Rethinking Style 2.0 – The Creative Ally You Didn’t Know You Had
I’m relaunching this site. Because style matters, dammit!
Exactly a year ago (happy bday, blog!), Rethinking Style was born in a shower of pink + blue + beige. Aren’t you glad the design changed? Me too. I hadn’t a clue what I was doing what I was doing at the time, but a writer I admired wrote something to the effect of ‘if you have something to say, the best way to get it out there is to start a blog.’ So I did.
Of course, I didn’t know that come November, I would be sitting in my dorm with my final project in my lap, ripping squiggly black caterpillars of thread onto my bedspread while reading Ash Ambirge’s You Don’t Need A Job, You Need Guts and plotting entrepreneurial world takeover.
Granted, school wasn’t exactly a job, but I still needed guts to quit.
Three months later, walking around rural 13×8 mile Vashon Island (just imagine how annoying it was to be asked ‘wait, FASHION island?” by all my smirking friends), shocking grandmothers with my neon stockings, I thought about how you need guts for just about everything worth doing in this world. Like starting a business. And moving across the country. And wearing hot pink tights.
The interesting thing is that there are lots of blogs about how to start a business, and how to become location independent, but…
In a world where concepts and strategy rule, we rarely bring genius out onto the streets. Or into our own closets.
The #1 thing missing from the blogging world is action. Tangible, philosophically-driven action that actually changes minds and opens eyes. Brilliance on the outside as well as on the inside.
The only thing you need from clothes is what you want from everything else in your life- freedom to think + live on your own brilliant terms.
& that’s exactly what I’m going to challenge you to do.
If you haven’t already, watch this video to find out how fashion has been brainwashing every single one of us (yes, even you), and what you can do about it. Starting with the shirt you’re wearing.
Then take the Style Challenge yourself! To celebrate the relaunch – if you post your results on the Facebook page before August 2nd, you’ll be entered to win a copy of my upcoming book, Double Your Wardrobe (which will help you do exactly that with the clothes you already own), as well as a 1:1 Travel Consult with me!
Also: Did you know that 5 Words can change the way you look at clothes, forever?
Yes, really. (It has to do with the consumer -> designer shift I talked about in the video, in a big way.)
Get ‘5 Words to Rock Your Closet’ sent to your inbox, as well as rad tips + challenges in the coming weeks.
5 words. Really. It’ll give you a leg up on the Style Challenge, too, in case you’re struggling!
Did I mention that there’s an early-bird deadline (Aug. 2nd) if you want to win stuff?
Go forth + be brilliant!
Yours in mind-body revolution,
TZ
Stop Consuming, Start Designing: Take the Style Challenge!
Did you know that fashion has been brainwashing us since the beginning of time? And that no one’s been talking about it?
Watch this video below to find out how, and what you can do about it. {Also, special early-bird opportunity to anyone who takes on the style challenge by August 14th – new extension date! Get on it!}
All it takes:
- Go to your closet and pull out the first thing you see.
- Restyle it in some way, shape, or form that you haven’t before.
& Post your results on the sparkly new Facebook page!
Limited time mojo:
This will be an ongoing challenge, but anyone who restyles + posts pics by August 14th will get a chance to win one of two prizes:
* A free copy of my next rad stylextravaganza, Double Your Wardrobe (A book chock-full of ways to do exactly that + develop a whole new set of outfits without shopping for a thing. Yes, really. You’ll want this.)
* A free, 1:1 travel consult with me, tailored to your next trip!
Points for both innovation AND wearability!
Best restyles will ALSO be showcased on the website, w/ your permission.
Remember- you’re brilliant! I dare you to start dressing like it.
To mind-body revolution,
TZ
Dreaming through the fashion industry, which is a kind of looking glass when I think about it.
Last night, I dreamed about Alexander McQueen.
He sat towards the back of a bus that I don’t remember getting on, but I do remember sitting down, forcefully, and trying to peer at him over the side of the seat. It was hard to make out his face. It seemed joyous and young. So young, in fact, that I try to comb through my dream memory, searching for visual validation that it was in fact him.
None of the other bus riders seemed perturbed, leaving me alone in my discovery. I felt a conspiratorial grin on my face, the kind that runs across your mouth when you know something that no one else knows- or probably would care if they did know- and yet is a great happening all the same.
The dream sequence cut to awhile later, when I’d gotten off the bus to stand with my friends. I watched him get off and walk away from a distance, and I pointed, saying- “Look! That’s Alexander McQueen!”
My friend Gina, dressed in vivid turquoise, craned her head to look. “Where? Where?” I watched him walk away.
I woke up feeling light. I sat up, and gazed calmly out the window, where there was a rare scattering of sun through the clouds. Then halfway through my morning meditation, I remembered the dream.
The sudden sadness, like a bad fall out of nowhere.
Strange, that at no point in the dream did I consider his death. His presence, even though I had never met the man, was so natural, like a relaxed tourist in the middle of my hometown. In my dream, he was safe from our sorrows and speculations, the Google searches of his name where the obituaries clouded his brilliant legacy.
Curiously, now that I think of it- when I found out he’d passed last year, it had been in bed, too. I’d woken up next to my friend, who had slept over, and felt the deepest contentment that you can feel on a lazy Saturday morning with someone you love. Then I had rolled over to check the time on my phone, and found the text message from @jessxchen: Omggg Tessa Alexander McQueen is dead!
It’s worth backtracking here: I’m not one of those always-been-fashion-obsessed girls. Only halfway through high school did I begin to gulp down Style.com shows and industry news with a ceaseless thirst. But from the very beginning, McQueen’s mad sensibilities dove into my inexperienced bones. I idolized his tartan and lace extravagances, tainting my impressionable aesthetic forever with his irony, his dramatic interpretation of beauty. I, who tended to love all dresses diplomatically, democratically- coveted his double-peacock gown with a vengeance.
From a collage I made in mourning and tribute.
From my journal entry that day: “Indescribable, to wake up to the news of Alexander McQueen’s death on the first day of fashion week. On a beautiful morning bright with sun and dreams…What has the ability to counter that [brilliance] is something I don’t even want to venture into, philosophically.”
I went through probably four stages of grief in a single day, and dug my heels into the last- depression- for weeks. It was a mix of my unsatisfying fashion program, where I felt alone and misguided, and the knowledge that someone whose work for me glimmered with hope in that deteriorating industry had removed himself from it altogether.
Why am I telling you all this?
I think today’s McQueen dream woke me up. And brought me back here.
When I was studying at RISD, my professors used to tell me to stop thinking so much. I remember sitting at my drafting table with my lips pressed tight against the fury that threatened to spill out. I got into fights with my roommates because I spent all my free time despairing over sketches rather than hanging out with them, then I’d bring in the designs to class and my struggles would feel so irrelevant in context of the bland critiques. I can hardly describe how disconnected I felt, trying to fight people who simply didn’t share my values.
It’s hard to speculate, of course, but I don’t think the fashion world did McQueen any mental favors, either. I was also angry at the time that he chose out. That he didn’t fight more- how irresponsible, to simply leave a world that doesn’t serve you? It made me hate the world for being able to be a good enough reason for suicide, that someone like him could grasp it as a last resort.
Yet life goes on. In surprising ways.
Less than a year later, I, too, found myself leaving the industry.
This is a crazy world to live in, you know. It’s permeated with industries and societies that dwarf our individual spirits and douse our brilliance. Such systems wring the creative spark right out of us, and then expect us to produce amazing work. In such darkness, even the brightest stars can extinguish.
Or- if at all possible- we can choose to light a different sky.
For the last three months, I’ve been wandering. Both physically, from one coast to another, and digitally, from one revolution to another. There’s a sort of playfulness at work here, actually. I feel a great tenderness towards our ability to choose.
Not our freedom to choose, mind you, but our ability. It’s quite different- less about attaining freedom and more about its exercise, nuanced with carelessness and curiosity. I believe that art can save us, and when it doesn’t- we must dive deeper, and expand with more breadth- until we reach the art of compassionate and deliberate living.
Something as simple as clothing can bring us there. For the heart of style decisions is independent thinking. And driving far down the road of independent thought is a bus on which you can meet anyone, going anywhere, giving you unexpected peace in passing.
…
It’s good to be back. To my RS readers: love for your patience. To my new & ER curious cats, welcome to yet another experimental space!
RIP McQueen- your inspiration is felt deeply here.
10 Ways Rethinking Style Can Change Your Life (And Why This Blog Is Going On Hiatus)
I’ve never told you guys this before, and I hope you won’t feel decieved…
The truth is, once you really start to rethink style, it’s like a gateway drug to rethinking lots of other things.
How, you ask?
- ZaraJay Flickr
10 Ways Rethinking Style Can Change Your Life
1. If a shirt is not a shirt… then what about the status quo?
2. If how you dress is who you are….then who are you?
3. You start wearing your own philosophy.
4. You connect with other radical thinkers who love your style philosophy.
5. Style stops looking so much like clothes and more like a medium for liberation.
6. What other people think starts becoming irrelevant.
7. Trends become irrelevant.
8. Most of the fashion industry kind of becomes irrelevant.
9) You start wondering what the hell IS relevant, and how can design, as well as any of our fields, really serve us anyway?
10) After a while, it might just inspire you to do something REALLY dangerous and unconventional, like leave school and start a whole new movement for creative empowerment.
*
…and that, my friends, is where I’m headed.
Never fear, Rethinking Style will continue (I still have about a MILLION unhatched posts), but I will be taking a hiatus for a few weeks as I prepare to launch my new website, pack up my things, and *fingers crossed* move across the country to work full-time on my revolution!
Thanks to the generosity of The Donating Drummer, the new site will be up by the end of this month! You can read more about it on Mark’s website, and check out his awesome project while you’re at it!
Dear readers, fellow mavens, friends:
Last July, I thought I was just starting a fashion blog. Now I realize how much I underestimated the power of writing out your dreams on the internet and sharing them with others. Thank you for being part of my inspiration. Go out there and rock it- unabashedly, completely follow your heart and don’t let anyone stop you. Your style will naturally follow who you are.
Love,
Tessa
P.S. If the above list hasn’t scared you off- let’s stay in touch! Follow me on Twitter for updates!
Your Style Strategy for 2011
Tackle 2011 with Aplomb. Not just to the NYE party, silly. | Flickr AnnaGay
Take a moment to ask yourself:
Who do I want to be in 2011? Where am I going, what do I want to feel, and how do I intend for this year to play out?
Sound familiar? Too resolution-y? Okay, how about this one:
Will my clothes facilitate my life and the changes I want to make this year??
If my theories hold and what you wear reflects how you think, then the strategy of personal style must be part of your 2011 gameplan.
Need a nudge? Skeptical that your wardrobe can change without massive $$$? Fortunately, I haven’t been writing at Rethinking Style for 5 months for nothing! Let’s get to your style re-invention, pronto.
The Challenges:
The Advice:
- Ten Ways to Rethink Style Right Now
- When Your Personal Style Isn’t Unicorn Vomit
- Wear It ‘Till You Feel It
- A Shirt Is Not A Shirt
- Style Anxiety? Interviews on wearing confidence, magic, and self-love.
What else have you got?
- Try rearranging your closet/drawers in a meaningful way. Maybe you put the daring stuff at the top, so you’ll be more likely to go for it in the morning! Or arrange by textures if you’re a tactile person. What about drawers arranged by feelings?!
- Repeat to yourself: I think, therefore I dress for myself. Anyone want to translate this into Latin?
- Instead of buying a new wardrobe, why not go the opposite route and limit your old one altogether? Challenge yourself to a temporary shopping ban and get creative! This can only help your $-related resolutions. Yay two birds and one…arrow (you’ve got to admit a stone would never work.)
You could even kick off the year with your very own 30-for-30! Now THAT would be badass.
If you’ve been eyeballing my personal consults, or think I’m funny but wait till I hear about YOUR style dilemma or story, then shoot me an email! Working with me 1:1 will be an option when the decade ends…And I love a good challenge 
Cheers to your strategic success,
Tessa
P.S. Thanks for being patient and excited to see my new design breakthroughs, guys! My good friend Andreas is finishing up the video edits & it will be up on the 1st of January!