A highly laborious fashion trend I discovered recently is the 75 Hard Style Challenge. The challenge is to get dressed every day for 75 days and to document each outfit. The creator, Mandy Lee says “Repetition is what creates personal style — do not be afraid to outfit repeat.” I was curious about the challenge, but learned that this wasn’t for me. I am acutely aware of my personal style and outfit repeat is the ethos. It’s called a uniform, they say, and it makes putting on clothes very seamless.
Personal style isn’t formed in 75 days. Where the fuck did the number 75 come from. It’s very much in its social media era where the goal is find reasons to create content and post online. Personal style needs to take into account culture, class, location, peers, climate and most importantly, time. It has taken me a very long time to get to where I am in personal style. Not 75 fucking days. Chiefly, though, it is investigating what you don’t like.
Purportedly, this podcast ep is making the rounds on the internet. Please confirm very online people. Ezra Klein interviews Kyle Chayka who is promoting his new book: Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture. This book is very much a book I want to read as someone who is very online, but not on social media. I’ve been trying to understand the homogeneity of culture that’s permeated the internet. I want to discern people and survey what sub-culture people belong to but everyone has amalgamated into liminal space. Sameness has made people extremely dull and people can’t discern what’s good and bad.
I judge people and things all the time. We should all be doing exercises in criticism, but people don’t want to put in the work. This way, we can discover our taste. Like, I would never wear athleisure in public unless I am actually exercising.
Style icon (and god really) Chloë Sevigny has been making the PR rounds to promote Feud: Capote vs. The Swans. I watched the trailer this week just because Sevigny is in it but as soon as I watched the trailer I knew it was him. The show is created by enemy #1 Ryan Murphy. He’s overrated and studios need to stop giving him money. His work is generic, boring and he casts very attractive generic looking people (ahem, with the exception of Sevigny). He lacks execution. Anyway, he doesn’t represent the gay community.
What draws me to Sevigny is her ability to put her integrity ahead of commerciality. From her interview with Vogue France about working in indie films: “At the beginning of my career, I enjoyed acting in lesser-known films that were not distributed by the major studios. All that matters to me is the depth I can bring to a character, whatever it may be.”
And of course this quote: “These days, people are so on edge... Everyone is so careful not to offend anyone. And it's a pity there's no room for eccentricity anymore, don't you think?”
I agree. I think social media has flattened society and our ability to have a nuanced conversation.
And that Rolling Stone interview about rich people taking over New York, well I also agree which can also be applied to Toronto. “Yeah. The athleisure and the dogs are taking over, and that’s really unfortunate. Everybody’s in Lululemon and has a fucking dog and it’s driving me crazy. I’m sorry, dog lovers. There are too many of you.”
Here’s the thing, there’s no right or wrong answer about personal style/taste. It’s about your ability to defend your arguments.
This song by Jane Penny (of TOPS fame) has been on repeat all week. I found out about this song on Gorilla vs Bear because RIP Pitchfork. This video is very peak Montreal traversing through the metro.