Sing us Out

A new year is on the horizon.

A couple of days ago I was at my old professor’s apartment and we were looking at my old assignments. It was a fashion class so we had to do trend forecasts. A lot of mine we’re right. Back in 2017, I thought transparent clothing and preppy things would be in. I predicted these things because I wanted them to be in, not because I saw them coming. I reported on my own style. This is NOT a claim that I am a fashion clairvoyant just that I work with self-interest.

It made me think of those classic in/out posts we see around this time proclaiming what is on the horizon and what has been banished behind us. I think those posts can be a problem for the over-consumption mindset. I’m not interested in everything I need to buy. It’s why I don’t consider myself an influencer. I don’t think people need anything from Mango or Aritzia. I thought I might share my ins and outs for the new year. Reporting on my own life and style interests is a way to remove language that makes anyone feel like they have to pull out their credit card. This is just what I’m doing, but perhaps we could do it together.

IN:

Green: Red has swept the nation, it only feels right that green will be the rebel’s response to it. I love red and burgundy, but in my heart, I am always in the mood for green. A reminder of nature and times when you don’t need a jacket. I need winter as much as I have a distaste for being cold because it’s time to rest. The color green is what anchors hope to me. I try not to wish away winter to make sure I am not forgetting I should enjoy my life as it is happening, but green is something I always look forward to.

Fun Tops: Djerf Avenue paused production on fun tops by running the price up on plain button-ups. I love a button-up this is not a diss to the staple, but I think thrift stores or the men’s department had us covered. We did not need stores to release thousands of the same shirt for 8 consecutive seasons. Thankfully I think I see a fun eclectic top revival, or I’m at least praying for one.

Only owning one pair of blue jeans: Why do I need more?

Liberating the process of making/viewing/defining good art: Lately, people have been defining critique as hate comments. To grow people have to feel like what they are doing is worth something. Slimming the margins by raising the qualifications to be considered an artist does not “weed out” the people who can’t make art, it weeds out the people who don’t have the same opportunities. I hope people stop thinking because you don’t like something, it’s bad. This year let’s look into history, context, and technique! There is good in all we make, we just have to find it.

Transparency of the Process: Process is really interesting to me and I think it’s because I care about both the final product and how it was made. I have always loved movie BTS (a la Sofia Coppola’s book), rejects, contact sheets, rough drafts, and all that. It feels compelling because the final product sometimes removes the work it takes to get to the final results. You can’t bullshit the process. BTS removes the curtain that veils what it meant to make what you did. If it was chaotic, or not thought out, you’ll see it in the BTS. I like knowing that people thought about what they were doing, instead of just going for it all the time.

Libraries: The budget of NYPL has been cut significantly meaning every library in New York City will be closed on Sundays. When I was 22, supremely lost and broke, the library became my space. This might not affect you, but let it be a lesson to avoid such fates. Getting a library card even if you don’t use it helps fund resources for people who can’t afford to lose access. Audiobooks, movies, everything right there if you just look for it.

If you believe you cannot gain from getting a library card, I must disagree. A very ignorant take because the library has all the answers. If everyone considers me an influencer, then I hope my only influence is that of the joys of the library.

Colorful Winters: It’s easy to dress in all black. I enjoy making winter more colorful with fun knitwear. I feel like it’s so easy to see everything so bleak when you’re in all black no matter how chic it looks, a bright green sweater brings a little summer to the bitter cold.

Structured clothing: I love a baggy look but I feel like great composition, good structure, and interesting silhouettes are calling to me this year. Maybe because clothing quality has been bad recently and I want the good stuff. It’s not that everything has to be fitted either, just held up. I think in recent red carpet looks I’ve been drawn to my usual aesthetic, but what has caught my eye more, are looks with a lot of volume.

Typos: I’m not a proofreader and as much as I’d love to be creating impeccable content in Alexa Chung’s It style, what I am really doing is an Instagram story and therefore I cannot take it that seriously.

Failure transparency: At the end of the year we talk about our wins. But most things we do in life run the risk of failure and a lot of things fail. I have what can be close to 17 drafts of the zine I swore I would finish by 2024 but life got in the way. I hope I can recognize that or be more honest about what goals I failed to meet and how I reconcile and accept as opposed to deflect and project.

Enriching your Mind: Experiencing life is just as important as viewing art. Sometimes we hold the product to a higher standard but no product can be made well without proper exposure. Enrichment is not a limiting activity, life is enriching. I wish I was at big parties and the ballet and making from that experience. I accept that things are not available to me. I don’t have the privilege of endless wealth which gives me the freedom to enrich my mind traditionally. Sometimes deprivation of what we want, helps us get what we need. I have made peace with all this. I can only make and do with what I have, and I can do my best to see art everywhere, and I can work hard towards goals (which is maybe more enriching than The Met on a Wednesday). I do not have to see the ballet, to know what it means to be beautiful. I only have to walk the long way home and observe.

Subscribing to Magazines: Print isn’t dying on my watch! I subscribe to W magazine (8 USD) and New York Magazine (55 USD for print + online) but hope to find more places to put my money. Nylon is being printed again which was some of the best news to hit the market in a long while. I believe in the resurrection and I hope you do too.

Printing photos Tangible memories: I love having prints of my photos. It’s not very accessible most times. But I do make bordered prints of my own or order in bulk iPhone photos or any photos I love from FujiFilm. I hope more people take the chance to make tangible memories in the future. Maybe that’s what this should be, IN: tangible memories. Something to hold and take with you.

Out:

Okay, let me preface the out section by saying I don’t think I need to sit here and say which trends are out. The list below is more about mindset. I am underqualified to say what’s in let alone to tell people what’s out! Plus I don’t think much is out, it’s already coming back when we really think about it.

Wanting to fast forward: Believing that the future is better than the present is easy because all the hard work is done in the future. You’re sort of pre-reaping the benefits. I feel like I am constantly thinking about my career ten years from now, without realizing how important it is to experience the career I currently have. I talk a lot about this, and I’m imperfect in my pursuit and I hope this year to get better.

Seeing things as black and white: I feel like I look at my mark on the world as black and white. I am either doing a great job or a terrible job. I am either doing it right or doing it wrong. When I graduated college my friend had to choose between two job offers. She was pretty focused on what the right answer was. There was no wrong answer even though each path took her in a completely different direction. Each would have pros and cons and hardship and happiness and removing this feeling of doing the right thing, vs doing what feels best is essential. I am working on not seeing myself as good or bad, or choices as right or wrong. I am working on acknowledging that most things fall in between.

Getting rid of our things: Why do I have to throw everything away?! I don’t view most of my things as clutter and I don’t believe in redecorating, just repurposing. One of the more tragic things in life is how we have redefined starkness as chic and therefore the collection of items that become our aesthetic must go. Stripped down to the bare necessities. If I got rid of my things I would look like everyone else, that’s pretty tragic to me.

Cover letters: To whom it may Concern: Please don’t make me beg.

Copying: Let’s stop copying outfits/creative endeavors, and be creative! Think for yourself. Even if it turns out bad it’s better than removing the important part of making things— self-expression. When we learn technique we copy, but when we’re looking to extend a part of ourselves into any creative endeavor, recreating is like slipping on someone else’s identity, which is sort of boring.

The cycle of honeymoon periods: I mean that we don’t think about longevity we just bask in the excitement of new and don’t think about the future. We continue to push for the exciting things instead of sitting in the weight of those choices. Every season of your life does not have to be dazzling, new, and fresh, sometimes sitting in the after is more important. It allows you to assess and grow and continue to make good choices. I mean this for fashion too. Not every season needs reinvention. Most times you just have to figure out how to have fun with what you already have, being who you have always been.

Tote Bags: I am not saying they aren’t in (they are tote bags like are they ever out?) but I am, and I never thought I would say this, semi-retiring my tote. I am trying to look more mature via real genuine purses. Personal out! Not universal.

Assuming everyone else is doing it better: I have this habit of thinking everyone knows better than me about what I should do. I can dismiss what I know to be true, simply because someone else contradicted it. In the wise words of Olivia Rodrigo, I would believe 2 + 2 = 5 simply because someone older told me it was true. This mindset bleeds into everything else and is a way for me to discredit myself. It’s the same thing as assuming you’re the only one who doesn’t know how to be an adult. Everyone’s winging it, that’s what being an adult is. I think about that article from The Cut. I thought we had established the idea that we were all assuming we were doing life wrong a long time ago, but perhaps we needed reminding.

Hooking people, on Tiktok: I do not want to force or convince anyone to watch my videos through tricks or clickbait. You either want to watch or you don’t and I will be posting either way.

Busy work articles: I love an eclectic article. Give me the crazy analysis of nepo babies, or the science of Leonardo Dicaprio’s dating life! That’s what I want to read. I don’t want to read 25 products to get from the sale section at Saks. I think there’s a way to meet in the middle. I know those shopping articles are important but you’d probably get 10,000 clicks from me if you put up an article on portraits of people through the contents of their purses.

These are my hopes and dreams for 2024. Will they all come true? probably not. But I will do my best to make it happen for myself. That’s what’s so exciting to me about the new year, the prospect of a new beginning. So many of the privileges in my life come as a surprise. I could have never predicted what happened this year, and that is always what makes me so hopeful for January 1st. I never know what’s coming and instead of seeing that as a scary thing, I welcome the unknown as best I can. There is nothing better to me than that moment when the clock strikes midnight on January 1st and we sing as we say goodbye.