11/27/22

Hello, my lovely ladybugs. I hope you all had an amazing Thanksgiving, I want to hear all about them but unfortunately, this is my time so you will have to wait. Did you eat enough? How was having to give up doing drugs for three days? 

I always felt very sad around Thanksgiving and I will tell you why. I always saw pieces of media portraying Thanksgiving as a massive collection of everyone in your family, and in most cases, I feel like it's even bigger than Christmas since I feel like Christmas is more acceptable to do with only your immediate family. But for the most part, that's how my Thanksgiving went as well. The issue I always found with it, beyond just having to have like three of them for separate families, was that I was the baby. I didn't have fun cousins to hang out with or a "kids" table, it was me and my sister, or my sister and I and our stepbrothers, but that was it. Every other interaction that occurred between me and a family member on that day strictly revolves around school, jobs, and possible girlfriends (though those questions have become far and few as family members I trusted out me to more and more people I actively didn't want to know every day), and all the boring "I don't know anything about who you are but I do know what you're up to because I'm friends with your mom on Facebook" questions. 

This is why, and this is the Christian Reid-focused portion of the blog, I was excited for this year because it's the second year I get to spend Thanksgiving with my best friend! This year I went to her house, hung out for a few hours, and ate my first real Thanksgiving meal in a few years, which inherently makes the day better. It was me, Maisy, Maisy's boyfriend "Wally", Maisy's mom, Maisy's boyfriend's mom's roommate's cousin's neighbor, and some of Maisy's mom's friends. And Maisy's mom's friend's mom. In summary, a pretty wacky, and also cooky, group of people. But I had a lot of fun. I love witnessing how other people interact, especially when they don't know everyone, I think it says a lot about their character. Seeing how nervous or awkward they are, if they're comfortable telling jokes or if they break the tension by trying to act professional. It's interesting. On the downside, I missed the parade so I'm probably going to off myself. I have always hated thanksgiving, I hate eating in front of people, I hate forced small talk, and I hate when family members cry when they talk about what they're thankful for, but the parade has been, and always will be, the best part of the holiday. And I missed it. I also miss my Mom? I purposely chose to move here full-time and not go home as often, but because this semester has been so silly, not seeing my mom for Thanksgiving was just a little saddening. 

Anyways the rest of my week before that was the same miserable funk I've somehow managed to force myself to stay in, so nothing is worth mentioning. Oh this guy I hooked up with last semester hard launched his boyfriend, and I have never been happier that a relationship ceased when it did. Mother fucker has gotten ugly. But it did make me realize something that Abby told me could be an interesting conversation topic to delve into before the true meat of the post. I, and many others most likely, am in a situation where I'm being very hard on myself for failing to succeed in areas that I think I need to. Especially in the area of romantic interest. And I came to a new conclusion that is, what I think, a helpful conclusion to come to. I see everyone around me in relationships, but what I also see is everyone around me breaking up with their partners. I'm not sure what my goal is when dating, but it's closer to dating to marrying than anything else. And with that, I've realized the issue with me not dating anyone recently is not a failure on my part or something I'm lacking that others can offer, but rather others failing to provide when needed. I think as I've talked about on the blog from time to time, I've put pressure on myself to find a partner because it is what I want, but because I haven't, my brain processes it as my not meeting others' standards. And I'm here to say, that being single is not always your fault. I think a lot of people are very keen on blaming themselves, especially when said person has some kind of mental impairment (lol), and, though I know this is not a new revelation for most people, one I'm excited to share, is that relationships are allowed to fail. It's okay to go on a date with someone that doesn't meet your standards, or meets them but you don't meet theirs, or you both meet each other but his parents are conservative and you'd rather save yourself the trouble because no matter what, if it didn't work out, there's a reason. I think I need to stop thinking of all the things I bring to the table, and start focusing on what I need. That is to say, I'm, talking about the universe. I'm back on my hippy shit. I've been meditating, wearing my crystals, protecting my energy, and standing up for myself and my feelings. It's a great feeling to be in control of how you feel in the world. Granted, this is a pretty new revelation, I'm still working out the kinks, I still hate myself, and things are slowly moving but I'm determined to get back into a happier mindset. I'm not sure what path that means, or what I need to change about my life, or if I'm just manic which is always a real possibility. But I do know that I want to change everything about my life entirely. I long to start from scratch. I long for the wild. The trees. The sky. Grass. 

A new life. Iv been thinking about the next few years of my life a lot. Thinking about my options, and where what decisions I make will take me. And with that, I've started researching a lot more into goals for me to hit. Vogue is one of them, the thought of being able to write articles about random snippets from the fashion world is all I want in life. But there is also a huge part of me that wants to work as a vague 'somebody' for a cool brand. Originally, I always wanted to work for Louis Vuitton or Versace. A designer, a buyer, a stylist, I didn't care. But I aimed to work for one of the big boys, somewhere I can tell people I work and they will understand I have a desirable talent. However, as fashion school does to a person, my ideals for fashion and desires within the industry have shifted drastically. The one consistently good thing about my classes, however, is how many new things it shows me. Yes, that's the whole point of school, but that is why I was so excited to have my blog when school started, so I could find out new things and come here and share them with all two of you. Not so recently, but recently enough that talking about it got delayed for other topics, I had to do a discussion post about fashion week looks, and for those who don't know, a very good resource for stuff like that is Vogue's runway subsection. They have so many different brands to look for, and so many collections from the past century, so every time I do projects like this I spent an extra three hours or so looking at every recent runway I can jam into my brain. Last year, the two I discovered that made a lasting impact were Miu Miu and NIHL, and not saying I made Miu Miu popular cause I know that is not true, but I did only ever hear anything about them after I found out who they were and heavily contemplated getting the pleated skirt set and the leg warmers before Zendaya ever wore it. NIHL is also an amazing brand, though my finding of it didn't seem to have as much of an impact on its presence in the media as Miu Miu. What I've found during all of this, is what I find to make brands so interesting to me. We talked about Dolce and Gabbana and their usage of Catholic symbolism as artistic expression for sadism in the Church, we talked about Manu Rios in Thom Browne and Miu Miu AND Gucci and how exploring male sexuality is becoming an increasingly prevalent story in art through the means of Thom Browne (ugh) and, if anyone remembers John Galliano's runway I brought to the blog. We've also covered Noah Kantrowitz, Xixi Tong, and Iris Van Herpen, and how designers like them elevate fashion in a truly unique way. I've discussed Enya Umanzor, Tinyjewishgirl, and Eitan Broude, and how their presence has shifted how we view streetwear and what we define as "style". So at the end of all of this, how have these brands, people, and designers, helped me to find my place in fashion, and what makes me tick, for future reference? Well, buckle up, 'cause I'm about to talk about two brands that combine all of these ideologies into two, amazing, showstopping, modern clothing brands. 

Not at all underground, but also not mainstream, ERL is an originally LA brand started in 2018 by already-known fashion enthusiast Eli Russel Linnetz. Prior to ERL, Eli worked with Kanya multiple times in set design for music videos, Gaga for set design on tour, worked with Comme de Garcon for their movie about Andy Warhol, and a lot more various shit. But the focus of what I want to talk about is his recent collections. Never have a seen a collection of clothing more perfectly curated to my style. But what's more, it's exactly what I look for on almost every front. Their campaign shoots are always cool. If anyone remembers me talking about the "Cupid" shoot from XY Magazine, these campaigns give a very similar vibe. 2000's skater grunge resurgence. Huge baggy shorts, clunky shoes, small wife-beaters, but like, so much more than that. They use a lot of different methods of expressing artistic-ness through color, whether it's color blocking, monochromatic looks, or an entire mish-mosh of looks to create one, cohesive look. However, what I think makes them and their campaigns are the storytelling. They create looks like football attire, skatewear, dresses, and suits, but present them in a manner that represents something entirely different. It seems like a lot of their appeal comes from their presentation of youth and nostalgia, leaning heavily into their target audience's ethos by making things look like media we consumed when we were younger, therefore hitting consumers in a way that appeals differently than just cool-looking clothes. It's the same thing that I think Heaven, regardless of your opinion of them, is really good at doing. They know their target audience so well, they have the ability to sell us things we didn't know we wanted, but almost immediately do.  The other brand I wanted to give a second to talk about is a brand called Gypsy Sport NY. Functioning in New York as one may assume, Gypsy Sport is a streetwear brand with a heavy important put on representation. Founded by Rio Uribe, Gypsy Sport was started as his passion project that managed to slip through the cracks of success solely because of Rio's talent and hard work. Their mission is to create a brand that encompasses everything and everyone that it includes if that makes sense. They create looks based on the culture that Rio is a part of, and everyone who likes Gypsy Sport is also a part of it. With a lot of correlation to queer POC spaces, the looks heavily consist of normal streetwear, denim and tank tops, and Mexicana Catholicism culture. They use elements like exposed boxers, accessories like hairstyles, tattoos and earrings, platform boots, and patterns that are significant to the subcultures they derive from to relate to their audience. I heavily implore anyone who reads this to check out Gypsy Sport, and ERL, but both are so beautiful and so real, Eli and Rio are some extremely talented artists. 

That's all I have to discuss in today's lecture. I hope you all had a good read, a great thanksgiving, and an amazing day. Fuck media. Guys the song this week is Custer...by Slipknot. I don't know how much of a red flag Slipknot is, but that song speaks to my heart and penis in a way no other has. Artist this week is definitely Rio Uribe. His story is so cool and relatable to me because I'm also a poor person who is going to have to try his ass off to get somewhere, but I also just love what he does. I would've said Eli too, but he gives nepotism. The film is going to be Rick and Morty, get fucked that show is so good I don't know what else I can say in my defense. That's all. I love you very much. Have a good week. Ill talk to you soon but I have to poop so bad I gotta go.

~Christian Reid