On Blogging, And The Stoppage Thereof.

Blogging these days isn't exactly free of hiccups along the way (major samples of said hiccups including storms that blow out my Internet cables and, at college, a firewall that won't let me see this blog because evidently, it contains 'forbidden'- read pornographic- material). It's also sometimes tough just to tear my eyes off what feels like the half-zillion other things I do online (thankfully, I'm too old to really be into Facebook etc- being glomped by zombies doesn't bother me) , or to stop reading other blogs long enough to post on my own.

Which brings me to the point of this post really, the point being just how sad it can be when a blog you read shuts down. It's not that I disagree with anyone's right to stop blogging, but it's still downright depressing that no less than four of my favourite blogs have been deleted, discontinued or gone underground in the last two months, or are headed that way in the near future (namely Style Bytes, LibertyLondonGirl, and Mrs Fashion respectively, with LC of Fops and Dandies shutting down soon because she's headed to law school in a matter of weeks). I don't mean to sound whiney or ungrateful, because heaven knows a new job- in LLG's case- and law school- in LC's- are time-consuming things and blogs can be tricky, privacy-wise, but I guess all I really wanted to say is, I miss these blogs rottenly (or I will). One of the best things about having a blog is getting to know other bloggers and their thoughts- if I were to liken the round of blog-visiting and commenting to anything, it would be a series of pretty tea parties (though someone I know compared them to slumber parties, I think a fash-blogger interaction would be slightly more dressed-up). Either way, I'm grateful to Agathe, LLG, Mrs Fashion and LC for letting me in on their take on style, even if it was just for a bit. And if any of them do start writing again, I'd be a very very happy girl indeed...
*header images from Libertylondongirl and Fops and Dandies.

Tit For Tattoo

In times when my blogging mojo deserts me (helped along by the lightning that blew out my Internet cables for nearly a week), the things that get me going again are any of the following:
a) something really interesting to blog about (at least, I think so).
b) sheer annoyance, leading to a rant.
This post probably falls into the latter category, triggered by this article in the Telegraph. (to anyone who doesn't want to be bothered with clicking the link, it's basically a long whine about how tattoos are ugly and disfiguring, and apparently Angelina Jolie's tattoos are a 'violation' of her from the neck down. The article went on and on in the same tone, and I wasn't exactly sure what Becky Pugh, the writer of the article, had against them- until the second page and end of the article, when she revealed that she'd got a tattoo she regretted during her gap year (I presume) in New Zealand.
Very honestly, as a person who's been inked (albeit discreetly) for three years and wanted to be for six years before that, I don't see what the bloody fuss is about. Admittedly, a tattoo requires a good deal of thought beforehand since it's permanent, can be expensive, and will probably remain on your body until you die or fork out a lot of money to have it lasered off . But if I'm the one who chose to get it done, I don't see why some woman who feels bad about her own tattoo because she got it done for what sounds to me like a pretty stupid reason (rebellion? gap-year boredom? seriously?) has the right to call judgement on mine, or to say that I, or any woman who gets a tattoo, is 'blighted' by it. Blighted, my foot.
I suppose tattoos are a strange subject for a fashion blogger to be going on about, and I don't deny that I can and do get annoyed by what seem to me like stupid-looking tattoos or overly ostentatious-for-the-sake-of-it ones, but at the end of the day, it's a choice- just as much as what we choose to wear. It's possible not to agree with another person's choices, or to make them for ourselves in the same situation, but surely condemning them out of hand isn't the way to go? And if our bodies are our own, choosing the clothes we want to wear each day, or the markings we choose to wear permanently- are those really such outlandish, unthinkable concepts? It's food for thought, I say..

Cute As A Button-Down

Over the course of the decade since I hit puberty, I've always been a girl who favoured skirts over trousers. There's hardly a skirt form on earth I haven't worn or won't wear, with the exception of crinkled gypsy skirts*, but it wasn't until a recent wardrobe cleanout that I was reminded of one rather peculiar kind (I say peculiar only because I literally never saw anyone else wearing it) that I'd loved like no one's business at age fourteen- the zip-up/button-down skirt. It wasn't a love that stopped at that age, either- a pale, pink-and-green- flowered denim button-down went to uni with me and got more than a few wears- at least till the year before last, when I accidentally cut it a couple of inches too short for dress-code regulations. It's still around somewhere...and one of my lost cupboard loves was a pale blue Benetton button-down with a wide waistband and shiny silver buttons- I went into a two-hour fit of the sulks when I realised, five years ago, that it was nowhere to be found (kind of an occupational hazard of moving house thrice in a year).

In any case, I've had button-fronted/zip-fronted skirts on the brain for a while now, and no way of getting my fix other than wearing an oversized man's shirt as a skirt- I rather enjoy the puffy-hip effect, and the way the 'hemline' gets slightly uneven...and I can always get my vicarious fix of VFA aka Visible Fastener Action via my favourite source- fashion bloggers! Susie, Dreamecho and The Clothes Horse wear their skirts with the buttons and zips (and what a zip it is, on Dreamecho's awesome Michele Lau number) in very different, though equally stylish, ways. It almost makes me want to get out the scissors and thread for a DIY on one of my existing skirts- I want some buttons to fiddle with- until I remember that my last attempt at sewing has resulted in a pile of stiff pinky-purple brocade completely failing to take the shape of a skirt. Still, I'm happy looking at these girls and the Ellegirl Korea online shop...(for some reason, it has button-down skirts. In a fair few shapes. Just when I want them- only it's a pity I don't understand anything on the page)
*heaven knows why they seem to be a staple of so many college-girl wardrobes in India. They're bloody unflattering, and sloppy to boot- not even in a good sense. Also, it's no fun to wear a straight-line skirt that drags in the dust...

photographs from (L-R) Style Bubble, Dreamecho and The Clothes Horse.

Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head- Or Not!

It might be officially summer for the rest of the world, but right where I am, it's been pouring rain for a while- which means only one thing- umbrellas ahoy! My bad habit of losing them means I don't get any but the plainest black ones, but if I were slightly more careful with my possessions (and if I actually knew where they came from! Romeika first posted them, here and here), the three in the pictures below would be top candidates for acquisition by me:

I particularly fancy the idea of scaring people with the cat one, being just juvenile enough for that...though Mary Poppins (the book version, not cheery Julie Andrews) would most certainly disapprove of umbrellas being used for such frivolity. And speaking of frivolity, I rather fancy a parasol too. And I probably fancy them even more after seeing this image off The Sartorialist:

It's a far cry from your average guard against the rain, but with that light behind her and the contrast of the spokes against the rest, it really does look slightly like a halo on a saint..
EDIT: I am so technologically inept, I have no idea at all how a blank post is appearing just below this one- and Blogger isn;t even letting me delete it! Did our latest power cut cause it?