided now that I will restart my blog again, write a hell lot, and hopefully, get the same recognition as my fellow bloggers. Well, I don’t want to dream too big about it, either. I just want this blog to be a medium where a lot of people will be interested in my posts, and enjoy them.
Maybe a lot of you who read this haven’t known me yet. So, it might be apt if I introduce myself first at this debut post in my blog. My name is Nico and I’m 19. Currently, I study International Relations at the University of Indonesia and as I have told you earlier, I’m very keen on fashion. My biggest dream is to work at Vogue, a magazine that is dearest to my heart. Maybe some of you are wondering, Why does this guy study International Relations when he wants to work at fashion magazine? Well, to be honest with you all, I’m not only interested in fashion, but I’m also a keen observer of international affairs—politics, economy, et al. I do care about what happens in the world around us. And I think, through my study, I get a better understanding of how our world really works. Why wars happen, how to achieve peace, who is responsible for the climate change, etc., etc. It is very interesting for me to learn all of that.
Fashion was at first just an interest or hobby of me. I started buying fashion magazines when I was about 16. When I pore hungrily over those beautifully crafted images of great creations, I feel a great sense of appreciation. Ooh, look at this! It’s so beautiful! How on earth can they make this insane-looking, yet wonderful [insert types of clothing or accessories here]?! Look at the model’s expression! She/He is so captivating! What a great styling! How great this photo is!!! I can read this article over and over again! What a great and witty writing!
Seriously, I can mumble like that throughout an entire magazine. But I don’t just want to be a consumer, so to speak. I want to be a part of those “magicmakers.” I want to create something beautiful and captivating for the world to look at or to read at—especially since I’m more interested in being a fashion writer, although come to think of it, I would not balk at the opportunity to be a fashion stylist. Fashion is part of our world, right? And although I rarely see fashion being discussed in my class (except when they got into this batik talk, or when somebody got thrown out of class because he wears sandals instead of shoes. You know who you are… Sorry!), I can somehow try to connect the thing that I study with the thing I love the most. For example, when the world economy is in crisis, this would affect the fashion business. People lose their jobs (and, hence, their income), demands for fashion decrease, fashion designers lose their money and close their business (this is not only faced by those young up-starts, mind you, but also by some of the most storied name in fashion, like M. Christian Lacroix, who was forced to close his haute couture collection due to the recession). As a result, the world is losing yet another creative people.
The much-beloved M. Lacroix and what is deemed to be his final collection (Style.com)
Another example is when the Iraq War happened, a lot of designers’ collection became—to borrow from the words of Anna Wintour, Vogue’s Editor-in-Chief—“militant.” They put some military elements in their collections as a form of social critiques toward the reckless policy of W.
Yes, these relations are not somehow direct, but you can see how the fashion world is actually quite sensitive to the state of the world. Okay, there are the glitzy and glamorous sides of this world, but behind every collection, the fashion designers are trying to speak about their feeling toward our chaotic world. Miuccia Prada, for instance, is known to be one of the fashion intellectuals, because there is always this philosophical debate behind every clothes she made. Prada thought of her latest collection as the representation of “how life is today,” visualizes through a collection of And she also declared that “When things are bad [the state of the world, that is, recession and all], you have to come out from that. Optimism is a choice.” So, fashion can be smart, too, you know. We are trying to relate to the so-called “real world.” But, fashion can also be a great distraction from the world we live in. Amidst the wars, the crises here and there, fashion exists to make the world more beautiful.
Prada Spring 2010 (Style.com)
There, I rest my case. And after this post, you will see some “flashbacks” of my early-days writing: several notes from my Facebook, which I know are old, but I hope they will still interest you. I will not write just about fashion, but anyting that I’m interested in, from music to movie to politics. You know what they say, a great writer can write about anything with great style and wit. Now, I’m crossing my fingers, hoping that this blog will one day make its way to the top.
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