repose leads to repost(already!).

Today I hope you don't mind if I pontificate a little about my style policies and problems. As serious as I sound I ask you to laugh as loud as you want, at any point, as many times as you want, please. A lot(most?) people don't take fashion too seriously and I thought I didn't because I don't spend a lot on my wardrobe but as I stated early just because you don't spend a lot on clothes doesn't mean you don't have a passion for fashion. I have to admit I do think about it a lot...so I have recently reclassified myself as the "take fashion too-seriously type". This blog is a full-on embrace of this reclassifcation.

So let me start by trying to explain a little about my personal style. I tend to like classic designs in terms of clothing. My idea of classic can be summed up in a few words; "faux french, fo real". When I make a purchase i ask myself, "is this faux french, fo real?"(I know, I know) and if it's yes, i can confidently buy knowing that I will wear the thing. It saves me a lot of time because all my clothes are related by this theme and it gives me direction in how I dress, having said that it can also be stressful at times. Fashion stress dosen't get a lot of sympathy but I've made a new policy to be more candid about my weaknesses/neuroses, haha, and I guess I can start here, so please bear with me.

In order to explain I have to go into a little bit more detail about my style. If I had to catergorize it I would say that I have two main fashion personas:ultra femme and smart tomboy. My ultra femme style is feminine and girlish; a typcial outfit would be a pink leopard print cardigan, pale pink satin camisole, skinny blue jeans, my teddy bear pendant and glittery pink high heels. My smart tomboy style is boyish and classic; a typcial outfit would be a black blazer, button down shirt with skinny denim overalls, my teddy bear pendant, flats and black frame glasses(prescription, of course). When my outfit is not clearly aligned to one of those categories I get stressed out by the mediocrity of the sartorial message I am sending; it makes my new clothes dull, bright colors seem faded and my acne worse. I think my friend put it best when she said, "if you're going to be a monkey, be a gorilla". Being a gorilla girl is not always easy but I try to stick to my guns.

Seeing as I currently teach children another fashion qualm is that I am forced to choose function over form and which hurts my feelings because most of my ultra femme outfits are function free and full on form.....and thus five days of the week I am stuck in the dreaded mediocre work clothes zone while my dresses and "on" outfits gather dust in the recesses of my closet. I am working on changing this situation.

One thing that I would really like to develop in my style is patterns, prints, whatever. I am really bad with prints. I usually go for solids and the only textile variety I have are stripey shirts, polka dot dresses, the occasional, occasional floral and leopard. Which in print sounds pretty varied but I am interested in branching out into more adventurous realms of prints but I am lost when it comes to this alluring pattern-filled world. There are too many things to think about when you consider color(s), size of the print, fabric, etc. My functional side tends to see prints as one-trick ponies that only go with certain items versus the hardworking solid that goes with everything but I'm working on getting rid of this prejudice...I'm planning to buy some pretty print blouses for the summer. We'll see how it goes.
(May 21, 2007)

shibuya starbucks all the time.

shibuya, aya.




inside starbucks, nice art deco-y building across the way.


my mujirushi bag and my Tadanori Yokoo badge



lately, i always end up drawing at starbucks. in the states everytime i venture into one my hands get all clammy for fear of being labelled a callous capitalist and i try my best to go for local options or when in doubt go to the less commercial, commerical chain, coffee bean. but in tokyo starbucks is stripped away of its evil and it becomes a familiar place: american, mainstream and smoke-free. it is the ideal environment for me to draw. i just want to be ignored and left alone. it becomes too much of a self-conscious act to sketch somewhere remotely trendy or likely to have ambiance. i just can't do it. it reeks of attention-seeking artist.

anyways, aya and i always have drawing sessions at starbucks. we chat for a little bit and than just sit side by side and draw. drawing partners are not easy to find but aya and i can chat and than focus, chat and than focus and its really relaxing.

the last two pictures are of my bag. i always end up buying canvas bags because i can't commit to spending a lot of money on a bag. its not that i favor expensive bags but none of the cheaper alternatives are ever appealing enough either. i don't like the idea of having to choose the lesser of two evils a guilt-inducing expensive "good" bag or a cheap, so-so bag so i am in a constant state of bag purgatory, its not wholly unpleasant though. i love my humble canvas bag: it takes me through all four seasons, fits sketchbooks and is machine washable.

i can't complain.

e.

faux faux real スタート！

hello world,

it finally occurred to me to record my fashion musings online. i never thought that a person such as myself who only just recently procured a digital camera and is not willing to spend exorbitant amounts of money on clothing and clubbing could be considered a fashion person. i am not the girl with the most things or on the cutting edge of anything but as much as i try to escape it i keep coming back to fashion. i mean even when i am trying to be anti-fashion i'm thinking about fashion and so i have finally come to terms with the fact that i am somewhat of a fashion/style nerd.

and i will try my best to put to pen or keyboard what i am thinking about sartorially and in general. also i am currently living in tokyo and i hope to capture the charms of tokyo as best as i can. having grown up in tokyo and l.a. it always takes me awhile to acclimate to the city i'm in. sometimes i have my american glasses on and sometimes i have my japan glasses on. when i came back to live in tokyo two summers ago my american glasses were strapped on very tightly and i did not allow myself to enjoy all the great things that were happening around me.

i just compared tokyo to l.a. but alas, tokyo is not l.a. and l.a. is not tokyo.

it took me awhile to get that through my head.

anyways, i have two and a half short months left and i'd like to believe its not too late to do/start something great.

sincerely,

esther