Monday Musings - blogging, business and beyond (with slide film photos)

After reading this post by Lady Moriartry the other day , it got me thinking - why do we blog? And does blogging necessarily have to turn into a business?

We're way past 2007 and I doubt we'll see any more stellar careers rising from blogging - let's face it - the blog bubble has burst and it's just become a more fiercely competitive world. There are very few people who actually make a living off their blog or manage to find jobs thanks to that; and more and more people who are trying.

But, like anything else, blogs come and go. especially in the volatile world of fashion.

While I could try and speculate upon why I think certain people blog, I think I should ask myself- why do I blog?

My experience is fairly strange, as I used to have a different blog before this one, back in 2009.

Why was I blogging then? Blogging used to be for geeks and losers and people who didn't have any friends in general, why was it suddenly cool? I guess because I discovered the fascinating (and dangerous) world of fashion blogging, look book, wardrobe remix and the likes.

And so many pretty and stylish girls! Maybe I just needed to belong and feel accepted or trying to prove to the world that I could also be stylish and resourceful.

And...there was also a bit of an ulterior motive, as I was trying to launch an Etsy shop back them (as you can tell, I did have quite a vintage collection already; that's what you get when you've been wearing mostly thrifted stuff since the age of 14).

The result? I did get attention and some appreciation but I also felt frustrated, ugly and simply poor most of the time. Also, I drove my then-bf crazy. And spent waaay too much time on ebay.

This time around...I kinda did things the other way around - I didn't have the patience to try and win people over with my style, I was pretty desperate and needed to make some cash, pronto!

So the blog started mostly as an accessory to the shop, but I don't think that's really what I wanted.

Even if I thought I would be wiser, I still feel the same frustration as the first time around, maybe even more so. I keep thinking- what am I doing wrong? Have I really put on that much weight? Do people simply hate my face? Why can't I take sharp photos with super blurry backgrounds like everyone else?

The truth is...maybe I wasn't trying as hard. or maybe I've just been trying too hard.

The blogosphere has changed and I totally feel that.

But then i asked myself- why did i start reading blogs in the first place? First of all, to learn about new cool stuff, such as music, movies and books. Most of my early teenage reads have been influenced by this long-defunct romanian reviews proto-site and my music music education has been shaped by the cookshop (and last fm, let's not forget that one).

Then the fashion blogs were a source of inspiration from real people and a way to discover new cool designers, learn more about vintage or simply find out where that uber cool necklace was from.

But then the people started to seem less and less real and there was this huge socio-cultural gap. Somehow blogging gives you the feeling of democracy - the illusion that the people you see there are more or less like you. actually, upon a closer look all it does is just accentuate the class difference between people who buy Louis Vuitton and the ones who go to Emmaus (the French Salvation Army). They both take pics on the Pont des Arts. Or there are some who buy both. And everyone claims they are poor/broke.

Before living abroad I couldn't picture how some young people can be that well off. I also feel that living here has taught me that everything is about class struggle, income and social status. No, i can't join you guys for dinner because I can't afford to eat in a place like this.

Then there are real people, who you feel like you really can relate to and who address the same problems that bother you.

In the end, do you really have to be rich in order to develop aesthetic judgement?

It's probably just the lower-middle class vs the upper-middle class and higher up. You do need to have a camera and a computer in order to blog, after all.

So maybe before dissing this as white people problems, we should consider the need for a new class that would bridge the gap between the two very wide ends of what we call ''middle class''.

Anyhow, I didn't mean to try and get political, but this is what Paris does to even the most politically ignorant people like myself - it turns them into revoltes.

Maybe I should try making this blog into something I would like to read.

In the end, all I really want from all this is to add more dimension to the brand I'm trying to develop; in short, I guess i'm just trying to say that I'm a real person, you guys! Not a spam bot, a like machine or a greedy corporation.

I don't want to make money off my blog (you could argue it's a promo platform for the shop but actually all the other social networks bring in more views than the blog) , I guess I just want to show off my styling skills outside of vintage shoots, share a little more about the movies I love and which fuel the whole concept behind the boutique, share some (what I think is) cool stuff from time to time and well... enjoy the luxury of thinking aloud. in writing.

And of course, I'm always happy to hear that someone is listening.

Come to think about it, maybe the first time around I was being more sincere; and regular, and generous.

Maybe that's what we all need in the end - a little more sincerity. Can we have a virtual toast to that?

PS : last but not least, I am grateful for all the appreciation and positive feedback I've been getting, the sales I managed to make, but sometimes it just gets hard and maybe I just needed to let out a little steam. The irony of it all? I just got an email that my shop has been featured in a online mag. It's definitely something that made me smile. Thanks Whim Magazine!

Such a Parisian thing to do! And a Marilyn Monroe dress

... like going to Palais de Tokyo for a Rancière conference, then taking photos for your fashion blog. And this is what we did last Friday.

I'll try to keep things simple, as I tend to go into too many different directions each time I try to talk about something. 

First of all the Palais de Tokyo is one of those contemporary art places located waaay out west (which to me is the most boring/bourgeois area of the city where I very rarely go to), always under remodeling and with HUGE exhibition spaces, mostly known for its ex-director Nicolas Bourriaud (now my school director). 

It's often dubbed as being the biggest art center and also known for being a location of choice during Fashion Week.

They re-opened last year after much work and they always have cool parallel events such as screenings, concerts and conferences, some of them free. It's less popular and more hip than the Pompidou, so if you don't know it already you should totally check it out.

I haven't been there in a while, but each time I go I'm surprised by the nice view of the Eiffel Tower.

Now this is a completely different subject that I don't want to get into right now, but thing is when living in Paris you don't really see the Eiffel Tower. And the truth is you don't really want to see it because of its cheesy ubiquity on every merch stand and teen Tumblr. It's nauseating! 

But then again, when you do get to see it, you do get a little carried away by the postcard view. And yes, you must have at least one touristy photo with the Eiffel Tower!

We had a four-day heatwave (aka sun+25-27C; I know, but this is Paris) last week and I had just finished washing and ironing this little dress I had just found, so I thought it would be a good idea to take it out on a stroll.

I felt like a beat chick in my messy hair, cat eye glasses and slightly oversized dress, going to a philosophy lecture! Visually I was thinking more of Kirsten Dunst playing Camille in On the Road (you can say whatever you want about that movie, but it has a couple of good scenes and Sam Riley is cute) than of Audrey Hepburn /Jo in Funny Face (who was lured into Paris to be a model with the promise of attending philosophy lectures!)

Unfortunately this twirly wonder is a little too big on me and it will be going in the shop on Saturday. 

It reminds me of the iconic white halterneck that Marilyn Monroe is wearing in Billy Wilder's The Seven Year Itch. You know, the one in the scene with the subway vents?

Of course, I'm not even 0.1% close to Marilyn's charm! But who can be, really?

Right next door to Palais de Tokyo there's the Musee d'art moderne, which was closed but they had a Keith Harring expo going on. I'm so fascinated by those incredibly HUGE doors!

We took a walk through the Pont D'Alma in order to catch the direct train home; it was super windy, which in a way was perfect for my dress but not for my hair.

I love it how the sun goes down around 9pm these days... I promised myself to only show outfits on film, but when you have such a great scenery, why not take advantage of the opportunity?

PS: you can find more expat life rants on SUCH a French thing to do! a collective blog I started last year

bucket bag, peep toes: thrifted, dress: vintage 50s, borrowed from the shop, necklace: We Never Sleep, 50s cat eyes: Ebay, watch: gift from my dad

Monday Musings: Succulents, stolen roses and daisy fields

 fresh cuttings I'm trying to root...

This is not gonna turn into a gardening blog, but the thing is I love flowers! And plants in general.

Lately I started having a little more plants at home, as well as reading and learning about taking care of them.

In Romania the tradition is that everyone's mum has a lot of house plants. It's just one of those things that mums do, you don't even think about it that much.

I guess it just dawned on me when a friend came by and she was like oh, you have a green thumb!

I wouldn't really put it that way, but I guess it's mostly due to our particularly sunny apartment (such a rare thing around here).

So I started reading more, found out that the crazy plant we've had for ages is actually a succulent!

Now succulents are a BIG trend right now and i'm pretty surprised i didn't notice it earlier. part of the attraction is also the fact that now a lot of hardware stores started carrying the craziest variations for really cheap! The other factor must be the gorgeous creative displays.

My friends from Romania were telling me how the trend is evolving there as well. What I don't know if anyone noticed is that those exotic succulents are pretty much the same plants used in those horrid communist garden arrangements that spelled city names!

Some species of succulents have been around for quite a while, although not under this classification, such as portulaca, which is one of my mum's favorite flowers.

Probably the most amazing thing about succulents is when they bloom - especially this little guy who first looked like it was covered in spiderwebs (probably a Sempervivum arachnoideum) that has now bloomed with the most fascinating alien flowers.

The other cool thing about succulents is that they're super easy to propagate by cutting, which in turn made me obsessed with pinching little samples of new species from public gardens. I don't if these two have any chances of growing, but they just look so cool!

I love it when the place is full of flowers and this time between mid May and early June is just perfect for finding free stuff like wild flowers and stealing an occasional municipal garden rose (Leslie Knope would most definitely put my picture on a John Ford-like WANTED poster for that!).

 

 

 

Maybe this bad habit has been nurtured by growing up in a small town in Transylvania, being close to nature and picking huge daisy bouquets from the fields. I love it when the grass grows super tall and full of flowers, just before the cutting. I mean, all those flowers will turn into hay, so why not take a few home?

And last but not least,some lovely gardening reads I stumbled upon : Lovely Greens and You Grow Girl.  You probably know both these ladies and their amazing gardening skills but if you don't you're in for a treat.

Been finding a lot of things for the boutique lately, I'm preparing another update this Saturday. It's so much nicer to be working in a home filled with flowers!

Do you guys have a succulent collection? What kind of flowers do you like?

Late bloomers

Hello darlings!

 I wish I could simply say ''oh, it's been a while'', with whimsy nonchalance while smiling awkwardly and playing with my hair, only after going on a 4 months hiatus announced, I feel like a little more elaborate explanation is expected.

 Only I don't have a stellar excuse to throw at you, much less a logical and valid explanation; let's just call it hibernation. Yes, that's a pretty name for it. Daria of Kittenhood used the term in a previous post of her own.

 I must confess I've been going through some dark stuff; some may call it depression, other white people's problems or other mumbo jumbo term for simply feeling down for a while. In my case, however, it's been going on for more than usual and I haven't really been able to shake it off, but I'm still trying. Baby steps my dear, baby steps.

If there's any consolation, the weather hasn't really been on my side either. I know it might sound silly to complain about the weather, but this continental nightmarish grey can do more harm than expected. Every year since I moved to Paris I kept complaining about the lack of sunshine and how we didn't get a proper spring. Well, I must say this year has been the worst so far -we got more snow in March than during most of the winter, we had a few sunny days in April but the rest of the time it's been just overcast, rain and drizzle and they predicted hail this weekend!

How can one think of frilly dresses and sandals with these chilly winds howling? I haven't even put away all my winter coats and I still prefer wearing tights with my skirts.

However, one thing that kept going despite my sheer neglect has been my little etsy shop. that's why I figured maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to try and start adding all the stuff I've adding to the ''to sale'' pile.

I must thank everyone who helped support my business, all the lovely people around the world buying stuff and all of you leaving nice comments and adding stuff to treasuries and pinterest boards, it really means a lot to me!

 It's so rewarding to get nice feedback and hear that someone is happy with the stuff you found!

So thanks again, everyone (especially a few lovely ladies from Australia who saved my broke ass a few weeks ago) and please bare with my flaky self in the future!

To end on a better note, here's a little taste of what's going in to be in the shop in the next few days! I have a lot of lovely dresses, cute cardigans and waaaay too many white blouses and shirts. Mostly 70s and 80s stuff with a hint of 50s and 60s marvels.

Stay tuned!

*Update* - these are now online! Click on description for the shop link

                                                     '70s Le Rayon Vert maxi dress

                                                        '70s Scarlet Empress blouse

                                                       '70s Damsels in Distress dress

Keep your eyes also on Twitter and Pinterest for more updates!

  bisoux,
Sandra

The Monday Mixtape

Hello darlings!

 

As I probably mentioned already, I'm a huge music nerd but totally riding the hillbilly/60s cumbia/cosmic bandwagon  atm.

This year I got into the habit of actually hitting the REC button from time to time and sharing the love with the world.

I have an ongoing series of mixes that blend rockabilly, old school hip hop, disco and other crazy or obscure (or both) shit under the title that roughly translates into English as Stories of Sex, Heartbreak and Beyond.

Oh, and my DJ name is Amber Amber! A friend even created a LAST FM page for me! 

You can listen to my latest shenanigans HERE

enjoy!

bisoux,
Sandra

Film&Fashion Fridays - Lucifer Rising

Hello darlings!

 I'm always using film references for my vintage listing, so I thought I should give you guys a little more context about those crazy titles.

And I want to start with the one of the most exciting and well-known experimental filmmakers- Kenneth Anger!

His films are basically well-staged rituals, filled up with obscure symbols and various mythological references.

Acid-trips in saturated colors with cool soundtracks.

Lucifer Rising is a demonic invocation featuring Marianna Faithful among celtic ruins and Egyptian pyramids.

“A film about the love generation – the birthday party of the Aquarian Age showing actual ceremonies to make Lucifer rise. Lucifer is the Light  god, not the devil – the Rebel Angel behind what’s happening in the world today. His message is that the key of joy is disobedience. Isis (Nature) wakes. Osiris (Death) answers. Lilith (Destroyer) climbs to the place of Sacrifice. The Magus activates the circle and Lucifer – Bringer of Light – breaks through.”

- Kenneth Anger 


I simply makes you wanna get a sequined kaftan, dye your hair black, wear your we never sleep  necklace and somehow time-travel back to late '60s New York...

Songs about Paris - Call from Paris

 

Today I woke up with an email from my lovely friend Vlad that just contained a link to this video.

Sappy and drowsy yet somehow charming, featuring Fellini-esque black and white sequins and a trashcore vibe.

I wanna be partying in backless dresses but all I can do for now is stay in bed, blow my nose and whine :((

Introducing... The Daily Lounge!

                                                                                                                                                                   

Hello darlings!

 Yesterday I just came up with an idea- every single blogger on the planet who's running a fashion/vintage-related blog does what they call those ''outfit posts''. OK, maybe not everyone. But most of them do.

And we see more or less elaborated photos, heavily edited in general taken with fancy cameras in cool locations that want to showcase real people wearing everyday clothes. 

With the development of street style and the ''what i wore'' sites like Lookbook or Chictopia, the root concept that made street style so exciting got kinda blurred out by the Fashion Week celeb shots on the oldest street style blogs (I'm talking to you Sartorialist/ Face Hunter!) and well... the other networks are just too staged to be ''real''.

Of course, don't get me wrong, I don't believe everything and everyone is like that, but it's just a little say... awkward to see that you can't relate to those people anymore. What happened o the blogosphere since the last time I was around? I guess it just got big.

I don't wanna sound like fat frustrated chips-eating lady (yet I do love my Pringles) who boycotts the use of professional models in women's magazines ut I'd just like things to sound more like they really are.

Of course we all want to look our best in photos and maybe in the end it would be depressing to just see girls with greasy hair and sweatpants. 

BUT, and this is what I'm asking you- aren't we all like that? At least one day a week? I simply can't imagine that someone would be wearing heels and red lips 24/7 then slip into some lacy nightgown and kitten-heeled slippers and wake up like that.

So, in order to maybe add something different to the whole debate, I give you... The Daily Lounge!

Yes, that's exactly what it is- the stuff you don't see but you kinda would wanna see. 

The stuff we wear when we get home after a long day out and about, the holey sweaters you throw on when you think nobody's there to see you, the shirts you sleep in and those oh-so-comfy leggings you like eating your chips in while wrapped in a blanket.

 

...and for its first episode I give you yesterday's outfit : a 70s Terry full body pajamas!

The softest, warmest thing in the world that I do need to take off each time I need to go to the ladies' room, that make my already big thighs enormous and overall just make me look like a HUGE baby.

I recently got them from Cricketcapers on Etsy and they're probably one of the best investments I ever made.

Of course, I was sick with cramps all day and didn't go in at the office, stayed in bed and watched enough Bill Hicks to make me feel better about being an angry, negative bitch to everyone around this time of the month.

And of course after a while I just HAD to put on a pretty flower crown I made, in order to feel prettier... May I need to add- it worked?

What's your favorite around the house lounge outfit?  Do you invest in fancy pajamas? 

 bisoux,
Sandra