Not too long ago when I was working on this blog, before I had all my notions about women of color and feminist identity, I thought that I would make it into a photography blog. Indeed, last year I posted a photo a day for half the days of the year, working on my life in pictures. Although I didn't focus on it, I also took a lot of self-portraits. And thus, for a while, I entertained the thought that I would be a fashion blogger.
As you might imagine, that thought dried up pretty fast. Perhaps you will take some of my considerations to heart if you've been thinking about starting/changing to a fashion blogging focus. Or perhaps some of you have gone through the same feelings! Here they are:
I have too many ideas to fit neatly into that niche. Throughout my blogging days, I have been writing about everything from my emotional journey to my poetry slam experiences to my opinions on feminism and artistic endeavors. I know that these ideas can intersect in any number of ways, but I felt that centering my focus around fashion and then making everything else cursory wasn't true to my life experience. I'll leave that to people who are very invested.
At the time I would have started, I was struggling with some major body image issues. I don't believe I could suffer silently from body image issues (such as the ones in these diet mentality posts) and turned around a photograph of myself looking beautiful. I would have picked it apart at that time, seen all my differences as flaws. I think it's more important to preserve my personal sanity over putting out a damaging outlook on my own body.
Sometimes I spend days and days in t-shirts and skirts. And I'm proud of it! When I was taking all those pictures in NYC of my outfits, I realized that a lot of the great outfits came from days that I was going to an event. Sometimes I will dress up for myself, but most of those days I will go through the world in a comfy semi-fashionable style that allows me to maneuver through the college just fine.
When I started reading fashion blogs on my own, I got a bit intimidated by the people in them! This is a big one. I still grapple with this feeling, but I am always caught in the idea that the people writing other blogs are way more interesting than me. Some of them probably are, that's inevitable, but when I first started reading those blogs and getting my ideas, I thought that ALL of them were just too amazing for me to join their crowd.
I didn't have the language then to express the ways that fashion intersects with all the different parts of life. As I talked about in my first point, I am super interested in other parts of my identity and life. When I was thinking of being a fashion blogger, I thought that it was all pictures and talking about the outfit itself - I didn't see the potential of fashion blogging to be a conduit for some very intellectual opinions about media, gender, etc. So I let it fall by the wayside because I still had a long way to go before my idea sophistication crystallized (heck, I'm still approaching that stage!).
I've made a lot of goals in my life, but fashion blogging was not one that made it out of the starting gate. However, I did use the principles of fashion blogging to cure some of my insecurities surrounding my body and to hone my skills as an artist - as they say, your own body can be your best subject. On a very very miniature level, I am doing some fashion blogging with pictures of myself on my Tumblr.
What is your opinion of fashion blogging? Fashion blogging people out there, please tell me your experiences with putting yourself out there in that way - I would love to know your thoughts!
You may also be interested in my post on fashion and feminism called Denim and Black Cloth: Feminism and Female Expression.
Also, Gala Darling has recently put out a great set of posts about fashion blogging and body image diversity - check them out here, here and here.
As you might imagine, that thought dried up pretty fast. Perhaps you will take some of my considerations to heart if you've been thinking about starting/changing to a fashion blogging focus. Or perhaps some of you have gone through the same feelings! Here they are:
I have too many ideas to fit neatly into that niche. Throughout my blogging days, I have been writing about everything from my emotional journey to my poetry slam experiences to my opinions on feminism and artistic endeavors. I know that these ideas can intersect in any number of ways, but I felt that centering my focus around fashion and then making everything else cursory wasn't true to my life experience. I'll leave that to people who are very invested.
At the time I would have started, I was struggling with some major body image issues. I don't believe I could suffer silently from body image issues (such as the ones in these diet mentality posts) and turned around a photograph of myself looking beautiful. I would have picked it apart at that time, seen all my differences as flaws. I think it's more important to preserve my personal sanity over putting out a damaging outlook on my own body.
Sometimes I spend days and days in t-shirts and skirts. And I'm proud of it! When I was taking all those pictures in NYC of my outfits, I realized that a lot of the great outfits came from days that I was going to an event. Sometimes I will dress up for myself, but most of those days I will go through the world in a comfy semi-fashionable style that allows me to maneuver through the college just fine.
When I started reading fashion blogs on my own, I got a bit intimidated by the people in them! This is a big one. I still grapple with this feeling, but I am always caught in the idea that the people writing other blogs are way more interesting than me. Some of them probably are, that's inevitable, but when I first started reading those blogs and getting my ideas, I thought that ALL of them were just too amazing for me to join their crowd.
I didn't have the language then to express the ways that fashion intersects with all the different parts of life. As I talked about in my first point, I am super interested in other parts of my identity and life. When I was thinking of being a fashion blogger, I thought that it was all pictures and talking about the outfit itself - I didn't see the potential of fashion blogging to be a conduit for some very intellectual opinions about media, gender, etc. So I let it fall by the wayside because I still had a long way to go before my idea sophistication crystallized (heck, I'm still approaching that stage!).
I've made a lot of goals in my life, but fashion blogging was not one that made it out of the starting gate. However, I did use the principles of fashion blogging to cure some of my insecurities surrounding my body and to hone my skills as an artist - as they say, your own body can be your best subject. On a very very miniature level, I am doing some fashion blogging with pictures of myself on my Tumblr.
What is your opinion of fashion blogging? Fashion blogging people out there, please tell me your experiences with putting yourself out there in that way - I would love to know your thoughts!
You may also be interested in my post on fashion and feminism called Denim and Black Cloth: Feminism and Female Expression.
Also, Gala Darling has recently put out a great set of posts about fashion blogging and body image diversity - check them out here, here and here.
