Fashion Blogging?

Today I visited teenvogue.com because even though I'm a grown up now, I still appreciate its fun fashion sense. In the Girl of the Week section, I discovered almost every girl chosen has just started her own fashion blog. I checked out one of them. Each post consisted either of of-the-moment fashion preferences or the girl herself modeling in rather expensive new clothing. For some posts, she had even employed a friend to take model shots of her.

I reacted in two ways to the blog. My first thought was of mild disgust at the narcissism of it all. Sure, the girl has a gift for styling outfits. But the amount of time consumed with perfecting her image, buying clothing, and taking pictures of herself seems excessive.

On the other hand, the idea of starting a fashion blog appeals to my own interest in fashion and modeling. I wondered if I should utilize its concepts to some degree. For instance, my friends and I could continue our fashion shoots and I could post them on a blog! Or I could bring pieces I like together, although doing publicly what I've been doing on powerpoints for years seems scary because I don't want to be perceived as superficial.

And now I delve into our need to create an image for ourselves. For fashion bloggers, it's style. And although I'm interested in fashion, I've tried to create an image of verbal creativity and insight or of my intelligence or nonconformity.

None of it really matters in the end. I was talking to Daniel and Mary about this yesterday. By defining ourselves by a "thing," something by which we attain relevance to ourselves or others, we set ourselves up for failure and inadequacy. Because when we inevitably fail, we lose our identity. But it's just a created identity, it isn't who we are. People are people, defined by too many things to count. If we could appreciate that, maybe our image would improve without our own exhaustive, superficial aid. Its easier said than done.

I'm still considering starting a fashion blog.

An update (finally)

I finally eeked out a few more poems; they just haven't come as easily this semester. However, I've realized that I tend to think poetically or imagine situations just for their poetic value. That's made me feel a bit better about my lack of artistic creation. I wrote these a couple weeks ago. Do enjoy them:

Long Grass

The cedar tree forest
ants forage within
is green with Spring's
new blossom

Bruising its bark and boughs
under giant's limbs
I sit on it
and eat my lunch

The long grass grew (and grows)
under monsoon and sun alike
and no one comes
to cut it down.

The Cemetary Wedding

After a proposal by that
bench, under the tree
in the Pearson plot, I will
make a dress of grass
and fallen leaves,
Litter the aisle with
borrowed silk flowers and
march; the witch girl Eliza and
confederate soldiers
bow as my fresh,
watering gaze meets theirs,
where they lie at rest, dirt mattresses
and grassy quilts.
When I meet the groom, the
buzz of silence and whispers
memories, unfulfillments
Flutters, lifts my veil
New life intermingled
with old, and
the cycle has circled
marking its bounds
in vines and wrought iron.