livinginfictionhere

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Sorrowful even to death

Sorrowful even to death

The past few weeks have been an adjustment – and it’s been incredibly tough. On one end, I feel so alone, lost, and human-less at times. I feel a kind of sorrow: a longing to be back with loved ones, a realization of the pain of adulthood and independence, and a solemness of puffing myself up to be someone I’m not. I admit I am in a season of sorrow. And yet, Jesus felt even more sorrowful –…

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ACW: A case study

ACW: A case study

As we venture off into the world of virtual fashion weeks and socially-distant seasons, I sit at my desk less inundated with shots of street style models and whimsical set designs. Instead, it seems, the industry is continuing to slow down, slowly redefining itself a couple of percentage points at a time. Burberry instated a matrix-esque woodland Hunger Games while Moschino opted for a…

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Fashion forever?

My good friend, Chase, sent me this NYT article that perfectly encapsulated my thoughts on the ‘busyness’ of the fashion industry. It speaks to how Scott Sternberg, founder of Band of Outsiders, created Entireworld, envisioning it as a “rejection of the traditional fashion system.” It was created to disband the notion of wholesale, seasonal collections, and fashion shows – the current landscape…

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Different forms of cinematography

Different forms of cinematography

I think photography and cinematography play such powerful, under-rated currents in storytelling. It is what the audience subconsciously takes in without a doubt. When done correctly and effectively, it can convey so much more of the storyline than the dialogue or character development itself. As we say, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Two very different forms of cinematography come to…

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Social justice shopping in the age of COVID?

After reading Manrepeller’s article on ‘Should we still be shopping?‘, my friends and I got into an interesting discussion on the topic of shopping to save the industry vs. shopping to distract ourselves from endless sources of tragic news and pure boredom. The crux of the argument, the article well summarizes with this:

Because even beyond the debate over where our money is most impactful…

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Fashion reads while 'social-distancing'

As we start enclosing ourselves into our own caves, we can spend the time better understanding the world around us. It’s a time of self-reflection, and ultimate introversion in some sense, as we find different ways of connecting with each other…. in the comfort of our own home.

Some short reads below to look into while we sit at home:

Personal story of JJ Martin living in Milan

Olivia…

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LONDON FASHION WEEK 2020

LONDON FASHION WEEK 2020

This past weekend, I was able to attend my first ever fashion week in London. Typically not open to public, fashion week is a celebration of new, innovative art and design coming together. As of British Council September 2019, that London Fashion Week would be the first to open its doors to the public.

It meant that LFW would dedicate two days to hosting the public, with 6 ticketed catwalks…

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Sustainability in Fashion: Realistic or Idealistic?

Sustainability in Fashion: Realistic or Idealistic?

I think it’s really interesting to think about what “sustainability” even means in fashion. At the route of the industry is the need to be materialistic – “fashion” wouldn’t exist without the need to be a bit excessive or “consumeristic.” If we are pursuing sustainability to “avoid the depletion of natural resources [and] maintain an ecological balance” then it seems that fashion and truesustaina…

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REVIEW // JOKER

“Better to be king for a night than schmuck for a lifetime.”

Rupert Pupkin, The King of Comedy

The Joker is one of the most compelling narratives of a man’s descendent into chaos. It’s a mashup somewhere between Nabokov’s Lolita and Camus’s The Stranger. A sad, momentous reality depicted in its organized and disorganized, prompted and impromptu, ordered and disordered moments. A twist on our…

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LOUIS VUITTON S’20

Belle Époque–era Paris – “‘It’s a part of French history that’s very interesting in art, as well as culturally, in terms of emancipation of women, and, of course, in literature with Proust,’ he explained. It’s also a period that more or less coincided with the birth and rise of the house of Louis Vuitton. In the late 1800s, advances in construction and technology ushered in…

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MAISON MARGIELA S’20

“Stories of hope, heroines, and liberation are forgotten as history draws ever closer to repetition.” Army hats, structured corsets, caped jackets — theatrics to remind you the liberation from wartime – the hope that encompasses you after tragedy.

LOEWE S’20

“Ethereal, poetic, and aristocratic.” Jonathan Anderson has mastered the fine art of layering lace,…

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QR: SPRING SUMMER '20

QR: SPRING SUMMER ’20

FENDI | S’20

Lagerfeld’s successor, Silvia Venturini Fendi opened up a new wave of summer with a different kind of “solar mood.” A new, warm Italian summer with sun-kissed girls and quilted cotton jackets to round out another season of life, somewhere in between work and vacation.

PRABAL GURUNG | S’20

Cannot not talk about politics when it comes to this particular show that was…

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RAG & BONE \\ SPRING 20

Marcus Wainwright’s return to the runway is unlike your typical show experience. Admist launching AI-hosted dinners and photo exhibitions, he filled his runway with the streets of New York. Mixing men’s tailoring with artful layering, he has mastered the sense of NY nostalgia, and the nostalgia of a show in his latest project.

KHAITE \\ SPRING 20

Catherine…

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How to find your style!! (from @bestdressed)

How to find your style!! (from @bestdressed)

Aside from the fact that it was Fall ’19 couture week, I came across a video that broke down how to dissect and discover your style. I wanted to capture her 6 tips below for my own reference as well 🙂

Assess your own wardrobe: Assess what you already wear and love — most times it’s that you have several items of clothing…

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CAMP

This year’s Met Gala theme puzzled everyone, but I think in a sense the puzzlement also personified how the fashion industry acts at times.

When people first heard that the theme was “camp,” most people immediately thought of their summer nights in the woods, going on hikes and sleeping next to a campfire in a cozy little tent. Hence, when the layman saw the outrageous outfits that…

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A Seoul diary - and a quick itinerary in itaewon

A Seoul diary – and a quick itinerary in itaewon

Hi friends,

It’s been a while since I last post. I’ve been spending half my time in New York, and the other half in Boston more or less. Since I’ve started watching Romance is a Bonus Book, my heart’s been longing to go back to Seoul.

Hence, this post – a quick travel guide to the updated Seoul. Seoul’s been in much of a transition period – it’s turning more than ever into an…

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I think it’s cliche how people say that fashion is a form of self-expression. It is, but it’s so much more than that. What we choose to wear is a choice we make everyday, whether we want to or not. And I think clothing reveals, and can dictate, a lot of our psyche and the impressions we make on other people. Clothing matters – it can help us look and be more confident, more sophisticated, more individualized – really whatever it is we’re trying accomplish.

In short, I think fashion can empower who and what we want to be. And in light of that, I’d think of the fashion industry and the trends that make it to FW. Despite the fact that the ~$3 trillion industry’s been constantly changing, the imprints and marks that designers try to leave are  inspiring and worthwhile watching. I think the most worthwhile are the ones that actively invest in its storyline and brand authenticity. You could think of this as a type of slower, ethical fashion – from brands that make clothing from recycled fabrics (e.g., Reformation and Girlfriend Collective), to ones that source from boutique manufacturing (e.g., 3.1 Phillip Lim) – but I don’t think that has to be the case. In a landscape of optimizing supply chains and growing customer insights (especially since the emergence of ultra-fast fashion), it’s a bit ignorant to think slow fashion is the sustainable solution of this ever polluting, disruptive industry.  Fashion will not slow down any time soon, and at one point or another, everyone will buy from “unethical” retailers.

So then, how do you find your niche in fashion? As a consumer, you can look at clothing brand-agnostic, and choose pieces that you personally find appealing for a particular price; or you can look at clothing with the brand focus. For me, the core story of the brand is what resonates with me, and when looking at the former, I focus on how the occasion of shopping or the brand itself resonates with my own life story.

I was in New York a couple of weeks ago, and stumbled across M.Crow. I first thought it was a pseudo-furniture store, which in a sense it was. Tyler Hays bought up his hometown’s 100 yr old general store when it was about to close down, and reimagined his own dreams and childhood:

M. Crow is an awkward collision of all my hobbies and interests and an outlet for fulfilling that childhood fantasy… M. Crow is also interesting to me on more pragmatic levels; rural economic development is a passion of mine as is the heritage of my hometown.

Receipts from the M.Crow store

Brand origins

Not every outlet of fashion has the capacity or the need to do this; but when you find the corners of the industry that is able to combine the designer’s own story, own dreams, and a targeting sub-segment of a customer base: maybe those who also recognize their own kind of hometown, childhood nostalgia.

I’ll stop here for now, but a lot of these ideas come from Simon Sinek’s TED talk, highlighting the power of why and the core of a brand. A quick reference to the psyche: if we’re going to choose what to wear and influence others’ impressions of ourselves, then why wouldn’t you try to align the brand’s with your own? It’s much more interesting and impressionable when someone asks you where you bought your outfit to know the story around it than the brand name itself.

          some overarching thoughts on the fashion industry I think it's cliche how people say that fashion is a form of self-expression. It is, but it's so much more than that.