Enter Title Here and that Legendary Book

I've had a really intense day spent baking things. My mum just asked me what the subject matter of this post is, as she walked past. Then she spoke on my behalf by saying that I am just going to crap on. And then she told me in an expressive voice (for the one millionth time) that I am so wordy.

Anyway, nearly a year ago in the swimming change room on the last week of school, my friend Joanna, whose name I now pronounce with the type of j that sounds like y, gave me a rad book. She had filled in fifteen entries "in the style" of Stuff White People Like, and the book was called Stuff Indie People Like.


They were written in a MOLSKINE notebook.

The funny thing is, at the time when I tried to make this blog, I couldn't register the name on blogspot. Why? She had. (But then she deleted the blog and after some time, I took it.) Anyway, I told Joanna I would write some nice things about her. So I shall tell you that she had a semi-brief stint as a blogger herself. makeandbelieve-elke.blogspot.com was successful, though because it's been sleeping for a while, I'll call it semi-successful. There's an example of someone who actually practices a picture and a line saying a thousand words!

Here is an extract from the book, which, being something both handwritten and scanned, is just what we (me and my blog) need. [the artist of the book and Billie retain copyright]

Look! It's Tavi Gevinson

Yesterday, when I was writing this post (typical, I never post things on the day I write them...), I was having one of those days filled with desperation and getting all choked up about nothing going the right way, which is everything. Like seriously - why did I never get my  letter from Hogwarts!?

But anyway, that is besides the point, which is actually some deep and meaningful advice from me. You see, one of the most preliminary ideas you must grasp about Indies is that they operate on quite a lot of jealousy. When they hate someone/something, their hate spreads far and wide. Let me relate a story to you. The other night I was at a dinner party and the man sitting opposite me was telling another about how he had to understand that when Australians say they hate someone, they don't really mean it; that if someone says they hate Manly (the team), they don't really. Instead, it's an affectionate feeling. This nonsensical story does not exemplify my point about jealousy. However, it reminds us of some anthropological background to Indies, many of whom are Australian.

The reason teen Indies despise Tavi Gevinson so much is because when they are jealous, they are full on negative and the most positive thing they can say will still be a backhanded insult. Like, dude, Indies are already super jealous when it comes to material items, so when it comes to a whole character...you don't even want to go there. Indie teens envy her celebrity status because hey! they could totally have been her at eleven (and if they couldn't have been, well, Tavi's then a total loser who needs to be normal!) You see, it's totally screwed, like, Gevinson is so Indie because she IS, but Indie teens don't reckon she can pull off her own style. In fact, Indie teens find her so disconcerting and enraging that they negate her indieness and reduce her to being considered the runt of the Indie-Pack/not Indie.

The thing is, Indie teens actually don't get her. Like, what's up with the Catholic pinboards when you're Jewish!? So pretty much, they get a kick out of crapping on about how bad she is. They can only call her and her joie de vivre  weird and pretentious and say that they "just don't like her". They envy the attention an awkward kid with weird hair should not be getting, especially from the Industry and 20-something year olds.

But don't think they don't know what's going on with Tavi Gevinson and her reflections and opinions and idols and electronically reproduced images from TV on her blog. Indie teens need to know, they need to feed their hatred. Still, every time they hear her name, they die a little bit inside from jealousy.

At Generation Next Forum 2010

2009

2010

2011

 Argh! I got heaps of images from the Internet and stuck them on this post. But they didn't actually stick. So then I tried to do it again and it took ages again and then I realised: why don't I tell the audience that if they type her name into a search engine, they can find images of her easily!?  But I don't think you need orders, especially from an idiot  who can't use a computer properly.

xoxo.

Peace is the Way

Walking with Alfred Hassler, Thich Nhat Hanh and Sister Chan Khong Official Film Trailer from FairSoul-LIVE...ACT..BE on Vimeo.

From http://www.peaceisthewayfilms.com/ , you can find your way to the IndieGOGO campaign.

Where to start on the Indieness of Audrey Hepburn - Holly Golightly?

50 Years Of Breakfast In A Little Black Dress

by SLOANE CROSLEY

EnlargeChristie's Ronald Grant Archive/ AP

This photo released by Christie's auction house shows actress Audrey Hepburn in the 1961 film, Breakfast at Tiffany's. The black Givenchy dress worn by Hepburn sold at auction for $807,000.

text size A A A

October 5, 2011

Sloane Crosley is a writer. She lives in New York City.

Here is what you can't do anymore in New York: climb the Statue of Liberty's torch, gain access to Gramercy Park without a key, or sip a martini in The Oak Room at The Plaza Hotel.

Now here's what you can do — and just about every little girl in Manhattan knows it: You can always have Breakfast at Tiffany's.

It's a perfect combination that exists so long as the demand for jewelry stays as consistent as the demand for breakfast pastry. And today that pastry should have a birthday candle in it.

For today marks the 50th anniversary of Holly Golightly. Rather, it's been 50 years since Audrey Hepburn brought her to quixotic life in the award-winning film.

Novella Holly (the Holly of Truman Capote's novella) was introduced to the world in 1958. Therefore America's most beloved style icon has just a few more wrinkles on her. But who's counting? Especially when it's the movie that sticks. And I mean that literally. For every boy with a poster stuck to his dorm room wall bearing the image of John Belushi in Animal House, there is a girl down the hall with a Breakfast at Tiffany's movie poster tacked above her bed.

Now, at first glace, the human beings sleeping beneath these images have as much of a shot at dating each other now as John Belushi and Audrey Hepburn had when they were alive. Let thatvisual sit for a second. If a romance between them seems unlikely, the book is not to blame. It's those first images from the film.

Skye Parrott

Sloane Crosley's most recent book is How Did You Get This Number, a collection of humor essays.

You know that romantic sequence of events in which a taxicab pulls over on Fifth Avenue and releases a Holly Golightly into our imaginations? She's a vision, holding coffee in her gloved hand, engraved in our brains like letters on a ring from a Cracker Jack box. She is in the midst of the single most famous walk of shame in cinematic history.

Holly Golightly may have had a place at the fraternity house after all.

Yet when we think of Breakfast at Tiffany's, we choose not to recall the no-name slobs or minor league prostitution. Sure, those come to mind when we sit down and think about it. But today, you'll remember, is supposed to be a birthday party. A celebration.

And after 50 years of trickle-down iconography, we have come to know the guest of honor largely by her packaging. But remember — she is not so unlike the Statue of Liberty's torch or the gated Gramercy Park. Just because you can no longer get inside doesn't mean it's not there.

http://www.npr.org/2011/10/05/141080177/50-years-of-breakfast-in-a-little-black-dress?sc=fb&cc=fp

Help me make a decision

 "Glitter" leggings from Lindsay Lohan's 6126 collection online. 

This magical piece is a fusion of two of our favorite trends: sequins and leggings. Slip on your favorite city-girl shoes and be ready to glisten and glimmer all night long. 

Is this an Indie "yes" or "no"? I feel the type of shoes implied are not sneakers or those flat orthopaedic-looking unsupportive leather shoes, which leads me to doubt the Indieness of these leggings.

• ·         Front and back sequin panels

• 
  

  ·         Sold black sides

• 
  

  ·         Elastic waistband

• 
  

  ·         Modal/spandex

Are elastic waistbands some sort of new feature of leggings which I hadn't previously known about???!!!

Playing Beatie Bow

deconstructing and drawing inspiration

“when you don’t dress like everybody else, you don’t have to think like everybody else”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/fashion/iris-apfel-90-stylish-and-on-hsn-up-close.html?pagewanted=all

why can’t I show the top of the page like links on facebook.

Indie of the Week, because the week starts on Sunday

Which is the Indiest one? it's Evanna Lynch, the Irish girl who played Luna Lovegood in Harry Potter. I mean DUDE! sweet pants - puffy style but not ill-fitting. Hard to come by. And the belt! And it was well done, the tight top with puffy pants and not too naked because of the cardigan. It's not grungy at all! I am only frowning because the hair needs a bit of a trim and too be off her face. She's so cute and looks full of beans for a fifteen (?) year old. Man, the more I look at this picture the more it cracks me up.

Zebra Micro Mini

Are you an Indie whose signature look is animal prints? I think not. Animal prints are not florals, which is why they are not what first comes into your mind when you think about Indie patterns. And I reckon this is because they are seen as unnatural and fake. They do not conform to the Principle of Organics. Animal prints decidedly belong to a couple of looks and that has been an unquestioned point in society. But today I am daring to challenge. Because I have seen a photo on the Internet of the Indie Icon Françoise Hardy in  a zebra miniskirt.

source: http://www.listal.com/viewimage/2421771

xoxo

Indie Inspiration

I had to force myself to sit down and write this blog post. Sometimes things are such a drag and one is surrounded by the type of energy that blocks up the joke pipe and/or system of progression of ideas. But it's okay now because I've tied back my hair in a way I haven't done in a while and have been drinking Turkish apple tea from the special glasses which were a gift from a friend a couple of birthdays ago. But anyway, I was really inspired a few days ago reading a post on beautyfool.net about how to do fake dreadlocks with hair gel. (Note: Indies are always being inspired by this or that.) From there I went to find some images but was quite unsuccessful. 

So anyway, the dreadlocks style is rooted deep in ancient history and have been worn by many religious groups. Just look it up on Wikipedia. According to that one unreliable source (with questionable information on Australian breakfast under Australian cuisine), reasons for wearing dreadlocks are to express "deep religious or spiritual convictions", "a manifestation of ethnic pride", "a political statement" and as "a fashion preference." But that was hardly new knowledge. Dreadlocks are totally a mark of commitment to something. Like, they take ages to form, so it would be unwise to embark on the journey and decide half way through that you no longer wanted to be making whatever statement you supported before.

Dreadlocks are an iconic fashion statement among rebels. In the fifties, the Mau Mau rebels lived in the forests of Kenya growing dreadlocks and fighting against British rule. And of course the Rastafarian wearing of dreadlocks to, apparently, rebel against Eurocentric ideals about beauty and the way things should be cannot go unmentioned.

These days the dreadlocks look is associated with hippies, cults and new subcultures I didn't know existed until I saw them mentioned on Wikipedia and had no desire to look at their page. So pretty much, they are worn by people who are hard-core and are displaying their rebelness. And their inspiration was possibly the reggae vogue blah blah blah Bob Marley, a staple on the Facebook profile of Indies. The rebelling is probably against commercialisation of everything in society and the absurd triviality of society's routine (such as cleaning your head).

image: http://themusicsover.com/2010/05/11/bob-marley/

Online, the alternative can congregate together as a community on sites such as dreadheadhq.com. And purchase accessories, hair care items and synthetic extensions (I get this image of opening up a drawer in the dark and landing my hand upon fat coils) at dreadlocks.com.au. And the impatient dreadlocks lover could always get a salon dread perm using chemicals, which I reckon is what they did for the Argentinian brand Complot's verano 2009 collection. (Ha! And they've got all these pages about backstage, which is an Indie like, because it's a peak into the Industry.)

images from http://lomejordelamoda2008.blogspot.com/2008/10/complot-primavera-verano-2009.html