What I Can’t Live Without: September 2024 Edition
A monthly catalogue of obsessions
Fashion blogs —old school ones with names like Style Pilgrim and Coutorture — are undeniably having a moment. Recently, critic Rachel Tashjian wrote a story for the Washington Post on how the rise of Substack as a form of fashion media mirrors the proliferation of independent fashion blogs hosted by Blogspot and Wordpress in the early 2000s.1 Then, SSENSE published a timeline of a how fashion blogs were absorbed into establishment media. The writer, Emilia Petrarca, piece focuses on an era I call fashion blog 1.0, of which I was very much a part. For those unaware, I wrote a blog from 2006-2012 called Hipster Musings (lol) and was pretty good friends with Tavi, Arabelle, Laia and many others mentioned in the piece. (If you’d like to know more, read this story I wrote about being microfamous on an early version of the internet for Real Life Magazine.) Fashion blog 1.0 was primarily dedicated hobbyists documenting outfits and writing opinions for a virtually nonexistent audience. We would put links to each other’s blogs on the sidebar of our own. We would find items for one another when we went thrift shopping and send each other lovingly-curated care packages in the mail. More than anything, it was a community, where people enjoyed each other’s virtual company and found lifelong friends. You can draw a straight line between the weird outfits I was posting on Blogspot in 2010 and the Tiktokers getting flown out to Milan to watch the Gucci show today.
Fashion blog 2.0 was when things started to get commercial. Beginning around 2012, newcomers starting blogs had more polished websites/photos and less unique personal style. You could tell they started a blog with dollar signs in their eyes, eager to monetize their love of fashion rather than pursue it as a side interest. Fashion blog 3.0 was…Instagram. As a blogger, I was always aware I could go the “corporate route” but I was never comfortable with myself being the product that I sell. I had zero interest in being a mouthpiece for advertisers that I don’t believe in so I became a fashion/lifestyle journalist instead; Ironically, a profession that still involves a great deal of shilling.
Over on Instagram, Petrarca is talking about turning it into a book. Rosie Findlay, aka Fashademic, already published an academic treatise on the subject called Personal Style Blogs in 2017 (yes, I am quoted in the book several times), but I definitely think there’s room for a juicy, pop-culture take on the subject matter. It’s always weird to see someone else’s interpretation of history you had a front row seat to, but at the same time, I’m glad this important era of the internet is getting the nostalgic revival it thoroughly deserves.
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On a more personal note, September thoroughly melted my brain. I didn’t look at a single runway pic from any fashion week (bad fashion blogger!), however I did 1) fly across the country to visit a genuine Freak Palace in rural Nova Scotia (I’m writing a story on it for Cottage Life magazine), 2) bought a festive glass pumpkin at the annual Cabbagetown Art & Craft Show, 3) attended an amazing dinner hosted by local leather brand By The Namesake and 4) fell in love with viral baby hippo Moo Deng.
This post has been prescheduled because I’m currently on a trip to Scotland with my mom, who hasn’t left North America since a high school trip to England in the 1970s. Without further ado, here is everything I was obsessed with this month.
What I’m Considering
Trippen Jetty shoes
As an aspiring weird aunt, I’ve always been a huge fan of the brand Trippen. Everything they make looks like it was meant to be worn by a severe art collector in statement glasses whose style is best described as “architectural.” When I saw the Jetty, a particularly pixie-ish pair of pointy mary-janes on the brand’s Instagram, I fell hard. Do I need mary-janes? No. But I don’t have ones in quite this style or shape. They’re unique. I can sense this is the beginning of a behaviour pattern in which I scour the resale sites monthly for this style until I find it, approximately seven years later.
Merrell Jungle Mocs
I’m kind of a sicko when it comes to shoes. Just like I find perverse enjoyment in eating black licorice and jellybeans precisely BECAUSE I find them sort of disgusting, I’m attracted to shoes that I find viscerally off-putting. The puffy soles of the Merrell Jungle Moc look like an octopus tentacle, and have the swollen, distended features of a bloated corpse and yet I want them. Badly. I went so far as to go try them on at my local Sport Chek but was pretty disappointed with the quality in-person. The suede looked really cheap, like it could rip and any moment, and they weren’t nearly as comfortable as I had hoped. It seems like they’ll have to remain in my dreams rather than on my feet.
What I Bought
Alder Apparel, the Canadian outdoor brand (I profiled the co-founder for Canadian Business last year) is having a summer warehouse sale where everything from the season is $30 USD. You read that right, $30 USD. I couldn’t resist picking up the white pleated skort.
Vancouver-based performance wear brand Du/er has always been super generous with me and recently I received a care package filled with some items from their fall collection in the mail. The stretch canvas utility pants are an undeniable banger — the teak colour is a perfect Carhartt-esque workwear dupe, they’re stretchy and look great. I can already tell they’re going to be in constant rotation this fall.
What I’m Reading/Watching/Enjoying
-I’m watching Curb Your Enthusiasm for the first time and find endless enjoyment in Larry David’s curmudgeonly antics. I felt a particular affinity with the ‘Freak Book’ episode.
-The New Yorker published a story on a 690-mile long yard sale that happens between Michigan and Alabama each year. Now it’s my dream to go!
What I’ve Written
-My latest for Architectural Digest.
-I can finally announce that a project I spent the better part of a year on, the Louis Vuitton Guide to Toronto, will finally be out in the world on October 18th. Here’s the press release, en francais, and a bit more info on the book.
What Made Me Laugh
Last Word
Why does everyone mention the same five Substacks in these articles? My favourites are Totally Recommend, and a new discovery, Esque by Em Seely-Katz.