what's the trend?
to be clear i probably won't understand it
Somehow I always pick the most impractical clothing for whatever I’m doing. As I sit here, covered in icing sugar and lumps of butter and smelling faintly of raspberry jam, I wonder which sartorial errors I will commit whenever I go outside again.
I used to live in jeans and t-shirts, and decided when I got into my second year at university I should probably try and develop a style. Now, I’m lazy goth, tending towards bluestocking, and I’ve recently tried to incorporate items into my wardrobe that are more ~dark academia. (although the mustard check trousers I got were 1) too long, 2) too tight round the butt and 3) made me look like Rupert Bear).
I have more style hits than I do missteps, I think - but it’s been nearly a year since I’ve had occasion to dress up. Today I tried to dress as a romantic philosophy student - long-line checked skirt with shoulder straps over a black rollneck and the nicest necklace I own - and then completely destroyed the image by 1) not putting any makeup on and 2) baking a Victoria Sponge very messily for my partner’s birthday tomorrow. I mean, buttercream is horrible to make, isn’t it? The icing sugar blooms out of the bowl like an evil miasma and coats anything dark. Now I have a sugary chest and a phone with a light film of sweetness.
This is not quite as bad as when I met up with my friends for a meal, and we congregated at the house of a couple who have three cats who shed a lot, and I wore black velvet. The dress looked like I’d skinned an elderly wolf after ginger-and-white Morris had been on my lap.
Still, part of the rules of style is learning when to wear nice things. I probably won’t make the same mistake with the black rollneck and baking again, but if I do, no big. Things can go in the wash.
Lockdown - look, we’re approaching the first anniversary of the pandemic being A Thing in the UK, I’m gonna get maudlin about it - has sort of mangled my sense of myself and what makes me happy and who I am. I’ve been categorised and re-categorised by the NHS a bunch, I had a job and then I didn’t and then I did again, and overnight I went from living in a 3-room sixth-floor flat to living with my partner in a sunny house with a garden and a cat. And with everything going on, why get dressed? Why put on a bra? I suddenly dovetailed into comfort clothing, which is not how I usually operate. I even bought flats!
So now the prospect of the vaccine is ahead for me (we’re hoping this week), it’s nice to figure out who I am again. If that comes with a re-examination of my personal style, well, that’s something I can deal with. That’s something I can fix.
Links:
Today we’re focusing on fan culture.
The internet’s most beloved fanfiction site is undergoing a reckoning | Vox
I am old by fandom standards, and honestly AO3 has become a saviour. I’ve seen so many sites lose what made them useful to fandom (cough cough, Tumblr) so the way the Archive manages itself has always been refreshing. But here’s how one fic could ruin it all.
The Inbetweeners' James Buckley becomes the unlikely king of Cameo | The Guardian
I have never seen The Inbetweeners but it’s fascinating to me what Cameo has become. A message from your favourite, for only £x amount? Wow. And James Buckley is king.
I Was Your Fave Is Problematic | New York Times
I remember this blog! It was cited, it was memed. Learning the story behind it made me nod with recognition - but the kicker, about the sister, I didn’t expect.