This is the sound of a disenchanted Fashionista- The the ever changing Fashion Industry makes me glum

Fash·ion [fash-uhn] Pronunciation Key –noun
1. a prevailing custom or style of dress, etiquette, socializing, etc.: the latest fashion in dresses.
2. conventional usage in dress, manners, etc., esp. of polite society, or conformity to it: the dictates of fashion; to be out of fashion.
–verb (used with object)



Having worked in and around the world of Haute Couture (High Fashion) for a good 6 years now,I consider myself acquainted.

Alas, the more I learn, the less I wish I knew.

Yes, folks I do believe the Honeymoon is over and that if a few changes are not made soon...
divorce papers may be signed.

First off, take the fact that most of the clothing brands your average American has access to and can afford are sewn in sweat shops by tiny children in third world countries.

YES! Guess, Abercrombie and Fitch, Calvin Kline, Forever 21, Victoria's Secret, Target, Old Navy and Banana Republic are a mere handful of names on the long list.

for more info on such dreadful matters visit www.sweatshopwatch.org

Now, multiply that by idea that there is no true middle ground between the cheaply sweat shop made 'Ready to Wear' garments (1. clothing made in standard sizes; ready-made clothing ) and pocket book emptying one of a kind 'Couture' pieces (1. high fashion; the most fashionable and influential dressmaking and designing).

that's right, except for a very select few exceptions to the rule (which i am currently working on compiling a list of) the fashion forward young person of today must make one of two choices when purchasing a brand new garment.

1. Buy a moderately cute but horribly sewn inexpensive garment at say Forever 21 (I like to call this "disposable clothing" the garment equivalent to a tampon due to the fact that it will most likely fall apart after one wear and wash) and support the mistreatment of fellow humans at the same time.

or

2. Take out a loan and skip eating out and other social outings like movies and bowling for a few years in order to purchase an exquisite hand made dress by Christian Lacroix but chances are you may be accused of looking like an escapee from the its a small world Disneyland ride if you are caught wearing it out.

You also have the problem of how shallow and competitive this industry is.
Jobs in fashion are all who you know and not how talented you are and even if by chance you do get your foot in the door of one of the major companies most of the fun and creative side has been taken out and replaced with pure business and many a rule and regulation. How can we create a product for as cheep as we possibly can and mark it up as much as possible?
Not fun. Not interesting. Not ethical.

I am not going to even get into the horrible stereotypes fueled by the greedy fashion industry that start even in grade school.
comments like "Did you see her shoes?" or "Is that a faux Chanel bag she is carrying?"
are yet another hurdle our youth have to overcome to feel "accepted" or "normal".

DISCLAIMER-

I am by no means telling you to avoid trying to look "cool" or shopping at the normal places you go to find that last minute dress you really need for the office Christmas party. I myself on occasion do darken the doors of several of the clothing chains that I previously mentioned. I personally believe that one must feel 100% conviction about something in order to properly boycott it and boycotting is not convenient in the busy fast paced country we live in.

We can do a whole lot more good in this world by finding and creating alternatives for the things we disagree with rather than standing outside businesses with signs and yelling at all who pass by.

That being said, here are a few positive things you can do to counteract all of the horrible things that go on behind the scenes of the world of fashion

Be Creative Enough To Re-Invent The Clothes You Already Own
instead of reading to cheesy shopping magazines like Lucky that just make you want to BUY BUY BUY I would rather refer to The sartorialist and see what REAL people all over the globe are actually wearing on the streets. It is always visually inspiring, never boring and I usually come away with ideas of how to put pieces together that have been sitting in my closet forever in a whole new way.

Buy Vintage and Thrift
It takes a little more time and yes your hands usually smell a little funny after sorting through chaotic racks of old clothes for a few hours but you are doing amazing things for the environment and mankind and chances are you will NEVER run into another girl with the same crazy floral print dress. You will be random, fashionable relevant, avant garde and one of a kind all wrapped up in one.

Support Your Local Designers
Look into who the local designers are in your city. When starting out, young up and coming designers often have a hard time charging the money they want to get for their pieces due to the fact that no one has heard of them. Help them get their name out there by wearing their pieces and in turn you get great deals on exclusive clothing and a chance to be a little different. There are also scores of designers with merchandise available on the Internet take Jared Gold's Black Chandelier line for example. Both inexpensive and interesting.

Give Clothes That You Don't Wear to Charities
Why throw things away when you can help others.
If you do not know of any local trustworthy charities to give to visit www.justgive.org

Take a Sewing Class
If you have the spare time and the interest you should take the basic sewing class at your local fabric store even if all you desire to do is alter the fabulous things you find at the salvation army or take those old boot cut jeans that still fit and make them skinny jeans in just a few minutes.
If this is a little over your head, i suggest getting in touch with the college nearest you that has a design program. Fashion students need both experience and cash and will take in or let out things for much less than any alterations shop.

Barter and Trade
So you are an amazing cook and your friend Erica can sew
Erica's boyfriends parents are coming over for dinner and she is petrified. She always burns everything! You can cook a fabulous meal for her and in turn she will make that adorable high-wasted skirt with all the buttons you've been talking about for a month now.
bring back the bartering system. It is artsy and cool.

Pretty stupid girls- a no reason rant

I was never the beautiful girl growing up and I am thankful for that fact Every single morning when I wake up...

As kids, my sisters and I were labeled and placed inside neat folders and filed alphabetically inside a very small box.

Maisie with the head turning, pulse racing looks that could kill

Chelsea with that talent for all things creative that came so effortlessly it made everyone sick

And I was the brains of the operation, the ring leader of sorts, the captain of the ship,

The imagination.

None of us thought we could venture outside of the one sentence description that had been branded on us at a very young age. 

Thankfully, we have recently concluded that there is so much more to a person than their most obvious strengths.

I think this is the problem with most "pretty girls" and why I often times find them trite, shallow and dare I say it, dreadfully dull.

Now I am by no means drawing a large black line between physically beauty and ugliness. 

There is of course a huge gray area in between in which I would categorize myself and most (not all but most) of the other females I would wish to spend time around. 

A girl can be attractive, interesting looking, exotic, captivating even and not fit into "pretty girl" mold I speak of.

Girls that are strikingly, drop dead gorgeous by any one's standards (often times a former cheerleader, beauty queen, or pageant princess) tend to have never had to develop their personalities and brains to the level the rest of us have had to in order to make friends and connections in this world. 

Unfortunately, I find this to be the case 9 out of 10 times and it really makes me very sad. 

These girls grew up with a get out of jail free pass go and collect $200 dollars card and were able to skip a lot of the school of hard knocks' character building workshops your average teenager finds themselves in.

Sure, they can give you an hour long dissertation on makeup, skin care products, hair care and where the best tanning salon is but finding any real substance is like digging for gold in a grave yard. 

Now, do not jump the gun and think that this is an attack on being a "girly girl"...I LOVE a shopping spree and pedicure AS much as any female...

In fact, I have most likely gone too far in the opposite direction. I can never slow my mind down, I analyze everything everyone says and worry about too many things that are beyond my control. So maybe having a simple mind is easier... Maybe these girls just want to have fun.

Desperate for dexter. He is an addiction.

You know you are a tad bit deranged when you find yourself identifying more with a serial killer than the people you go out and drink with on the weekends.

Another clue to this is when you are more depressed about finishing season two and not having a new episode to watch for a very long time than loosing an 8 year friendship due to an extreme distaste for unnecessary drama. 

I would just rather watch Dexter kill evil people than have friends that suck all the energy the lifeblood out of me. 

Ill take a sarcastic and charming but twisted superhero serial murderer over a bitter and negative nagging vampire friend any day but i digress....

Dexter is the adult version of a modern day robin hood but instead of robbing from the rich and giving to the poor he kills killers to save innocent lives. INGENIOUS. 

Showtime has stolen the stage (and my heart) with it's TV adaptation of the incredible Jeff Lindsay's novel "Darkly Dreaming Dexter"

Michael C. hall  (you may remember him from the cast of  6 feet under) is shockingly believable and transforms the character into a handsome like able and all together dreamy serial killer.

The Ajax Lady.

I loathe answering the phone at work.

Its not my Job and for whatever god forsaken reason, it makes me CRAZY.

The other day it just so happened to be ringing off the hook and I randomly felt obliged to pick it up and oh, i am glad i did. 

It was the Ajax lady, you know, from the Cheech and Chong movie "Up in Smoke".

Her real name is June Fairchild and she lives in California and claims that at some point her late husband was business partners with my boss MANUEL.

Manuel at the time of the call was out of the country and obviously not available to speak to June so she talked my ear off for about 20 minutes instead.

She spoke of things such as meeting Johnny Cash and him picking her up and spinning her around because her name was the same as his wife's.

She also told me what a catch Marty Stuart used to be in his younger years and how she had always had a crush on him. 

She went on to explain that the Ajax scene, (her one claim to fame) was filmed using a tube taped to her cheek that was attached to a vacuum cleaner and that is how it appeared that she snorted all of that household cleaner.

Towards the end of our mostly one sided bazaar and off beat phone conversation, The loquacious Ms. Fairchild insisted that I tell Manuel that "Crazy June" had called, I guess that is what he used to call her back in the day....."Manuel was right on the mark with that one" sounds just about what I thought to myself, I responded only with a chuckle. Just HOW unsound the lady is, i never would have guessed until checking out the pictures from a story the LA times did on her in February of 2001

I never cease to be amazed by humans