9/3/22

I'd like to start off by offering my sincerest of apologies. I didn't upload last week and I know I'm most likely the only person who cares, but I just forgot, and Ill explain why that bothers me. This blog, as I've said, is meant to be my work. Lord knows I'm not really doing anything note-worthy beyond my classes at the moment, so this blog is acts as a continuously growing log for what it is I'm doing, whether or not its productive or ever sees the light of day (my jockstraps for example). I see other people in my field traveling, getting 'gigs', doing shows, creating, making, drawing, sketching, networking, getting internships, doing photoshoots, and lord knows I don't have the money for half of that. I want to be doing stuff already. I want to be out in the world as a young designer, or model, or stylist, but I can barely afford my current education let alone the additional things that I actually want to be doing. So last Sunday, my mom texts me a simple message (yes mommy reads my blog) "No blog post today?". My stomach dropped. Not because I feel like I have a schedule to uphold to, not because I have any remnants of a fan base to please beyond my mother and a handful of my close friends, but because I genuinely let myself down. This is my thing, my passion project. My archive for all the thoughts I have as my career progresses. I do this for myself more than literally anything else. So when I realized I missed a day, not by actively choosing "meh I don't really feel like posting" but literally just forgetting the one thing I have that I can feel proud of, that I consistently work on and actually enjoy doing, yeah, it really bummed me out. But do not fret, I'm going to make sure it doesn't happen again, and if it does, Ill just kill myself so I have a valid excuse. Just kidding. ;)

Anyways I guess I'm fully in the swing of school now. Work is boring, people are a lot more annoying than I remember, but what is kind of upsetting me is that I don't think I'm enjoying any of my classes, and all of them are centered around fashion. Take my social sciences class "Social Aspects of Fashion" for example. The meet of this class is breaking down the culture of fashion, and how an individuals community, large or small, can affect how they choose to present, and vice versa. Its a good class, I love my professor, the topics we discuss are very interesting, but with this class and honestly most of them, I kind of feel like I'm further along than what I'm being taught. Now don't assume I'm saying I know everything I need to know, that couldn't be further from the truth. But what I'm realizing is that, because we get to pick our own classes, and have more of a guideline of what classes to take rather than a specific order, I feel like I've wasted a lot of timing re-learning things I've repeatedly learned since the first semester. Again, the social science class for example, I believe is an elective, meaning anybody with an interest in learning about culture and fashion can take it. Which means the teachings of fashion-related topics are a lot looser than I'm used to. I've learned about the trickle up, down, and across theory in three different classes, which in and of itself isn't necessarily a thing to be upset about, but its the fact that every time a professor brings it up, they spend an entire lecture talking about it, which just feels, to me, like a waste of time. I'm spending thousands on top of thousands of dollars to attend this school, and especially now that I'm almost entirely independent, the pressure of the real world is weighing heavier down on my shoulder, so the more time is consumed by things that aren't helping me progress, it does make me feel slightly anxious. And that's kind of how all of my classes feel. But I do like them, like I'm enjoying being able to finally focus in on the fashion topics I've been wanting to for the past year, literally my only gripe is I kind of wish it was a little more curated to the person? Like ok everyone has a major map of the classes they need to take and the ones that they've taken so far. My wish is that the major map was specific to the individual. I know that's unrealistic like no school would take the time to set that up, but just more stuff like 'oh you've taken this class, take this one next' or 'you've taken this class already so this one might be one you can skip' which, granted, is what an advisor is for, but Christian Reid Mironovic relies on himself to figure it out. See this is why I have a blog, that whole long ass paragraph and we finally came to the conclusion that what I'm complaining about is my fault. 

Another thing I wanted to discuss with you all is some of the art stuff I've been consuming recently. So I know I've talked about the John Galliano 2004 show, the impact that runway has had on me over the past two years is astounding, but that show is a very good reference for the stuff I'm about to talk about. I cant believe I'm about to say this considering how much I've shit on Thom Browne before, (I was fairly certain I had talked about one of his collections on a previous post but I cant seem to find it) but oh em goodness. Recently Manu Rios (AHHHHHH) did a photoshoot with Luis Venegas wearing Thom Browne's S/S 2023 collection. Not sure if you've seen it, I'm a queer fashion student so I've seen all of it, but I'm actually quite obsessed. For those who don't know, and I didn't until recently cause I honestly am not the biggest fan (subject to change), Thom Browne is an American designer who came up in the early 2000s for his tailored suits. Since then he has, in his own words, continued to "challenge expectations" with his way of designing. I will give him that. As much as some of his shows really are just not good, his meager attempts at 'challenging expectations' are sometimes very transparent, and ditches taste for shock value, I really, really like his S/S 2023 collection. It feels very retro Chanel, with a lot of tweed tailoring, and it seems to me that this collection went in a more subtle direction than previous collections I've seen of his. There is a very thin line between tacky and tasteful, Thom Browne loves to toy with both, this collection just happened to fall onto the latter. If you want my honest opinion, which I'm sure you don't, I'm really hoping this means more than it seems for the fashion industry. Were all very well aware the industry is STRUGGLING to figure out what to make, with trends becoming so fast paced, by the time a designer releases a collection, we've already moved onto the next,  and we can see evidence of that in some of the actually appalling runways over the last year or so. Designers trying their very best to be unique and showstopping, but just kind of falling flat. Granted, there's been a lot of hits too, but I've noticed the recent runways I see, vs the vintage (by vintage I mean pretty much anything before 2010) runways I try to find, there are simply a lot less hits currently. Any-fucking-ways I got distracted. The reason I brought up the Manu Rios photoshoot, is because I have been FEASTING on the slutty men aesthetic. There's a TikTok account I follow called "fashionfaguette" that just posts slides of different runways, collections, photoshoots, all kind of the same gritty grunge slutty men that I love and eat up every single time. The Brad Pitt Rolling Stones photoshoot from the 90s, the L'Official Hommes Italia and MAISON MARGIELA F/W 2019 collection (ESPECIALLY this one), and of course the John Galliano F/W 2004 Runway, it brings forth this feral, beast of a artist inside of me. And having Manu Rios model in that collection???? Gold. 

On top of this I've also been very much enjoying Earth. I will elaborate. So, as every school does, my school requires a capstone project for senior year. As a student in fashion design, my project is a collection. Now of course I'm inspired by everything I was just talking about, and will most likely incorporate something of that aesthetic, but over the summer, as I was working on stuff to set up my future career, I began considering some designs and mood boards for my own capstone. Obviously this is something that is going to grow and change over the two years, but I've had these ideas ever since I got into fashion design during my junior year of highschool, so I'm hoping the overall aesthetic stays pretty consistent. I wont go into too much detail, honestly cause I don't really feel like it anymore, but for those who know what the logarithmic spiral is, I'm doing that. The logarithmic spiral is a spiral found in like, literally everything in life, plants, animals, fossils, stones, etc., basically the whole premise of it, as I've been led to believe, is that its significant because A: it stays the same shape no matter the scale, but also because of how ingrained it is into life. The spiral is and has been a symbol for life through so many different cultures for centuries. Literally my school logo from kindergarten to eighth grade was a spiral because we were all hippies. And the more I think about it, and the older I get, the more I realize how connected I truly am to the Earth. I've always loved nature, like the kind of love that shoves crystals up my ass to feel the connection, and exposes as much skin as legally possible when tanning in the sun, and I really want to incorporate the beauty and vastness of 'life' into my capstone to really drive home the idea of that being who I am. 

N E Ways. I think I'm done. I talked about fashion, good for me, good for you. I hope we all learned something from this experience. I hope you all had fantastic weeks, Barney, thank you for the suggestion to re-arrange the setup, it was a pain in the ass cause now every time I upload I have to drag that bitch to the top, but. Glad you're happy😒. I love you all, have a good week, and Ill talk to you next Sunday <3

~Christian Reid