Inspirations

You know, I don't think people realize just how inspiring fashion can be. I just received via the local library, the book by Scott Schuman, the Sartorialist. I blogged about him a while back. He has a website where he daily posts a photo, but he also published a book back in 2009. I opened it to the first page and bam! Love it.

Here is a delightful quote by this delightful man:

"We tend to think that to achieve great personal style someone must have perfect clarity about who they are and what they stand for. I politely disagree. I think conflict about who you are often leads to even greater expression. That is why young people, or the young at heart, are those that inspire or move fashion forward. They are still struggling to find themselves: "Am I rocker? A footballer? Or a little bit of both?" These contradictions produce the most interesting looks."

This is so inspiring and not at all in a lame way. The person he is talking about is me in many ways. Am I rocker? A footballer? Okay, I am not a footballer, I do know that much. But that mixing and matching of clothing, the delving into the closet each day and asking what am I today? certainly leads to some interesting pairings. 

Then I came across this equally delightful blogger, Miss Moss, who had this amazing post the other day, where she put pictures by photographer Tommy Ton next to paintings by Yago Hortal. Yeah, I have never heard of these names either, but it is amazing looking at the completely different pieces of art and think that they had to have the same muse. Beautiful work on both sides; beautiful work by Miss Moss for putting these together. check it out:

http://www.missmoss.co.za/2011/07/13/bright-as-neon/

These are my inspirations for today and hopefully they inspire you in some way.

The Sartorialist

This guy is an amazing photographer. Just check out his blog, The Sartorialist. You have to. Do it. 

He takes pictures of not only noteworthy people in the fashion industry but also people on the street who's style catches his eye. Yes, the streets he is roaming over happen to include fashion capitals of the world, New York City, Milan, Florence, whole worlds removed from the great U.P. Still, check it out. The pictures are beautiful, the fashion amazing. Many of the looks I think are completely replicable for the more subdued streets of the Yoop, with the exception of the runway photos. 

I hate to use the word "replicable." The pictures are more for inspiration, an art form to move you to try and think something different. Getting dressed for me can be art. I know, that sounds like a stupid statement. Hello, we all have to get dressed, whats the big deal? Putting an outfit together for me is a creative outlet. With every piece of clothing you don, it says something about you. Putting together an outfit for me is like writing a beautiful sentence. It flows well together, it has a quality about it, a hum, a sigh, a bar of music that can be so utterly perfect...Getting too abstract here. But this photographer has it, in the most perfect of ways, the ability to put that little piece of art, creativity, beauty into something concrete. And I try to do that with clothes now. I may not achieve quite the effect that he catches on his worldly streets, but it certainly is fun.

And if you are reading this and think "artsy fartsy" you belong in the inner circles of hell. 

Again, here is his blog: http://www.thesartorialist.blogspot.com/