WARNING: If you’re looking for a fashion article with a brilliant point, then stop reading… now.
You know that thing where no matter how many times you bathe, you just don’t feel clean unless you’re in your own shower? Well, that’s how I feel with my laptop. No matter how many other computers are at my immediate disposal (like, literally, one floor above and one floor below me), I just can’t seem to get anything done on any of them.
You guys, my hard drive crashed almost a month ago. I’m just now getting it back from my Mac-expat genius friend who saved my arse yet again—thanks John—and my To-Do List is suddenly unconquerable. I mean, do you even know how long it takes to read three weeks worth of fashion newsletters? That’s, like, so many sparkly red carpet dress slideshows to catch up on. Thank God most of the shopping sites I subscribe to are flash sales, so I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything by deleting old “Free People 75% Off!!!!!” e-mails (side note: Does anybody know why Free People is the one that’s always on sale for 75% off? I’ll tell you. Because no one wants to pay $118 for a long sleeve shirt that looks like a homeless eight year old sewed it together out of her hand-me-downs. And yes, my closet is full of Free People that I got at 75% off, thank you.).
But seriously, can we talk about how exhausting it is to “follow” fashion these days?
Every day, I get fashion news straight to my inbox from The Cut, Fashionista, Styleite, Full Frontal Fashion, Who What Wear, Daily Front Row, WWD (mainly just the headlines—I ain’t got no money for a paywall), Business of Fashion, Refinery29, Fashion Indie, and Style.com. Plus, I get weekly newsletters from all sorts of fashion magazines like AnOther, Dazed & Confused, V, W, Hint, Nylon, Oyster, and InStyle (although this one doesn’t matter on account of the fact that it is so completely worthless… No, InStyle, I do not want to upload a picture of my face into Nicole Kidman’s hairstyle. But thanks. Again). Then there are the shopping updates. I’m actually too ashamed to list all of them, but let it suffice to say it’s a vast selection of discount sites (The Outnet, Last Call), flash sale sites (Gilt Groupe, Pure Citizen), boutique sites (Pixie Market, Need Supply), and off-limits designer sites (Elyse Walker, Moda Operandi—think full price, in season, product shots are runway shots). Luckily, I haven’t really looked at any of those (yes, I do delete your e-mails, Need) since I heard myself ask my roommate if I could have the yolk of her egg for breakfast back in March. When you can’t even afford a full egg… Anyway. There are fashion editorials, ad campaigns, covers, and films to check up on from My Fashion Database, The Fashion Spot, Fashion Gone Rogue, Fashion Copious, The Photography Link, Papermode, and models.com; there are hundreds of blogs to check on Tumblr and Blogger; there are street style looks to note on Lookbook and Chictopia; there’s Polyvore; there’s Pinterest; there’s We Heart It; there’s Ffffound. Then there’s Facebook. Always, Facebook. And then there’s Twitter—which, can I just say, what the F*$# is Twitter?
Aside from news, shopping, blogs, and social media, there’s—and I don’t know if you know this about me—other non-fashion stuff that I want to know about as well. Like music. And art. And this thing called the world, where some serious shit (and some not-so-serious shit) goes down. Of course there are website updates and newsletters that cover these things, all of which I can assure you I receive, but when comes the point at which it’s time to turn off the computer and step outside to experience these things in real life? When do I stop looking at pictures of girls in “street style” and start walking around VCU’s campus to watch them in action? When do I pause my illegal download spree to go hear it live at the National? When do I quit Tweeting about the awesome exhibit showing at 1708 and actually drive the entire four minutes it takes to get there from my house and see it for myself?
Everything about the Internet has become incredibly overwhelming, but fashion in particular has simply exploded because of it. Never before has Fashion-with-a-capital-f been so, well, fashionable. All of a sudden, everybody from the front row of Paris to the basement of Wichita is an expert with something to say; and for the hungry, democratic fashion obsessives like me, it makes it quite difficult to keep up.
I know where you think this is going. You think I’m going to end by saying something inspirational about how my computer crashing was a blessing in disguise because it allowed me to open my eyes and see and touch and live in the beauty of the real world again. Well, sorry folks. I’m not exactly the inspirational type, and I’m also sort of completely addicted to the Internet. The weeks without my laptop weren’t enlightening in the least. They were freaking miserable. I consistently felt like I wanted to punch a hole in the wall—and I couldn’t even Google anger management strategies!
When my hard drive crashed, so did I. I opened my e-mail every day on a random computer, decided it was too much to deal with, and closed it right back up. Yes, I know this wouldn’t fly at a grownup job (which, speaking of grownup jobs, I’m about to not have one, so if you guys know anyone…), but I just couldn’t do it. Now, I’ve got my computer back, my Gmail inbox is up to some 500 fashion-y things that I have the irrational need to look at before saving to either be posted to my blog (that list is close to 500 things now too), Tweeted about, or read later (i.e. read never), and I probably won’t leave my desk for the entire weekend in a futile attempt to get back up to speed on what’s happening in the industry.
So, what’s the point? There really isn’t one, is there? This has all just been arbitrary rambling… and that’s probably because I don’t know what else to write about SINCE I’VE BEEN OUT OF THE LOOP FOR A WHOLE THREE WEEKS. I guess if I had to have a point, it’d be that the fashion world is a vampire, people. And I don’t want to be just a rat in a cage anymore… buuut I’m hopeless. So instead, I want you to be rats in a cage with me! Which is why I included links to all those fantastic websites in this article!
Gotcha, bitches.