Quote of the Week - On Blogging

I'm glad I came across this interview with New York Times fashion critic and esteemed voice-in-fashion Cathy Horyn today because it's reminded me why I started this blog and it makes me realise that I've become a little distracted. Essentially this blog is my portfolio to show the industry how much I want to be a part of it. I know that at some point I want to be a fashion writer. It may not be my career in fashion from the beginning, nor may it be what I do forever. (I fancy myself as a bit of a slasher, i.e. a writer/stylist/consultant/designer – aren't I typical of my greedy generation? We really want it all.) I am disappointed that I'm not able to go to London Fashion Week and attend shows and practice my reporting skills next month, but this season I'll be based in Paris working for a brand presenting a show, and it will be fascinating to be 'the other side of the catwalk' so to speak. 

There is also the issue which I have debated recently, and indeed which Cathy brings up in her interview, of originality. I'm constantly concerned with the question of "what can I do to try and keep ahead of the game?" And I've made my own conclusion that perhaps going to LFW like I've always done, and standing outside the big shows and taking pictures of strangers' clothes along with the other bloggers –whose numbers grow season upon season– probably isn't being very original. It's become a bit of a circus, and as the 'obnoxious blogger' grows as a public character, its an association I want to distance myself from as far as possible. It's become cringeworthy, queuing for a show and realising that some of the biggest -and seemingly undeserving - egos in the industry belong to 'bloggers'. 

Not being at LFW, those 10 days a year upon which an unabashed 6 months of my blog content hangs, will definitely be a challenge to my reporting skills. But I think I'm in need of a challenge. I've had it too easy. When I think of all those hundreds of thousands of girls and boys, writing beautiful fashion prose from their bedrooms in the depths of a continent that fashion forgot, scarcely having access to a Vogue magazine and only imagining they could ever be invited to a real life fashion show, I owe it to them. 

And here's more food-for-fashion-thought from Cathy. At least I've learnt french - it's a start!

“Be original and start your own blog and do real reporting and learn French. Be a reporter. Don’t be a re-blogger.”

A SUNDAY COCKTAIL [28.8.11]

The weekend comes around and I look forward to indulging in one of my favourite pastimes - sauntering round a gallery. Here are some of my picks from the Contemporary art floor at the Pompidou Centre.

[Akram Zaatari, 1966]

[Sasa by El Anatsoui]

[Text by Laura Carpenter]

Appreciating art can be about so many different things. I know that I look at art with eye influenced by fashion and appreciative of skill. I'm drawn to favour art in colour schemes to my tastes for instance, and to pieces that I could picture being in my home. Neither of these criteria would qualify me to comment on art, according to an 'art critic'. But who is an art critic anyway? A visitor to a gallery stands before a work, itself a reflection of the world we live in. We then judge that work, and use it as a mirror to reflect our emotions, either out loud to a friend or to ourselves.  We are all art critics. I also appreciate a high level of craftsmanship, whether an oil painting which captures the light perfectly, or an intricately woven tapestry or a sculpture held together by 17,000 individually placed tiny pins. 'Modern Art' has lost its shock value. I just don't think minimalist canvases and 5cm lengths steel wire stuck to a wall with scotch tape have any relevance this side of the millenium. The movement has moved on. The Pompidou Centre's Modern Art floor is excellently curated, with a vast range of mediums and forms. There is a real sense of originality too, and a definite focus on sheer skill. A favourite gallery comment is "My kid could make that", but I'll tell you there are a lot of modern pieces in this collection that your kid couldn't make. El Anatsoui's 8m high tapestry of metal litter, echoes Klimt, and holds you dumbfounded at the entrance.   I think a lot of the time appreciating art is down to it being accessible. A blank canvas on a wall is not accessible. A portrait of a stranger with a worried look can definitely be accessible. 

Is art more accessible when you can walk under it?

Or see yourself in it?

...Or run around it?

LAST OF THE SUMMER WINE

This photo by Patricia Nicolas just oozes Ibizan summer perfection. If you, like me, have missed out on a summer holiday this year, live vocariously through jewellry designer Patricia and her beautiful friends on her blog. PATRICIA NICOLAS.

Flight Facilities - Crave You ft. Giselle (Radio Edit) by flightfacilities