The Social Value of Fashion Blogs

The Bargain Queen has a on what people like in a fashion blog. The results will be a part of an upcoming book. I'm all for academic studies, so I took the survey. Pretty interesting stuff! If you're interested, you can take part in it.

Fashion sometimes has a negative image as being shallow, fickle, and trivial. Sometimes it can be all of these things, but there's also the artistic and intellectual sides that are oft overlooked. I like fashion blogs because I like to get new fashion ideas, shopping tips, and a dose of intellect. There are so many fashion blogs out there with insightful and and intelligent commentary, and those blogs can hardly be characterized as shallow, fickle, or trivial. Fashion definitely can be "the whole package"--a combination of beauty and brains.

Why do fashion blogs appeal to you?

The buttoned-up effect in action

Posting almost didn't happen today. When I turned on my camera this morning, there were the usual lines across the screen when the camera misbehaves, but later on things on the screen became runny blobs. I became really concerned because some of the pictures taken turned out looking like blobs! Thankfully, pushing a few buttons did wonders. I think it's a sign that the camera is really on its last legs, but I'm hoping that it'll last long enough until I start making money and can afford to buy a new one.

To illustrate how buttons can brighten up any outfit, I've chosen something you've seen me wear before--the corduroy shrunken blazer, the green t-shirt, and black pants. I've worn this combo many, many times, but there's something different about each outfit. It's all in the accessories:


Sometimes wearing multiple pins and/or wearing them in off-kilter positions can add a little something-something to a repeat outfit. Wearing more than one big button (or a badge, as some call it) might be overkill, but pairing them with smaller pins can actually look quite good. There's a symbiotic relationship between these two types of pins--the conservative lapel pin gets dressed down while the badge doesn't look awkwardly huge the way it might when worn alone.

The buttoned-up effect

Sorry for the infrequent post, folks, but I've been sooo busy lately. I haven't bought clothes or shoes for a while. Yay! I may be busy, but cursed be the Internet age, I can shop any time of the day (provided that the servers aren't down for "regularly scheduled maintenance/upgrades"). I went a wee bit crazy with buying lots of beads (OK, at least that's a business investment) and a few other useful articles. Some of them are still making their way over by the way of snail's mail, but I'm happy with what I've got and can't wait to wear them in the coming days.

I have to bring a jacket to school all the time, since it's always cold in the lecture halls. Sometimes I'd roll out of bed and not know what to wear, so I would consistently grab the same few pieces of outerwear that goes with everything. When you wear the same things day in and day out, it gets boring sometimes. To keep things fresh, I like accessorizing with pins and brooches. Sometimes I wear a few at a time, like this:

I made these lapel pins from buttons I bought during the JoAnn store closing sale a few months ago. Now I get the meaning of "cute as a button."

Some days I do cute, but some days I do cynical. While I'm not a big fan of slogan tees, I do like to make a statement with slogans discretely printed on accessories. Unfortunately, my DIY capabilities are limited insofar as my tools and materials are limited, so I actually have to buy my slogans. Joining my ever-expanding pin collection are these two buttons, which cost less than $2 apiece. Being a completely frazzled editor obsessed with achieving perfection in a very short span of time, the one on the left is perfect. Given what I plan on doing for the next who knows how many years, the appeal of the one on the right is obvious:

(Yup, that's the reflection of my camera, along with my short bony fingers. Can't be helped.)

One thing I've been attracted to lately are blank note cards. Having blank notecards may end up saving money in the long run. Instead of buying separate birthday cards, thank you cards, and general correspondance cards, blank cards are one-size-fits-all--you just have to customize them with your own messages. It's good to have a few blank cards around the house. You won't have to worry about card emergencies (when you need a card right away but don't have time to go buy one), and best of all, you won't be stuck with a bunch of single-occasion cards from an 8-pack when you really only need one card.

I've finally come to terms with the fact that I'm a shoe-holic. I may not have money to buy actual shoes right now, but I can certainly afford to buy shoe cards. When I saw these notecards in the same store I bought the bottons from, I couldn't help but snap them up:

They're so cute! Even if I had no one to write to, I wouldn't mind just putting these cards on shelves as decoration.

One highlight of an Etsy transaction is the freebie. In my case, Allegrae was sick and couldn't ship out orders as early as she normally would, so she offered to include some extra goodies to make up for it. I'll say that she more than made up for it:

The, um, button button is quite clever, and now I can flaunt my shoe addict status! The berry magnet is now stuck to my fridge, looking pretty. All in all, I spent less than $10. Since the whole package and all the other stuff in the store are so cool, I just might use that 10% off coupon sometime in the future.

More on my Etsy shopping sprees to follow as packages arrive in the mail...

eBay is my "dealer"

Wow, it's been a busy week. I've been up late night after night for school and business alternately. Editorial deadlines are simply not fun, but at least jewelrymaking is. I don't mind staying up all night making things, but looking at pages upon pages of red and blue ink? I fell asleep before I had a chance to finish. Glad that's over with for now.

I've been keeping my local post office busy with packages coming in and packages going out. I don't need to buy clothes anymore, but I've become a serious beadaholic. I'm hooked on them like I'm hooked on dark chocolate and lemon drops; guess it doesn't help when they look so yummy.

I'll let you in on a little secret. I shop for beads like I do everything else--bargain style. I buy my supplies from everywhere--chain stores, specialty stores, eBay. I stake out suppliers who are not overly popular but offer great beads/components at great prices. Why the less popular guys? Because less popularity equals less competition, and less competition means fewer bids, which in turn means lower prices. I also go after the less popular (or some may say "weird") beads both for the price and the creative challenge. It's amazing what your imagination can do when you're forced to work with very different materials.

Since a lot of my supplies come from eBay, I thought I'd share my experiences. There's a couple of things to be on the lookout for when it comes to buying supplies and other things on the cheap:

-To prevent overbidding for something, check the Buy It Now (BIN) items first. A lot of times sellers offer lots of the same items for auction as well as BIN. To make the time and effort of bidding worth while, my auction price ceiling is always substantially lower than the BIN price.

-Another thing to consider is whether the seller is trustworthy. Sure, ratings help, but they don't tell the whole story. Having a trustworthy supplier is especially important if you're going to be selling your work--if you're vouching for something being "genuine" and it turns out you're wrong, you'll not only lose money, but your customers are going to bolt. If you plan on buying large quantities of supplies such as beads, you want to make sure to the extent possible that your money won't go to some incompetent or, worse yet, some shady character. Sometimes it's tempting to make a large purchase at a store that sells reasonably priced items in order to scrimp on shipping, but it's not a good idea. It's better to test out each seller with a small purchase first.

Case in point: I found seller A, who had a great selection of beads. That seller has quite a few customers, but not as much as a popular seller who had lots of bidders (and hence higher prices). I placed an order and found that the beads and prices were both great. On the second transaction, my order got screwed up, but I was so impressed by what a great job seller A did to make things right that I kept going back despite the faux pas.

Seller B offered beads at a great price, even better than A. I decided to place one small order to try it out. I emailed seller B regarding combined shipping, and it took forever for her to respond. I won 2 things for a very good price, but when I got the beads, some were damaged. B promised a refund, but didn't answer my emails for a week and a half until I sent a very tersely-worded one. The amount I was trying to get back wasn't much (under $2), but that's not the point--it's my money, the seller promised to give it back, and the seller just didn't handle it very well. I finally got my refund, but that's the first and last time I'm doing business with that store.

Do you have special tips? Enlighten us!