Style Inspiration: We Met on the Internet

When I started blogging back in, oh, December 2005*, I did it in large part out of frustration for DC's lack of style.

There. I said it. I said The Same Thing Every Other DC Style/Fashion Blogger Says.

I do have a lot to say about style and fashion blogging in the District of Columbia and Greater Metropolitan Area. I promise (yes, I know this is a blogger-no-no, promising a post for later) a post here or article over at my other written style project with Jessica Quillin, Finessed Fashion, one day relatively soon.

In the meantime, though, there have been a few recent developments in the DC Blogger World and style in general. One of my favorites? Very Smart People are strutting their stuff in unique, thoughtfully styled ways. Then there are the people capturing them on film. Yes, there's the daily style blogger, putting (usually) herself out there for the world to see. There are also brainy, style-inclined folks like ThirstDC founders, Eric Shulze and Lori Noto, entrepreneurial minds like Eliot over at Accoutre, and, though she's not the first street style photog to grace DC's streets (Rachel, this nod's for you), Kate of Go Kate Shoot is getting some beautiful images of what we stylish folk in DC think beautiful.

So last week, a few of us were tweeting away when suddenly we had a date for drinks and shots (with the camera). I think it was 6 of us to start. Apparently that expanded. It became a Thing, and threw me into a frenzy of What to Wear I'm Going to Be in a Picture. I even dragged H along, styling him in a vintagey, geeky T just for the occasion.

Wonderful, amazing, colorful shoes (and on a snowy night, girl after my own frostbitten toed heart) Go Kate Shoot

The long and the short of it? H and I made it out for drinks at Smith Commons, even on a snowy night when others stayed in. It was worth it. The laughter, the style, and the photographic record of the evening tell the story of a DC happy to style its way through the night.

The lovely, sweet, and incredibly stylish KC Ellis. The first time we met "IRL," at #BlackChampagne, I gushed over her ensemble so much I was afraid I'd offended her. Go Kate Shoot

The shots here, as stated, are all the work of one lovely Kate Warren, and she graciously said it would be ok if I posted a few of my favorites. She posted a whole slew of them on her blog (look for the Style Flash Mob DC post). Please go check them out - she's just amazing.

Yup, that's me on the left, in my shit-there's-going-to-be-a-photographer-there-what-do-I-wear outfit. H is holding up the brick wall on the right, complete with Captain America T picked out by The Bean. KC smiles at us from the back, with her sweet F (soon to be H) gazing at her lovingly. Go Kate Shoot

[editorial note: darned Chrome or Blogger or something isn't happy about me posting pics right now. But I will. I promise (there I go again). In the meantime, follow the links to Miss Kate's site and drool over your keyboards at the eye candy.] Look! I kept a blogging promise!

*seriously? 6+ years? why, oh, why, haven't I had a blog birthday party? Oh. Right. Those Beans of mine. And H (though the blog idea was his - I'll tell that story one day). And that day job. But maybe, just maybe, we'll have a 7-Year-Itch Blog Birthday Party or some such nonsense. Start the planning!

Style Intellectual: New Ventures, Adventures

In case you haven't been following on Twitter and facebook, I am pleased to announce a lovely new way to spend your lunch hour - and not feel guilty about it, because you'll use your brain: Finessed Fashion.

Finessed's founder, Jessica Quillin, and I met online one night, as one does nowadays. I think we were critiquing the Golden Globes. Or the Miss Virginia pageant. Or both. Several DMs later, we were deep in conversation about writing - writing about fashion. And then she invited me to join her and some other brilliant, fashion-inclined minds at Finessed. I accepted.

We're building slowly but surely, carefully considering the stories and articles we create for our readers. Our readers are those - and we know you're out there, because we talk on twitter - who thirst for more than just a pretty picture, no matter how striking or smart the shot. Finessed readers want to consider, dig, know, understand, and think. Finessed readers want to know why a brand is a brand, and why a designer picks one fabric over another. Finessed readers want to compare the history of a design house to the historical progress of the neighborhood in which it resides. Finessed readers also might just be prone to mentally editing anything they read.

So I hereby invite you to read what we have to say. Then consider, dig, know, understand, and think. Because Finessed is fashion, intellectually speaking.

Project Runway: A Study in the American Dream

Over the weekend, H and I were discussing my future in style and style writing.* From where does my inspiration come? Where have I learned what I know?

Among the expected magazines, biographies, museums, and now "traditional" bloggers, as cheesy as it sounds, up pops "Project Runway."

I'll admit, I'm a sucker for a trashy reality TV show. I'm that horrible human being watching the train wrecks in gleeful vapidness. That being said, Project Runway isn't all that. Not at all. Once I think about it for less than 30 seconds, it's clear it's so much more. In my mind, Project Runway is not only an inspiring show about fashion, but it - yes, here's where I aim high - it marries much that is good and unique about the United States.

First, there's the entrepreneurial spirit of design, of taking a chance, and the passion that comes with a true belief in what you're doing and creating that some of the first immigrants and colonists had when they crossed the oceans. I'm sure others will disagree with the comparison of political and religious refugees to fashion designers, but these designers - some of them, at least - and the judges and Tim live and breathe fashion and design. They believe they can make it, and make money off of it - or already have. They believe it can change people's lives and outlooks on life. It does.

Secondly, there's the crassness of reality TV. Like it or not, this is an American phenomenon (yes, yes, the Swedes started Big Brother, but Real World? Wholly and unabashedly American). As a culture, we revel in the normalcy - or not - of others' lives. We take delight in the ridiculous that only we Americans can create. Project  Runway doesn't shy from its origins, and gloriously embarks on set up drama and despair.

Lastly, there's the intellectual. As designed as the drama might be on Project Runway, the creators and producers don't leave out the finest elements and points of the craft of design. They don't leave out the business aspect of the industry. As revealing as it might be about my design background (or lack thereof) I learned more about how to design and build a document from the designers, Tim, Nina, Michael, and Heidi, than from any other one source. From them, I've learned how to judge a piece and understand what may or may not be a critical design element. It's not just about "what works," but also about the brains of design and fashion.

Putting all of this on TV is purely American: Nowhere else in the world can anyone be an intellectual with the ease we can here. Despite our global connectivity and communications, nowhere else in the world can we plug in to crass entertainment and learn. Nowhere else in the world is the most average person given the chance we are here. That is the American Dream: taking an idea, a belief, and "making it work."

*Speaking of taking chances and getting the chance, I'm thrilled to say that I'm part of a new project: Finessed Fashion. An online mag, Finessed is "fashion, intellectually speaking." Check it out? Please?