Three(ish) Years Worth of Fashion Thoughts: 2023 pt. 2 and a Whole Lot More
This started as a super late follow-up post to one I called 2023 pt.1, where I wrote about fashion, films, TV series, and general random thoughts from the first half of that year. Back then, I was halfway through my degree and meant to do a similar post at the end of the year, basically 2023 pt. 2ā¦since then, Iāve graduated, and itās now 2025ā¦Oops:-)Ā
But I still have all this stuff in the drafts. What do I do? It makes no sense to dedicate a whole post to the last 6 months of a year that itself ended 18 months ago and realistically, I canāt see myself completing the handful of random half-finished posts Iāve drafted since before they too become completely irrelevant. Soooā¦Iām changing the formula and have merged everything into this one giant fashion-related post covering the last half of 2023 all the way up until now. The reason Iām just concentrating on the fashion aspect and doing away with everything else is because my other thoughts seem so irrelevant right now given world events.
For one, I said in my last post that I would start every post going forwards by addressing Israelās genocide of the Palestinian people. I really didnāt think this could happen in the 21st century but the fact that 1). it is STILL happening despite the declaration of a "ceasefire", 2). the British Labour government continues to facilitate Israel's terrorism AND 3). have gone so far as to proscribe a non-violent protest group as terrorists for opposing it (arresting OAPs for showing solidarity) just makes anything in my life I was going to ramble on about feel completely redundant.
Until the government suspends arms sales to Israel thatās all that is on my mind and by and large all that itās worth discussing outside of the main contents of the post. Beyond the issue of our governmentās decision to ally itself with Israel, even if that were to change (which I doubt will ever happen seeing as they deny a genocide is even happening), the recognition of Palestine as a self-governing state, the right of its people to return their ancestral homes as full citizens, and the provision of reparations are things we should continue to demand. It might be idealistic to think this will ever happen but it definitely wonāt happen any time in the future if we drop the issue.Ā
When I last made a wordy post the death toll in Palestine was around 30,000. With the famine, an estimate of how much that number could grow over the next few weeks, days even, doesnāt bear thinking about. I think itāll be a long time before weāll know the full extent of the atrocities which have been carried out by the IOF; the actual death toll is likely several times greater than official statistics show. When I first started writing this post in early 2024, The Lancet had just hypothesised that the impact of long-term starvation and spread of diseaseāengineered by Israelās refusal to allow proper aid into Gazaāwould eventually amount to a death toll of almost 200,000.Ā That figure is probably more accurate; many suspect it is may be closer to 500,000 at this point.
I canāt put into words how revolted I feel remembering that it was under the pretence of ānever againā we were taught about the holocaust at school, like these kind of brutalities towards innocent people were a thing of the past. The reality is that an atrocity on the scale of which we havenāt seen for decades is happening right now and our government aids & abets it despite the knowledge the majority are nauseated by whatās happening. They respond to our democratic right to protest it all with arrests and legal action, letting us know that it will continue whether we like it or not.Ā
It feels like the mask has been ripped off. After witnessing a decade under the Conservatives and now just over a year under Labour, I donāt think itās a hot take to say that the British establishment donāt appear to see human life as inherently valuable or worthy of dignity. Iām also hardly breaking new ground when I say that the idea of austerity as some necessary evil that the most vulnerable people must endure for a better future seems little more than a bullshit excuse for policies designed to keep the lives of the ultra-wealthy stress-free. The British government have shown time and time again they are not above murder by way of negligence. But still, I thought they at least had to maintain the facade that theyāre acting out of an obligation to do right by the people who elected them regardless of how unconvincing their justifications have been. I thought at the BARE MINIMUM they wouldnāt risk Britain being seen as a country which is willing to violate international human rights so openly. But apparently not. If you thought directly FACILITATING the loss of innocent, ordinary human lives was a moral boundary that we as a ācivilisedā country would never attempt to get away with crossingāI mean we outlawed capital punishment for actual convicted murderers decades ago because āunethicalāāyou were wrong. I think even those of us who do not trust that we live in a completely fair and democratic society have been shocked to see all pretences of the need to abide by that boundary dropped without consequence or even acknowledgement of what we are actually participating in here. In the face of insurmountable evidence our government is acting in a way which violates the most basic proposition of international law, i.e. donāt kill innocent people, and having no choice but to either stop their part in this or admit things have gone way too far, the ruling party have inadvertently but unequivocally indicated they see international law as meaningless when it inconveniences the need to profit. The ONLY proposition the majority of parliament seems to consistently honour is that Britainās 1%āand by extension their alliesāmust retain their wealth and status. There is no hypothetical line in the sand where enough is enough; innocent people are expendable if their protection disrupts the lives of that tiny, privileged group.
What is most shocking about all this is just how blatantly most politicians have played their hand in revealing how unbothered they are about upholding democracy. The people that elected the Prime Minister and his party want them to stop providing weapons and military intelligence to a government committing genocide? They want to peacefully make that point in public? Then theyād better accept being treated like terrorists. In the last year, it feels like 1984 has gone from the plot of a dystopian novel to an abstract metaphor for what is happening in the present day, all across the globe. Things do not feel safe or normal anymore.
Not only have Labour completely dropped the facade that the government exists to do anything but advance the cause of the few rather than the many, but also the facade that the many (us) have any say or influence in what they do at all. We can only watch on and be āgratefulā that at this moment, weāre not the ones on the chopping block because if we were, whether or not the people we elected to serve us would do anything to protect us would be entirely dependent on the whims of the 1% they answer to.
The IOF themselves have been proven to be involved in the deaths that occurred on October the 7th. Their lies about the events of that day have been exposed time and time again. The hard evidence is that the IOF are nothing if not indiscriminate in their executions, to the point they clearly are so gung-ho to kill Palestinians (soldier or civilian) that they donāt take the time to distinguish one human from another. We know everything we need to know about who the perpetrators and victims are here. Palestinians have been tricked into walking into death traps under the guise that they are āsafe holding zonesā, intentionally starved, deprived of representation and denied safe passage out of the country. Itās like Israel are following the Naziās step-by-step guide to wiping out a population right in front of our eyes, exactly as our teachers told us they did, and yet many world leaders repeatedly deny it even though they KNOW that we KNOW these things. Thereās world leaders using 2+2=5 strategy right in our faces. The truth is usually refreshing, but on this occasion, its implications are terrifying. Our worst fears about the nature of the world we live in have been confirmed and it's too embedded and far-reaching for us to even begin to know how to fix that.
A lot of whataboutism goes onā¦like oh you have so much to say about Palestine but what about human rights violations in the Congo, Sudan, Saudi Arabia? Donāt you care about them? Arenāt they bad? Fucking OBVIOUSLY! But nobody said they were justified. Politicians are standing in parliament and acting like itās a completely normal thing to aid a massacre in Gaza, labelling anybody who disagrees an extremist. Itās been a uniquely radicalising turn of events in the sense that not only does it openly confirm you were right about the motives you would once get labelled ācynicalā for believing drive government policy, but also that these motives can excuse absolutely anything. Sorry but finding out youāre led by people who are happy to be international hitmen, but who will then deny it whilst performing the hit in front of you, hogs your attention.
The situation in Palestine is something that will change the way a lot of people view world events forever. Iām sure Iām not alone when I say that before all this, I was naive to the extent to which pathological greed extends beyond business executives and certain right-wing leaders. I see now that it is inextricable from the system we are told is a democracy. When you add it all togetherāthe loss of the countryās infrastructure, the rapid increase in homelessness, the corruption that occurred with PPE contracts during COVID, the climate change denial, the reckless use of AI despite its environmental cost, the willingness of the government to condone the racial intimidation of asylum seekers just to evade scrutiny, the election of you know who in the most powerful country in the world, the literal Orwellian measures which have been put in place and the doublespeak and the blatant lying...the list goes onāyou cannot unsee how FUCKED we are. But yes, above all else, witnessing a literal holocaust happen in real time so vividly (in which the complicity of our countryās so-called left-wing party's is so driven by financial motivations) is brutally eye opening. It feels stupid to talk at length about my feelings when we are literally being bombarded with evidence of complete moral decay amongst members of the ruling class.
Anyway, all this being said, me talking about what is essentiallyā¦clothesā¦in the grand scheme of things is pretty irrelevant and maybe even contradictory. The fashion industry is awful for the planet and very financial motivated. But in the least dramatic way possible, inspiration and creativity is a beacon that reminds us that we havenāt lost our humanity completely, and fashion is part of that. Fast fashion is not the only way to engage with it. Sure, I havenāt broken out my sewing machine just yet (now Iām done with uni my excuses to procrastinate are wearing thin) but there are sustainable alternatives out there and you can definitely be inspired by the fashion industry whilst yourself finding more ethical alternatives for your own wardrobe which is what I try to do.
In the conclusion of my previous post I acknowledged it feels jarring to go from talking about what is happening in the Middle East right now, but to a certain degree, outside of boycotting and circulating information which contradicts Zionist propaganda, continuing to ruminate on all of it and claiming weāre ātoo sadā to go on with our poor little lives (when more than ever we should be appreciating we are lucky to even HAVE them) isnāt conducive to change. My rationale is that you have to compartmentalise in this day and age, because there is nothing productive in letting anger take over your whole being. Itās not about us, and how it makes us feel. We should appreciative our privileges and where we can, take action to fight for the same quality of life for all human beings.Ā
That might be a really stupid perspective but idk. I genuinely want to know how to approach this thing but also feel like I should stop talking about it in relation to how it makes ME feel. Like enough with the monologuing. Keep boycotting and supporting independent businesses, stay engaged with all the coverage coming out of Gaza ESPECIALLY NOW THERE'S BEEN A "CEASEFIRE", and keep up with the thought and opinion pieces from the people for whom this suffering is reality. I canāt do it justice compared to whatās already out there.Ā
Iām just here to ramble about fashion for now. So yahā¦
Icons, Designers, Shops, Ethics, andā¦Some Outfits (on the DL)
So Iām gonna do pretty much the same way thing I did previously; a lil chat about some of my style icons of the latter half of 2023, 2024 and 2025 so far, brands that have me excited, and then to bring the calibre down a bit (lol) Iāll dot snippets of my outfit diary from summer 2023 and my final year of university throughout:-)
Balancing that out I do have some thoughts about the ethical dilemma of which brands Iāll include in my fashion recaps going forwards.
"Famous" Fashion Icons of the Year(s): 2023 pt.2
I propose we wipe the slate clean when it comes to Margotās pre-Barbie era fashion track record. In case youāre not aware of it, it was...not good. But Itās not entirely her faultā¦there must be a stylist who has to atone for their sins out there too. IDK who it was, and Iām not going to find out because it feels mean, lol. That I donāt like how they styled Margot Robbie isnāt to say they are inherently lacking in taste because the client has an input too, and Margot didnāt wear any of the fuck ugly things she did before 2023 with a gun to her head. The obvious perfect example of an incredible stylist-client relationship is that of Law Roach and Zendaya. I donāt know exactly how it works but my vague understanding is that the stylist brings a bunch of ideas to the client and then from those options, the client picks their favourites. From there, I gather they work together to develop the finished look. Maybe all of the looks Margot was presented with were shit, lol, but maybe it was a case of her repeatedly picking the worst ones, and the stylist basing future options on those choices. Who knows.
Regardless, Andrew Mukamal, the stylist who started working with Margot around the time of the Barbie press tour (and who is responsible for many of her looks since), is a genius. He was consistently feeding the masses. What heāpresumably, unless thereās a different stylist for casual stuffāhas done for Margotās street style is also delicious. Perhaps the old stylistās brief was to avoid anything too āprettyā to try and shake off the obsession with her looks, constantly prioritised over her acting abilities by the public. The outfits we saw on the red carpet prior to Barbie did feel a lot like someone in her camp, perhaps based on her own desires, were going out of their way to prioritise quirk over elegance and you know what, Iām glad this film has encouraged her to lean into the latter. Honestly, who caresssss about the people who belittle her talent just because sheās a stunning woman.Ā If thereās anything we should all have learnt in the past couple of years itās that a lot of people are just unshakeably stupid in all the ways that matter and we canāt change the way they think. At some point we have to just treating opinions based on misogyny as white noise.
The lesson to be learnt from Margot Robbie (reading between the lines at least) is donāt dress for men/in response to patriarchal narratives. Dress for yourself and for other women who love fashion:-) Letās be honest, itās a rare portion of the former demographic who have one iota of knowledge on the topic anyway.Ā
Checking my Twitter for any new publicity shots of Margot channeling the Barbie doll we all wanted as little girls, her stylist's incredible blending of modern runway fashion with a lot of stunning archival pieces, gave me a reason to get up in the morning sometimes. I exaggerate but regardless, I love that sheās become the fully realised version of herself and my hope is that it partially comes from the knowledge she has an impressive body of work behind her! Because sheās a fucking fabulous actress too and her passion for that over anything else is blindingly clear to anyone whoās taken to time to watch her films.
I'm not breaking new ground here by saying Hunter has amazing taste in clothes. But Iām once again thanking a press tourāin this case the press events and premieres involved in promoting the Ballad of Songbirds and Snakesāfor giving us some breathtaking looks to lose our minds over in the second half of 2023, reiterating to us all that she is the ultimate fashion girl.
Anyone who is brave enough to try and do Schiaparelli justice has the kind of instinct for fashion that, paired with a knowledge of textiles, makes an incredible designer. In a dream world sheād be taking a textiles course as we speak. For now though, we have her red carpet looks to admire.Ā
For context, I got most of my images from this article, so go ahead & browse to your heart's content if you need some inspiration: (https://www.teenvogue.com/story/hunter-schafer-style-evolution)
Right off the bat, Iāll admit I havenāt watched Bridgerton. I WANT to, for her sake, but the way I understand it, Nicola only became a proper protagonist in the most recent series off it and I just COULD NOT make it through the first 3 episodes when series 1 debuted on Netflix. It doesnāt seem like the kind of show you can just start off half way through but if Iām mistaken, someone tell me, lol.
Anyway, despite appearing in Derry Girls before that, Nicolaās role as the lead of Bridgerton S3 introduced her to a more international audience. During the immediate aftermath of her success in the Netflix drama was the ideal time for to start seeking out more prominent roles. From Melissa Barreraās firing from the Scream franchise to what happened to Rachel Zelger when she was filming Snow White, itās been clear the last couple of years that discussing Palestine is enough to have severe consequences for anybody trying to make it in the American entertainment industry in particular. Yet it was in this time periodāwhen the opportunities to advance her career were likely greater than theyāve ever beenāthat Nicola was brave enough to speak out about the injustice of the international communityās silence and inaction in Palestine.
I had huge admiration for her because of that and started following her a bit more. Because look, Iām not suggesting all celebrities are great people, but I also struggle to believe so many of them are silent on the topic out of pure ignorance. There is no way that anybody (particularly a public figure who has staff to make them aware of issues to address and avoid at that) is unaware of it all at this point. Which least to one of two conclusions: either they are all morally abhorrent, soulless individuals that truly do not care about their government aiding a slaughter in real time OR they are aware, and may be have the bare minimum amount of human decency to recognise how despicable whatās going on is, but then donāt speak up because theyāre worried about their career. Itās not an excuse, because you would think most people with a conscience would step back from their respective industriesāeven if they didnāt want toāif the price of their success in that realm meant complicity in the daily US/UK backed slaughterings in Gaza, but hey. This is why you don't develop parasocial relationships with public figures! Disappointment is inevitable. With that being said, itās refreshing when a person like Nicola has the integrity to use her platform for good.Ā
However, Iām not here to speculate about how many famous people lack empathy or are spectacularly greedy and self-centred. We know that number is probably pretty high, lol. Im talking about Nicola because last year (when I was feeling like Iād ālostā the right to have an interest in fashion, admittedly due to my own internalised stigma about bodies which donāt live up to the unattainable ābeauty standard) a Twitter post praising her style made its way onto my dashboard.Ā
It was a rare beacon of light amongst the utter shit Elonās new Twitter algorithm tries to force upon me these days. One accidental click on a pro-anorexia account not fully aware of the nature of what Iām getting into and suddenly my homepage is full of gross āmeanspoā threads (which at some point Iāll probably end up ranting about btw because being āsickā does not absolve you of being a disgusting troll!). Another one-off click on the original tweet of a TERF to find out what the person who rightfully called them out was responding to, and before I know it, TERF rhetoric is everywhere too. Itās scary. But the Nicola post was a diamond in the rough reassuring me of the fact that I can continue to express myself style & feel cute rather than ashamed just because Iām no longer malnourished:-)
Anya Taylor Joy has a generational kind of screen presence and an Old Hollywood quality about her that makes her, imo, the closest thing we have to a modern day Audrey Hepburn. Either her or Zendaya anyway. I say this because I as much as I hate to push the Mad Men dichotomy of Marilyn/Audreyānot that Mad Men was the first to establish that way of thinking OBVIOUSLY, in case someone who stumbles across this decides to come for my neckāAnya shares that poised, other-worldly high fashion model aura which so often gets overlooked because she doesnāt fit the Western ābombshellā blueprint which! shocker! really hasnāt changed that much since the mid-century, lol. She was truly born to encapsulate an effortless, timeless and most of all, interestingtype of beauty.
Itās no surprise that I feel Anya and Zendaya fall under this same category given that Law Roach has an input in both their wardrobes, which is probably why heās one of the most well-known celebrity stylists around. I tend to agree that Mimi Cuttrell was better at styling Ariana Grande than Law is but I see soo many people dismissing him for that reason and forgetting his other work. Maybe heās just better at dressing tall people! Give the man a break!
That being said, a public figureās style output is best when it seems that their outfits are the product of collaboration between them and the stylist. I feel like Lawās work with Anya and Zendaya are perfect examples of what I mean by that; the personality of the women he dresses still shines through despite the elegance and polish their looks share. Where Zendayaās red carpet appearances are totally in keeping with the slick, modern, high-tech (i.e. big budget!) shows and films she works on and feel very āL.Aā, Anyaās style seems to reflect an appreciation for both the soft, whimsical bohemian garments of the late 60s/early 70s as well the Vivienne Westwood-esque street style which dominated the British punk fashion scene before the turn of the century.
This would make sense considering Anya moved from Buenos Aires to Victoria, London, at the age of 6, stating that sheād felt like an outsider at the time. Of course, she wouldāve missed the full-on punk frenzy of the early 1990s but by the end of the decade and into the early 2000s, Iām sure the style had trickled down from the runway into the hands of retailers and eventually the vintage clothing stores littered throughout the city. That is to say, Iām sure a diluted version of the standard issue punk uniform was still popular in London when Anya was growing up. Take it from someone who has been isolated in that bloody cityāitās not not hard when youāre a broke young person living there to feel that, trust meeeā
you do a lot of people watching. There wasnāt much style inspiration to be found in any of the places I had to live whilst I was at uni but I imagine itās a completely different story when your post code starts with WE or SW as opposed to SE-_-
Point is, whichever influences guide her person style, Anya is the MOMENT. She is also the first public figure to expose me to Rokh (the first post I did obsessing over the brand was prompted by an all Rokh look she wore whilst promoting the Queenās Gambit, I think?) so for that I have to thank her. Sheās a girl after my own heart<3
Adriana La Cerva from The Sopranos
Bit of a random one but I can explain!
Basically, it was around this time last year that I put aside my general hesitancy to engage with the āgangsterā genre and finally watched The Sopranos for the first time. I just wanted to know what it is that makes the show such a video essay staple! When a piece of media has as many YouTube videos dedicated to it as The Sopranos does (despite last being on TV 20 years ago!), you know it must be something special. Much like Breaking Bad, and tbh any really good series, it turned out all the gangster stuff was secondary to the character dynamics and development and the subtext. The long video essay hypothesis remains intact:-)
ICL, the first time I watched the show, I could barely follow what the specifics of the conflicts between the various factions of the New Jersey/New York mobs even were. A lot of the male characters look the same so it gets confusing, lol! In spite of this, the main characters were all so great that I never really needed to understand the specifics in order to keep track of the ongoing story. Iāve never been a show rewatcher in the past, but my rewatching of Breaking Bad as my mum and sister watched it for the first time changed my stanceāyou really notice how much more there is to a story when youāre not spending your all energy just trying to keep track of the major plot points!āand so despite finishing the Sopranos for the first time in summer 2024, I was back at it again by the end of the year! I definitely became kinda obsessed with reading through all the lore and various interpretations of certain episodes and dream sequences etc. for a short period of time and Iām at a point now where I know the Sopranos is in my top 5 TV shows of all time for sure.Ā
I could go on at LENGTH (like I do, sorryyy!) about all the theories Iāve read and the characters and the themes and the best episodes of the show but I will do that another time in a separate post. I do have the beginnings of something along those lines where I ramble about some of the movies, TV series, books etc. Iāve loved over the past couple of years but considering how long itās took me to get round to posting this, who knows when thatāll happen so in the meantimeā¦I must take a moment to appreciate the style of the character Adriana La Cerva. Itās only right!
We must respect the queen of what Iāll begrudgingly acknowledge was fleetingly known as āmob wife core. There is of course bitterness attached to this crowning because 1). I HATE THE MICROTREND PHENOMENOM TIKTOK HAS CREATED! and 2). real ones know Adriana was NOT a mob wife. She was a mob FIANCEE! If you want to be faithful to the source material, itās Mrs. Carmela Soprano that takes THEE mob wife title, just sayinggg. Plus, there is a lot more to the way Adrianaās character dresses than the cliche TikToks would have you believe, thank you very much!
Disclaimer before I get into it: please, anyone who sees this, know I am talking about the Sopranos character of Adriana NOT Drea de Matteo, the actress who plays her. I recently listened to a podcast she did with Jamie Lynn Siegler (Meadow Soprano) and Robert Iler (AJ Soprano) and found out that not only is she an anti-vax RFK fan, but somehow even worse...gets her teenage son to shoot OnlyFans content for her so yeahā¦GROSS:-)
Back to Adriana, I feel like you can only really appreciate her style in all its glory if you watch the show. If you go looking for stills of her outfits on Google images you'll only find the same small handful of looks over and over again. If you canāt do that, but you want to see the full, toned-down, more timeless version of her wardrobe that elevates her status to that of an eternal style iconārather than the co-opted face of yet another stupid micro-trendāyou can go to the Instagram @adrianarchive which chronologically documents her outfits throughout the series. I want to thank the whoever is behind the account for giving me the material for my amateur collaging:D
I knowwww itās not that serious but the characterās wardrobe was not solely composed of tacky animal print and furs, though that is certainly what youād think if you saw what her image has been boiled down to as part of an āaestheticā. Part of her character was that she was into rock music and letās be clear: I did not suffer through that plot line where she tries to get the music career of some wannabe Nirvana band off the ground just for the internet to erase this part of her character!Ā
Even when the character isā¦gifted, weāll say?ā¦her own club by her boyfriend Christopher (Michael Imperioli who I am mildly obsessed with nowadays, btw) she continues to book grunge rock bands as entertainment. Personally, I think the wardrobe department totally intended for the character's preference for the genre to be reflected by her style. It's not just glamorous fur coats and bright satin body cons, or chunky jewellery, but also a touch of rock and roll, leather coords and typical ā90s grunge makeup, even platform boots! The typical āmob wifeā garments which, all as one entity, may be a LITTLE tacky, are more like the finishing touches which balance out the characterās rock band groupie vibe. These finishing touches act more like a signal to the fact that sheās got a man who lavishes her with fancy (stolen, oop) clothes and to add a touch of traditional, romantic femininity than anything else.
I will admit that I had a level of parasocial beef with Lily Rose Depp for the actions of her gross dad for a long time. I kinda assumed she was part of the smear campaign against Amber Heard without actually doing anything to verify my assumptions. I wanted to get excited about her Nosferatu promotional tour looks but on principle, I had to disengage and turn all my attention to Nicholas Hoult instead (not a bad thing to have to do).
Anyway, the more that people have finally come round to realise just how poorly Amber was treated by the general public who! shocker! once again decided that ābelieve womenā only applies when the man at fault isnāt someone they donāt already like! The more regularly I come across information about the case. This includes messages between Lilly and her dad where it becomes clear that she thought Amber was a positive influence on him. So I donāt really know where and for what reason I conjured up this narrative sheād publicly condemned Amber from but yeah, I just realised Iād pulled that out of my arse. I then found out that BECAUSE she went out of her way not to publicly defend her dad, his deranged fans decided to attack her for it.
She actually told the Guardian, and I quote: āI also think that Iām not here to answer for anybody, and I feel like for a lot of my career, people have really wanted to define me by the men in my life, whether thatās my family members or my boyfriends, whateverā¦Iām really ready to be defined for the things that I put out there.ā
That obviously could also be taken as a response to her nepo baby status, lol, but the point about her refusing to publicly defend an abuser despite the online abuse and potential estrangement that has caused still stands. As far as what ādefinesā Lilly, whilst the nepotism element can never be entirely removed from the picture, she is undeniably talented with a distinct, intriguing personal style which seems less curated and stylist-dictated than that of many public figures. Iām not saying she does it all on her own but there seems to be a vision guiding herāand whoever she works withā which is fuelled by a knowledge of fashion and admiration for the past, particularly when it comes to the balance she maintains between the twee archive Chanel pieces sheās contractually obligated to wear and the gothic touches sprinkled throughout. The end result is a sense of style which is darkly romantic and even when the setting is lowkey, cute but a little rough around the edges. Iām all about that:-)
Heads up that it will be a recurring theme of my style icons for 2025 that they are women currently subject to a tonne of criticism online. I really donāt know why I am out here defending these rich people who have no knowledge or regard for my existence whatsoever (lmao) but here I am! I think it feels necessary because often (not always!) the level of anger you see directed at women in the public eye is so disproportionate to what theyāve actually done and it just seems a lot like people enjoying mocking them. The overexposure effect cannot be denied but crucially, it seems like itās almost entirely directed at famous women. Famous men seem to be fine, most of the time. Unless theyāre a famous man that lots of women like, e.g. Pedro Pascal, in which case men start accusing them of being predators en-masse? The second observation is kind of niche but I guess it just doesnāt happen enough that men get absolutely piled on for no real reason for me to understand why it happens when it does, though it does seem to be the men that embrace more traditionally "feminine" traits that are targeted sooo...make of that what you will:-)
I am NOT saying that Sydney Sweeney gets hated on for āno real reasonā by the way but I made this collage before any questionable stuff came out, lol.
Before I get wildly off topic the point is, the normalisation of harassment and resentment towards women online is fucking annoying and just perpetuates it happening in real life. If youāre sick of hearing about someone likeā¦just scroll on? You are in control of your internet usage, no?
The reason I am rambling about this phenomenon is because I'm talking about Doechii whom the internet seems to hate for being an industry plant. IDK. IDEK what people mean by industry plant, tbh. If it means what I think it means, then loads of people are industry plants. I wonāt even pretend I DONāT find that Anxiety song annoying, itās just like who caresss? Skip it, you know? She is one of not many! black bisexual women in the industry who is getting any recognition, let the bad song gooo! There are other ones!
More importantly, I just really like her style:-) Itās distinct, authentic and quirky and because of it, she stands out to me for all the right reasons, even if I couldnāt name any of her songs. The British Vogue cover she did earlier this year? Stunning!
The way I'm literally scared to include her in here because of how hated she is, LOL. To reiterate: I MADE THIS COLLAGE AGES AGO. And I just want this post out of my drafts so I can't bring myself to go back and edit it, sorry!
Anyway, regardless of what people think of her, she's everywhere. I swear to god I cannot avoid the woman. Like Iām minding my own business, scrolling through Twitter or whatever, and then jump scare, there she is! Saying or doing something dumb! Her boobs are screaming at me! Theyāre selling her used bath water! Theyāre at the Center of a highly questionable American Eagle campaign! Look, as the evidence mounts that Sydney is indeed a registered republicanāas most money-hungry Americans usually are, lbrāit feels increasingly more like a waste of time to point out that much of the public perception around her is rooted in misogyny.Ā
At one point in time (letās say last year), it annoyed me to no end that most discussions of her I saw ended up circling back to her body. Firstly, because her performance as the titular role in the film Reality was one of my favourites from the past couple of years. Iāve never really seen it spoken about but her portrayal of the whistleblower Reality Winner (what a name) who leaked documents pertaining to Russian interference in Trumpās 2016 electoral victory was the keystone of what I thought was a genuinely exceptional film! Maybe Iām alone in that opinion buuut it is interesting subject matter for a supposed Republican to tackle, right? I digress:-)
Controversy aside, I remain adamant that she was amazing in that film. Despite being heavy on the dialogue and lacking action sequences in the traditional sense, Sydney managed to bring every bit of the suspense and intrigue surrounding the irl scandal to the screen. It never felt forced despite the gravity of the story, which is something I feel even ārenownedā actors struggle to pull off sometimes.Ā Spotlight (2015) is just one example which comes to mind. Centred around the journalists who investigated and subsequently exposed widespread child abuse within the Catholic Church, it starred actors like Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams and Stanley Tucci, none of whom I can imagine anyone would disagree are less talented āon the contrary, most would probably think the comparison itself is ridiculousāthan Sydney Sydney. The subject matter and cast shouldāve made Spotlight compelling to me and yet for whatever reason, I just felt like I was watching Oscar-bait. Maybe itās because she thought not many people would see it but Sydneyās performance in Reality was so natural that it made me feel like I was witnessing the events first hand.
So yeah, I started to really like her because of the film and then I started seeing paparazzi photos of her out and about and became mildly obsessed with her style too hence her inclusion in my 2025 style icons list! It was my contribution to the cause, which was: look, this woman is so cool for reasons other than her boobs and Iām sick of hearing about them, MY GOD! But since thenā¦she seems to have realised that playing into the misogyny is quite profitable? So Iām putting down my sword, lol.Ā
With that in mind, think of this collage as tribute to her stylist, Molly Dickson. My latest superficial cause of choice and something I will scream from the rooftops: Molly is an underrated fashion legend! Not only is she responsible for some of Bella Hadidās looksāwho is truly the greatest of all time for me when it comes to personal style inspirationābut sheās also the person to thank for how angelic Lana Del Rey looked when she headlined Coachella in 2024. You see, Lana is unfortunately the one remaining parasocial attachment I have left over from my teenage years and she does things that (justifiably) irritate people quite often, so when she is being praised for something (in this instance how mesmerising she was at Coachella), I find myself thanking all parties involved in my sigh of relief, lol.
I bring up Bella Hadid and Lana Del Rey because they are the two Iād consider myself a fan of (let it be known I say fan in the casual, cool, calm and collected sense, I do not want to unintentionally end up on the battlefield of a deranged stan war!!!!) but Molly Dickson dresses a lot of other people in the entertainment industry too. I really wish she hadnāt wasted looks from some of my absolute favourite (aspirational of course) brandsāRokh, ChloĆ© and Miu Miu!!!āon a Republican before the truth came out but there you go!
-2024 & 2025 outfit diary pt.1-
Soo in terms of my nominees for style icons from the last couple of years, the cast members of Selling Sunset are probably the last āfamousā people on this list, if youāre not counting the collective efforts of everyone at the TWO Met Galasāwhich I will briefly touch on in a moment!āat least. You probably also wonāt agree with my categorisation of the cast as famous people if youāre the kind of person who hates reality TV so much that you suddenly get all contrarian about what constitutes fame and claim individuals MUST have a TALENT!!! to count as public figures. If youāre one of those somebodies who insists that despite being a household name, Kim Kardashian can not truly be āfamousā because her fame is the result of a sex tape OR conveniently develop amnesia in forgetting that every member of the royal family is globally considered a celebrity (purely through birth or marriage may I remind you!) then feel free to scoff at this categorisation.
What I donāt think can be denied, however, is the contribution to camp that some of the Selling Sunset women made by pretending that the priority when working at a real-estate office is not to sell houses but instead to deliver a constant stream of incredibleāand in the context truly audaciousāfashion moments. Fashion moments I will unashamedly admit were my primary motivation for watching the show at that.
To be clear, I absolutely cannot justify including the TV show itself it in a media centric post. Not because itās ātrash TVāābecause trust and believe when I come round to writing a media-centric post, Civilian Big Brother absolutely will be mentionedābut because it has kind of becomeā¦actual trash and I cannot in good faith recommend it, even as a guilty pleasure, lol. It has been trash since Christine Quinn left the cast and I only came to that conclusion in hindsight as I struggled through the first episode of the latest series before eventually abandoning the show altogether. Itās always been overly-produced drama but at least at the beginning the drama was marginally related to their jobs. Now, as it stands, Iām skeptical as to whether a single member of the cast even works at the Oppenheim Group anymore. The conflicts which dominated the last few series (as in the ones I watched prior to giving up on the show!) felt less like the authentic, relatively low-stakes pettiness I enjoyed at the beginning and more like a race to the bottom between cast members, all desperate to keep their place on the show at the expense of airing their ācoworkersā personal off-screen business to the producers. It became forced and nasty; any illusion these women were trying to navigate real workplace politics was shattered by the clear hatred half the cast had for the other half anytime they were all together. Like Iām supposed to believe you all sit and talk business together at company lunches when you spend open houses stood outside calling each other whores? What Iām trying to say is that, Selling Sunset has suffered the same fate as Vanderpump Rules. At a certain point, you can no longer suspend your disbelief with these shows. It hits that youāre not watching people at their workplace, but instead watching people using their workplace as the stage for whatever performance they have decided to give this season. And thatās my mini essay on when reality TV goes wrong xoxo
That being said, in the early days (i.e. prior to Christine Quinn leaving) Selling Sunset struck gold. It did this by satisfying a niche gap in Netflixās streaming library by way of its existence as this this glitzy amalgamation of MTV Cribs, reality soap opera and cutthroat workplace drama. When it came to the contribution of the fashion, the cast members looks made for the very glittery packaging around this premise. This was absolutely, for me at least, part of the showās appeal. It is in that vein that Iād be loathe not to address these womenās wardrobes, particularly Christine and Chelsea Lazkani, appropriateness for the work place be damned.
Side note: Chelsea wearing something work inappropriate to an open house became an entire fucking storyline in the last season I watched and it was a prime example of why Iāve since abandoned my hopes for the show to get back to its glory days because like 1). yes, on this occasion it was hard to buy that even the most glamorous LA-based estate agent would wear something THAT short at a professional event but 2). more importantly, that the other women would suddenly be up in arms about it, when the open house event probably isnāt even REALLL and theyāve never gone so far as to break the fourth wall by discussing what does and does not fly in their professional environment prior to that episode (that I can recall anyway).
Anyway, yeah if you like ātrashā TV the first couple of series of the show are entertaining. It peaks when Christine and Chelsea join forces to make their mark on the Oppenheim Group's office by channelling the energy of those bratty English twins from the Bratz Rock Angelz saga (I really hope this reference is understood and Iām not actually drawing on some kind of false memory here). Apparently they were also pretty good at selling properties during their time there but I wouldnāt know because I was too busy focussing on their commitment to serving (wonderful outfits) and shit stirring.
I donāt know how much of the drama they created was real and how much was scripted but regardless: it was funny. I donāt know if they were doing a Alicia Silverstone and Stacy Dash in Clueless thing intentionally but I was loving it. Ultimately, their behaviour was messy but their style was not. It was/usually still IS, impeccable. If you donāt like reality TV, you can just follow Christine on Instagram or something. Or just review the following material:
Christine in particular (on the left!) is like a walking Versace lookbook. And I canāt speak to real life because Selling Sunset is one of the more obviously scripted reality shows but she played the villain so well. If Mean Girls Regina George has come to be seen as the referential archetype for the stereotypical high school mean girl, Christine Quinn was her real estate world equivalent. She was truly THAT GIRL. I want to say I donāt like her but she was definitely my guilty pleasure for the entertainment value she brought. I like Chelseaās style as well but I know that if it had been her from the beginning taking the villain role, I wouldnāt have got so into it. She is just not diabolical enough. I am an unabashed Bravoverse girlie and Christine would be great on the Real Housewives of Orange County likeā¦imagine how Tamra Judge would react to CHRISTINE!??! She ran away from fucking Lizzie!!! Christine wouldāve had her shaking.
Sometimes a line is crossed and the villain becomes too villainous to watch, so I understand why they got rid of Christine when they did, but my goddd, she really made that show at the beginning! If they bought her back OR got rid of Jason (because I really have 0 desire to see that creep on my screen) I would be so here for it again. The period which covered the rivalry between her and Chelsea and the other girls was the show's golden era. Like the little slo-mo segments they would have of the two of them arriving at the office in these gorgeous but completely absurd day outfits to inevitably cause chaos was 10/10 viewing.
So whatās the takeaway here? Why am I putting this in the style section? To reiterate, itās to fangirl about Christine Quinn and a little bit Chelsea Lazakani too. But like I say the show was good at the beginning, even if itās shallow. Like many people say about Bridgerton, aesthetic Value is SOMETHING to keep watching for! But I love office politics too, lol. Would hate to be in it but love to watch it.
-2024 & 2025 outfit diary pt.2-
Itās been so long since I last posted thereās been two Met Galas since then, oops:-)
Second oops is that I really thought the official name of the 2024 Gala was The Garden of Time but it was actually Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion and itās too late to change the title in the collage now so -_- please ignore that!
TBH I donāt have allll that much to say about the METs apart from the fact that the theme seems to have been paid slightyyy more attention to in the past couple of years. It definitely helps that the two categories are quite broad but idk, the fact that Sukie Waterhouse @-ed people on TikTok for judging their outfits leads me to believe these celebrities more aware of our little bitchfests than we thought. Maybe theyāve taken note, lol.
The first Met Gala had my favourite theme since Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination. It was about opulence, nature, whimsy and mystique, all of which are elements I love to see in a red carpet look.
If I had to choose one look as my favourite, SHOCKER (not really)ā¦itās Zendaya. Ethereal, fantastical, gothic and avant-garde! And thatās just my assessment of her first look of the night! I kind of forgot she actually had a second outfit when I was making the collage which is also annoying because that was equally beautiful, but the archive John Galliano look Iāve included was impeccable. Before I even knew it was John Galliano she was wearing, I straight away thought it looked like sheād stepped right out of one of his incredible ā90s runway shows; I have come to recognise his style from the snapshots Iāve seen over the years, and theyāre nothing short of masterful, like period oil paintings come to life. Zendaya looked like she belonged at the centre of a still-life painted in a late 1800s-early 1900s opera house, at the dress rehearsal of something like A Midsummer Nightās Dream. Of course, much of the play takes place in a forest which further cements Zendaya and Law Roachās understanding of the theme, intended to honour nature, creation and destruction.
For a person to wear archive Galliano in the year 2024 and not have it wear themis a mean feat but she really wore that piece like it was made for her. No notes, just perfection! If anybody could pull that off it was her and Law.
I loved Lanaās look for the same reason; her very literal gothic-fairytale interpretation of the theme had a similar timeless, illustrative feel to it which will remain beautiful for years to come-just like the pieces on display in the exhibition the gala was intended to honour. The look wasnāt quite on Zendayaās level as the outfit was a lot safer but she looked heavenly either way.
My final god tier look would be ChloĆ« Sevigny whose look also drew inspiration from the past. The references to nature may not be obvious but it definitely works as a nod to the āreawakeningā of historical garments with the dressās rococo feelāand ChloĆ«ās hair and makeupāchannelling the court of Marie Antoinette. Because it is ChloĆ« Sevigny wearing custom Dilara Findikoglu, there is a slight gothic touch, but for me thatās what takes the ensemble to the next level.
As for the most recent gala (Superfine: Tailoring Black Style), we saw the return of Rihanna and best believe she was sorely missed in 2024. I never pictured her as a Marc Jacobs girl but she absolutely made it her own and embodies this theme completely, even when not on the red carpet. Her being pregnant amongst it all is kind of poetic when you break down what the theme is all about, which is how black men and women have used refined tailoring to reclaim space and express their identities despite the societal structures intended to marginalise them. Not only is she a black style icon but she has changed the expectations people have of pregnancy in that women ought to be defined by their incumbent motherhood and dress plain and modestly during this time. Whilst I donāt know if this qualifies as marginalisation, it does speak to some level of being cornered into a box at the very least, and she has always resisted that through her style. Paying tribute to black men and womenās acts of resistance through their sartorial choices is what the exhibition is all about and for that reason I think she embodied the theme like none other.
Rihanna was one of many people of colour who unsurprisingly dominated the red carpet at this yearās event. It was all very good and well having a sharp outfitāJoey King in Louis Vuitton, Iām looking at youābut there was an undeniable power, quiet confidence and boldness underlying the presence of the best dressed individuals of the night. Even when the tailoring wasnāt as overtly on theme, as was the case with Laura Harrier, it very much felt like a night celebrating the cultural importance, elegance and self-expression embedded in the concept of Black Dandyism. Like whilst Lauraās dress at first glance has a bit of the whimsy that wouldāve made it suited to the previous yearās MET, the corseted waistcoat detail cemented it back in the context of this yearās theme, which embraces the idea that refined clothing need not be bland but can be fresh, ornate, intelligent and full of elegant and unique touches which highlight personality and attention to detail.
Jessica Blair (@lovejessicablair on Instagram & Youtube)
So as we move away from what I guess you could call my celebrity style icons and get into discussing the normal? people who've inspired meā¦we come to the intersection of style and body image, ARGH!!!!:-D
Last time I made one of these posts I was in the early stages of anorexia treatment. I stand by the feelings I described and realisations I had at the time but in hindsight that was a breezy point in the recovery process and I had no idea how much harder it would become. Itās relatively easy to stay positive in the early stages because youāre still at a āhealthyā BMI but in the months following my post I watched my body weight double, and by the end of the year, the combination of pre-existing binge eating issues, extreme hunger and then, exacerbating it all, what I suspect is seasonal depression (never had a diagnosis but I strongly believe itās a big issue for me, lol) had got me GOOD. And by good I mean really bad.
Trying to work out how to dress myself whilst being so incredibly uncomfortable in my new body had me kind of lost. In my head, I still pictured myself ābeforeā recovery and when I tried stuff on and it didnāt look like that, it would trigger what felt like a hurricane of shame and grief. The aftershock of that would legitimately hang around for days and I wouldnāt want to do anything, least of all go out and socialise. For that reason, I began to avoid making an effort at all. Though I think a lot of that came from the comparison with my old self and the feelings I had about ālosing controlā, I think part of the grief and shame came from the false belief that at this new weight, I couldnāt enjoy fashion anymore; what has always been a huge part of my identity and self-expression no longer felt like something I was āallowedā to participate in. But that feeling of not being āallowedā comes from somewhere beyond my own head. Itās safe to say we can probably lay a lot of blame for that at the feet of the fashion industry. Things are definitely changing for the better but I internalised the beauty ideals of the early 2000s, lol, RENOWNED for casual fatphobia. A celebrity gaining weight was enough to warrant a magazine cover story shaming them for it. One fact that has stuck and that is slower to change (and unfortunately, seems to be making a comeback with this OZEMPIC! SHIT!) is that skinny is the norm associated with āstyleā.
I could talk about all that at length but itās really not the point. The point is you have to identify the things that are making recovery more distressing for you where possible and do what you can to reduce their impact. I knew the dressing myself thing was a significant factor in how shit I was feeling, forcing me into this self-perpetuating cycle of fear/anxiety about othersā perceptions and avoidance behaviours. Part of anorexia for me has always been about making myself as unimposing and lifeless as possible from an onlookerās perspective. It might seem wild to say this when I write like this on a Tumblr but I hate feeling under a spotlight and inviting anybodyās attention when Iām just trying to get on with things. The way people respond to larger bodies when theyāre dressed in a way that is somewhat gatekept by skinny people can be so vile that I jumped to confirmation bias of what I already thought, which was that I looked so shockingly awful (seeing myself irl in outfits Iād planned in my head was like a jump scare for a long time and I wish I was joking but TRULY! Your brain and body take a while to catch up with one another! Itās normal! It will happen soon enough!) that this would naturally be something replicated in the minds of others once I stepped out in public.
The truth is that literally 99% of the time, nobody cares. A look is a look, lol. The only person making comparisons about how an outfit actually looks compared to what it āshouldā look like is ourselves! Most strangers donāt even have that frame of reference in their heads. Iām not saying that fatphobia isnāt real because it undeniably is, but as someone whoās interested in style, the last thing Iām analysing is a personās body. I see them and the outfit as one and the same. Itās an extension of them. Even if somebody wears something eye-catching which isnāt to my personal taste, itās not like I make moral judgements about them. Iām either interested or impressed in the way theyāve made something work for them, or how it speaks to their passions, interests and/or perspective.
One thing that really helped drive this home to me was finding online fashion influencers who are just regular women like me whose style I admire (and is similar to mine! Because the closer you can get to how you typically dress, the more effective a boost to your self-confidence this will be!) because it put me in the shoes of the outsider.Ā They were styling things Iād told myself I couldnāt possibly wear at my new weight without looking like a clown and looking AMAZING. Evaluating their weight felt like a completely irrelevant, unnecessary and mean-spirited thing to do. I felt no obligation or instinct to consider that whatsoever. I know Iām mentioning it now but this is with the benefit of hindsight. Coming across these influencers at the time I had nothing but admiration and interest in how they put things together.
That brings me to the amaaazing woman I want to talk about who was the first person who really inspired me: Jessica Blair! Shout out to YouTube shorts! Which are otherwise completely unnecessary, lol! I owe this woman BIG TIME. She is loudly outspoken about the bullshit rules of what ācanā and ācanātā be worn stemming from fatphobia and she gave me the reassurance that I needed that you donāt have to have a Dickensian style Victorian childās body to dress the way I used to.
I hate that the whole āstraight sizeā/āmid-sizeā/āplus-sideā distinctions have to be made but it did help direct me towards those who share a similar body type, and from that, pointers on how to switch it up a bit with the way I style my clothes without feeling uncomfortable. Jessica is fucking amazing! She takes all my hang-ups and shows that theyāre not anything you ought to feel ashamed about hiding. I havenāt got an ounce of the courage she has to go out in a world that often looks right past the clothes to the body underneath, and immediately makes assumptions about a personās character. Ultimately, anyone with decent critical thinking skills understands that the things that contribute to our weight are complex; weight itself is a neutral measure and the scale of good and bad weāve tied it to isnāt an objective determinant of a persons worth. It's just a social construct forced on us all, particularly women, to boost the diet industry. Shout out to everyone who knows that and appreciates a good outfit regardless of the body itās on! Those are the people who matter! Anybody walking around thinking about nothing but weight are themselves just experiencing the really tedious, grayscale version of reality which I especially do not miss.
I'm placing special emphasis on Jessica because from her Youtube account, I found her Instagram and she was the first mid/plus/whatever size girl I followed. She guided me down the path to rediscovering my style, but she isnāt the only girlie:) Honourable mentions also go out to Indiana Boes, livingaskarina, Francesca Perks, mariahbtw, amandaxquach, and Jade Fiona, all of whom I found on Instagram. I need no further explanations as to why I'm obsessed with them other than the following images:
-clockwise l>r: Francesca Perks (instagram account: @francescaperks), Indiana Boes (@indianaboes), Karina Gomez (@livingaskarina)-
-l>r: Amanda Quach (instagram account: @amandaxquach), @mariahbtw on Instagram-
Follow them! Because we need more people representative of the norm to be favoured by the algorithm just as much as the outdated āhigh fashionā body. Young people who use it need to see fashion as something that includes everyone, not just people who are a UK size 4 xoxo
Brands I'm Obsessing Over
-clockwise l>r: RTW F/W23, S/S24, F/W16, F/W17, S/S18, S/S17-
It was a long time coming BUT in 2023 Shushu/Tongāa Shanghai based fashion brand founded by Liushu Lei and Yutong Jiang in 2015āwere granted their much deserved place on the Vogue Runway feed! It happened as part of a wider effort by those behind the app to extend coverage beyond designers based in the 4 fashion capitals (London, New York, Paris and Milan); a particularly exciting part of this move for me has been receiving access to the Shanghai fashion week collections, of which Shushu/Tong are a regular fixture.
The sad part is that Vogue Runway only has a few pre-2023 collections in their archive. My love of what I could find, however, sent me on a deep dive through their website to get a look at more of their collections; disappointingly, this was the only place I could find them! We, the people, are being deprived! WWD is usually my go-to when Vogue Runway fails me but even on there, I could only find a couple of recent collections. So yeah, I ended up going straight to the source (their website), and was in love with everything I saw.
-top to bottom: RTW F/W21, S/S21, F/W19, S/S19, F/W22, S/S22-
I know Iāve ranted about in several posts all ready and itās not exactly a hot take but I just find it crazy unfair how much of the fashion industry, and the way itās reported on in particular, is dominated by Western brands. I suppose you could argue that there could be a similar bias in that region but idk, Western-centric narratives tend to be treated with a bloated level of significance in most creative industries. I canāt say Iām an expert on any of them, or on fashion to be quite honestāI consider my purchase of a sewing machine the beginning of my practical education because if you think Iād be encouraged to study something that didnāt make it easy for me to get a job afterwards youāre tripping, lol, not in this economy!ābut yeah, I have definitely been following the last few years of fashion weeks and like to think itās enough of a passion for me that I have a broad, whilst not necessarily refined, knowledge of the trend cycles weāve seen over the last few years. What I can say for sure with regards to WHY the exclusion of Asian fashion brands until recently it that it hits a nerve because the influence of the Asian fashion on in global mainstream fashion is SO huge, and yet it goes massively under-acknowledged.
Shushu/Tong was one of the first major Asian brands to receive attention from Western fashion journalists and when you look back at their collections over the last few years you can see why. A lot of the styles weāve seen become popular with Western designers in the last few years, like this whole coquette aesthetic for example, have been explored by Asian brands for years. Another recurring theme weāve seen take over Western runways recently are these tongue-in-cheek takes on what Iād describe as the glamorisation of workwear and the traditionally āgeekyā smart-casual academic dress styles. Miu Miu and Prada, for example, leaned increasingly heavily on these aesthetics in the first half of the decade to varying success. When I say with āvarying successā Iām speaking purely from my own perspective, I should add! I am fully aware that Miu Miu & Prada are likely two of the decadeās most well-received brands in the eyes of fashion journalists. This is just my little amateur consumer-based opinion, pls donāt take me too seriously:-)
With that in mind! Miu Miuās period of experimentation with a more androgynous feel was when it lost its spark for me. The last few collections have been slightly more up my alley but for a little while there, I think they took the librarian theme too far. You cannot convince me that there havenāt been a handful of looks from their shows during that time that could, if you removed the branding, pass for something nicked from the window display of a Salvation Army shop in a town known for being a hotbed for retirees. If that sounds very niche itās because it is; the comparison is based off what I see in my local high street, lol.
Anyway, what Iām saying is that brands like Miu Miu and Prada have serious momentum behind them when it comes to deciding each seasonās staple pieces. Donāt get me wrong, more often than not these are real gems! But these individual pieces are often buried amongst ugly styling, imo. Shushu/Tong, on the other hand, reminds me a lot of what I thought Miu Miu would be from the collections Iād seen when I first started familiarising myself with runway fashion. Cutesy but cunty:-)
-top to bottom: RTW S/S23, F/W20, S/S20, F/W18-
In the best possible way, I also canāt help but draw similarities in terms of the proportions used for styling, and the fabrics, to Vera Wang and Simone Rocha, both of whom I love, though I donāt know how intentional that is! I know theyāve been around a lot longer than Shushu/Tong so in that respect, if there is any influence on aesthetics going on there, in this particular case itās almost certainly in the reverse direction to the phenomenon I just described.
I make the Miu Miu/Prada connection tentatively because I know ShuShu/Tong may be dismissed as a lot āsaferā and more basic than a brand like Miu Miu but to be realā¦I donāt care if the brand leans more into the safe side of things. They more than fill the hole that the expectation vs. reality reveal when it came to Miu Miu left in my heart. TBH, when the looks are as gorgeous as those displayed by Shushu/Tong, I donāt really mind whether or not Lei and Jiangās work is āboundary pushingā.
Finding out the little tidbit of information that the duo of designers took their MA at the London College of Fashion it all clicked into place for me how they ended up creating the best take on the Kinderwhore aesthetic of the last decade, which is absolutely my favourite retro fashion craze. It feels odd to refer to a style from the ā90s as retro but I guess this is what getting older feels likeā¦the ā90s were THIRTY YEARS AGO now. That makes it retro, right?
Back to the point: thereās no doubt that whilst studying in London, Lei & Jiang wouldāve been exposed to the cityās fashion history, notably its time being the epicentre of the punk movement and home of brands such as Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen. If you plug the influence of pop culture in East Asia, deemed the birthplace of kawaii into one part of the algorithm and then the comparatively darker, more provocative (albeit functional) way of dressing thatās commonplace in London, into the other, Shushu/Tong comes out at the end. In the words of Lucinda from the 2024 series of MaFS Australia (yes, that was my frame of reference when I originally wrote this post because I have cotton wool for brains), dainty and whimsical with a cheeky gothic tiltā¦thatās my jammmm. The outfit formula of babydoll dress with chunky boots is basically my own so of course I think Shushu/Tong is to die for, itās really out of my hands. Again the brand is very Simone Rocha-esque in that way. You follow that formula and you canāt go wrong in my eyes, tbh.
-Brian Khoo left section, clockwise l>r: Bridal 2018, RTW S/S19, F/W17, Signatures 2020, Lunar 2020, Lunar 2021, Lunar 2023, Lunar 2022, Signatures 2022, Scarlet Letter S/S19, TheAtelier Bridal right section, top to bottom: Land of Dreams Collection S/S24, LibertƩ Collection S/S25 -
Another brand who is criminally under acknowledged by the major fashion platforms is Brian Khoo so I really I want to give a shout out to whichever HF twitter account who first exposed me to his work. Unfortunately, I obviously never made a note of it at the time and now I canāt remember:-(
But anyway, they posted a thread of Khooās most recent campaign photo at the time and I thought which were absolutely fucking majestic! So again, I had to do some further digging. I don't know who shot and edited the Lunar 2023 campaign specifically but they did an incredible job of emphasising Khooās USP.
This is his ability to translate the colourful drama and mystique of traditional East Asian garments, all the opulent hues and prints imbued with references to ancient mythology and symbolism, into sleek, sophisticated, semi-futuristic pieces. If Kim Shui has become the queen of incorporating her heritage and reworking it for modern times as far as NYFW regulars go, Khoo would be her Paris fashion week equivalent if we ever get to see that happen.
I am absolutely in no way shape or form looking to get married any time soon but that doesnāt stop me from yearning for the Atelierās bridal dresses. Unfortunately, the Atelier are yet another brand which debuts their collections at Shanghai Fashion Weekāphotos of their collections are therefore very hard to find online. Whilst I hope they eventually go the way of Shushu/Tong, in the meantime I want to say how UNREALLL!! everything I have seen of the bridal collections is.
I love me some Elie Saab and all that but from what Iāve seen of The Atelier, they blow all their peers out the water when it comes to a good old princess dress. Like their collections are really some Disney live action princess shit on CRACK! MAGICAL crack. Love it-yes, mostly to look at but trust me, their collections are a dreammm!
-top square, clockwise l>r: RTW F/W24, F/W23, S/S24, Bridal Collection 2024, bottom square: various custom dresses-
I like seeing an ACCESSIBLE brand grow, just like Selkie, knowing that if I reeeally wanted to invest in a beautiful piece I could probably afford a one-off purchase. The only occasion that wouldāve justified buying such an expensive dress in recent memory was my graduation and for that I wore a Primark dress I found on Vinted (lol) so I wasted that one BUT I am at the age now where I have friends getting married so there may be a valid reason to buy a dress from Annieās Ibiza again soon enough. If not, maybe I should do a Sue Sylvester and marry myself to legitimise buying one of the dresses the brand became famous for to wear for the reception party.Ā
I am in particular talking aboutāthe founder and designerāAnnie Dobleās signature beaded mini dresses which I have admired for sooo fucking long! Theyāre not cheap at ALL but compared to similar traditional designer pieces, they are within the budget of a ānormalā person.
For how long that will remain the case, I donāt know! But as much as I fear the runway debut of the brandāas well as its being worn by people like Zendaya, Cara Delevigne and Kate Moss!āwill mean that the brandās price tag will soon (if it hasnāt already) hit heights way above budget, it is really cool to see an independent designer you followed gain so much success! Kinda like when a small band you really like starts to do well, only in this instance your hope of ever owning a piece of the brand kind of evaporates in a way your accessibility to a bandās music doesnāt even in the age of Ticketmaster surge pricingā¦
Enough negativity from me though, lol, because what I was going to say before I went off on that tangent was that Iām glad I was here for the ride, part of which has been seeing Annieās develop and grow into a more refined, high end brand with every collection they release.
From what I can tell, Annieās Boutique in London started as an independent business stocking brands ranging from Coperni to Richard Quinn, however, I think itās the STUNNNNINGG hand-beaded mini dresses sourced through Annieās in-house collaborations with other designers that have caught peopleās attention online. To my excitement, the traction the brand has gained over the past few years has finally been translated into physical runway shows in the last couple of years. Though this reflects greater recognition of the brand, which as I mentioned will likely have the drawback of higher pricing going forwards, my disappointment is kind overruled by what this means for the browsers amongst us. Now Annieās puts on actual runway shows and releases seasonal look books, itās finally possible to see most pieces in one place without having to trawl through the brandās instagram feed in an attempt to gather the scattered remnants of her collections. I found most of what Iāve included here pretty easily on the Tagfashion website. Iāve also done my best Instagram treasure hunt to create a directory of my favourites from the beautiful custom pieces Annie Doble has been pumping out over the years.
I hope itās clear from the screenshots why the beaded dresses have for so long been the tangible goddess dresses of my dreams and why they first caught my attention! The rest of the stuff is cute and growing cuter with each passing year but itās the craftsmanship of these minis which makes them so mesmerising. They remind me a lot of the best of some of my favourite high fashion brands: I see hints of Roberto Cavalli, a bit of Versace, and the influence of Paco Rabanneās party girl magic in there, an ode to the genre of mini dresses these designers often use as the āshowstoppersā which close their runway presentations.Ā
Whilst thesedresses are more likely to boast a significantly higher price tag, on a surface level I actually think Annieās dresses are much more unique and personalised. Look, Iām not sure how well such a comparison between an Annieās dress and a Versace dress, for example, would fare close up in terms of quality because to reiterate I am far, far, far from an expert, lol! With that in mind however, at a glance, the use of metallics, the variety of ornate celestial meets baroque style embellishments, and frequent deployment of flirty silhouettes Annie favours in her designs makes her mini dresses worthy competitors, or at the very least more affordableābut equally striking!ā alternatives, to similar garments which have been seen as the āstand-outā pieces from collections of much more traditionally prestigious brands.
In that sense, Annieās Ibiza rose to success for channelling the transcendent, otherworldly glamour more high fashion houses have frequently played on, and selling the results of her efforts for accessible prices. They arenāt original designs but the archival pieces the store manages to pick out are alsoalways incredible.
Remembering Roberto Cavalli: King of Bohemian Trash, Master of Maximalism
-top to bottom: RTW S/S98, F/W99, S/S2000-
The death of Roberto Cavalli in April 2024 was a huge loss for the fashion world, with his impact on both my personal style and maximalist glamour undeniable.
-top to bottom: RTW F/W16, S/S17-
For a long time I dismissed the brand as straight up Eurotrash and tbh, yeah it could be. But itās more than that and after dipping into the archives after his death, Iāve realised how much of a gold mine Robertoās old collections are. When bohemian glamour meets Eurotrash, as if so often has in Roberto Cavalli collections over the years, magic happens. The direction Fausto Puglisi has taken the brand over the last few years has been mesmerising to watch and resulted in some of my all time favourite fashion week shows; now with more of an idea of what Cavalli could produce at his best, I can see elements of that all throughout Puglisiās work, but in a way that feels in keeping with modernity.
-top to bottom: RTW S/S03, F/W03, F/W06-
I should mention that The Vogue Archives are limited in terms of archive Cavalli but after a lot of perseverance I found the incredible FirstView which has pretty much ALL of his old collections, just a few of which Iāve dotted about. His maximalism was 20 years ahead of its time and reminds me a lot of a more party-ready version of Alessandro Micheleās messy vintage wonders at Gucci and now Valentino, which has me wondering whether he was at all inspired. Galliano & Cavalli with a retro feel, anybody? The bright colours, the furs, the pattern overkill, are all very Cavalli in nature.
Though the brand went through a dip in quality in the 2010s (imo!), the vision which began to to emerge during the COVID era was exactly the kind of reinvention that was needed, rather than a continuation of the habit of resting on basic signature elements which began to define collections prior to this period. At first, collections still leaned a bit too hard into the tacky but over the last few years I feel like the direction taken has been one thatās a lot more refined and subtle, just the right amount of the original Cavalli Y2K style tackiness.
-top to bottom: RTW S/S11, S/S13, S/S09-
-clockwise l>r by section, top left square: RTW F/W18, F/W20, F/W21, Pre-fall 2022, top right square: Resort 2019, Pre-fall 2019, RTW F/W19, Pre-fall 2020, bottom right square, top to bottom: Pre-fall 2023, Resort 2024, bottom left square, ": Pre-fall 2024, Resort 2025-
There are still moments of overkill which sometimes make it difficult for me to be firm in my decisions of whether or not a collection can be added to my folder of excellence but for the most part, the current balance is just right.
-clockwise l>r: RTW F/W22, Resort 2023, RTW S/S23, S/S22-
Gucci Finding its Footing: Resort 2025
Iāve got to admit, as Alessandro basically turned Valentino into his Gucci 2.0 (which donāt get me wrong, I know some wonāt like buutā¦idc, I havenāt been excited by a Valentino collection in quite a while), I didnāt see what was left for me at the latter. I thought successive designers would either attempt (and inevitably fail) at imitating his work, or going back to the most basic of basics, which seemed to be the case at first. However as more collections have been added to the vault, this version of Gucci becomes a stronger, more distinctive and exciting entry into the pool. Iām pretty sure Iāve included a few of the most recent collections in my last few top 30 sections of fashion week recaps but one I didnāt cover, and the first collection which really made me sit up and reconsider my conclusion that the glory days were over, was Resort 2025.
Gucciās Resort 2025 collection was the first to have me hopeful about the future of the brand; it assured me that Alessandro Micheleās love of retro is still intended to remain an integral part of the vision, rather than something the new creative director wants to put to bed in his absence.
Whilst it didnāt quite pique my obsession like Choleās last few collections have, the looks we saw at Gucci Resort 2025 reminded me a lot of them. Although Gucci was slightly more colourful, I feel it was another subtle, streamlined interpretation of the '70's flower child vibe.
In the same way Gucci F/W24 proved that glitz and extravagance still remain a part of the brandās identity, even if the new creative directors show a bit more restraint than Alessandro did, the resort show suggested that Gucci will continued to be inspired by the past. This was under Sabato de Sarno, who has now been succeeded by Denma, but I would say the transfer of power between the two has been pretty cohesive, telling me there is a strong-minded team heading up the women's wear division. In fact, it's been so seamless, I didn't even realise that there'd been two different creative directors since Alessandro until recently.
Given the amount of pressure there's been on both Sabato and Denma to maintain the brand's relevance without the distinctive voice of Michele there to build anticipation around the collections, I think they've made really strong choices so far. I think both Sabato and now Denma have done an incredible job in merging the dramatic, crowd-pleasing staples from Alesandroās work together with a less kooky, more glamorous version of the original Gucci aesthetic.
Alessandro is one of a kind, in my books a visionary, but Gucci really became his brand, and his taste was inextricably bound into its USP. It wasnāt always the most commercially suited but this new version is, maintaining the level of decadence and drama built into the best Gucci looks from the last decade just in a way thatās more neutral and cohesive,Ā and I donāt think thatās a bad thing at all. It might be less exciting than what we became used to it but itās still familiar and quite lush tbh, and because Alessandro is still on the scene it doesn't feel like anything has really been lost. I think the takeaway really is that Alessandro should just start his own label, lol, but in the meantime I don't mind him dominating Valentino instead.
Some Fashion-Related Thoughts: On the (Questionable) Ethics of it All
To go slightly off script, this title is not the name of some underground fashion house. Itās just a topic I wanted to discuss as a part of the Thoughts section of my original draft. Obviously, I got rid of the rest of that section because nobody wants to read me waffling on about personal stuff right now (or maybe ever, lol) but this topic felt important to keep in as it relates to the content of this post and of other fashion posts going forwards.
Basically, I think there's an important discussion to be had about the ethical conduct of the brands we engage with, and however meagre our influence might be, how our engagement can be a promotion of a brand whose profits are used to exploit and harm others.Ā
To reiterate, the current state of the capitalist system we live under means we support companies who knowingly exploit and disregard human rights on the daily. I am not at all innocent in this so I donāt bring up this topic for the sake of being preachy-in the absence of choice, we become participants in these practices whether we intend to or not. Like fucking hell, Iād love a new Apple phone or laptop if I could afford it. I vape. Sometimes I cave in to what I once preached was my lifetime commitment to boycott Nestle and find myself TRULY yearning for the Lotus Biscoff infused Milkybars they sold at Christmas in 2023. Seriously, one time I tried the gold Aero melts after a packet broke open at work once and theyāve lived in my mind rent-free ever since. THANKFULLY, neither are available anymore. Thereās enough self-hatred resulting from a binge as it is, long before you factor how youāve broken your own principles into it:-)
Point being that a lot of engagement with ethically questionable companies is inevitable in the ādevelopedā world: they line our supermarket shelves which in themselves usually have some kind of share in at least one climate destroying endeavour or another. In a cost of living crisis, loosening our purse strings only for brands that pride themselves for their ethics, which are inarguably more expensive, is going to leave your fridge empty within a week. Make stuff from scrap! Batch cook! The ladies and/or men of leisure like to tell anyone troubled by how to get by. It is a statement that is so incredibly out of touch. I know that in the days leading up to payday when all but 2 of our management team is on holiday, when Iām down to my last Ā£30 and working 40 hours, the idea of cooking a meal from scratch is absurd. Iām someone who is privileged enough that I can live with my family for now. But there are people with children and extortionate rent to pay working just as much and I wouldnāt dream of telling them they ought to start using the few hours of leisure time they have meal prepping. From my experience, which like I said, exists in a context where I have access to FAR more privilege, Iāll say this to those people. Be real: after a 9 hour shift on my feet without a break, this girl needs to eat, and fuck no, she doesnāt have time to tend to an orchard, or sign up to Hello Fresh! And so if being an ethical consumer isnāt at the top of my list 100% of time, I have no business telling them how to live their lives, and the same goes for couples living in gentrified Clapham who work cushy, far less physically demanding jobs. Adhering to the BDS Boycott list, for example? Itās straightforwards. Yeah I miss a quick McDonalds once in a while but itās really not some great sacrifice considering the reasons behind it. As for researching at the ethical track record of the company behind every branded ready meal I buy? Itās just not realistic.Ā What we do have more choice in is what we wear, however, and what we, even as spectators, endorse. This is where ethics and fashion meet.
Itās a little crazy because when I first started planning out the structure of this post, I had a section on Chanel praising the recent (relatively speaking) improvement in their collections. Since then, Chanel donated $4,000,000 to Israelās defence fund (see here: https://boycott.thewitness.news/target/chanel).
I guess that was a full circle moment for the company, considering Coco Chanel was a Nazi. All this is to say Iāve decided I wonāt be including Chanel in these recaps from now on, in addition to Balenciaga, Dolce & Gabbana, and Alexander Wang, whose collections I decided to stop including a couple of years ago. I love a lot of their stuff but Iāve been aware of the conduct of Wang and D&G for quite some time, and neither of these brands deserve our time. The same will go for Dilara Findikoglu if the reports Iāve read over the last few days about her treatment of employees and models are verified. I would hate to think that anything I post, regardless of how minute the potential for it to have any influence is (believe me, Iām under no illusion that I have that power), could trigger someone with actual money to buy something from one of their brands and in turn add to the profit of a pair of racists or a sexual abuser.
Not that I need to justify why I think a company that enthusiastically endorses an apartheid regime deserves bankruptcy any further, but it just made me reflect on the criteria I use when deciding which brands I include in a fashion recap. Iām not delusional enough to think I have any impact through this little old Tumblr of mine, but I always want my decisions to be based on how closely they align with my values and principles, not on whether or not they will make any meaningful contribution to the bigger picture. Nobody is perfect, but we can all make an effort, and with that being said, if I want everyone to reduce their contribution to the profits of unethical companies, I should honour that too. The belief we are all exceptions to the rule when it comes to the things we can do to reduce harm to the planet and others, well yeah, might make little difference to the overall state of things when we consider the actions of an individual, but collectively, the sentiment of āwhat difference do I make?ā does a massive amount of needless damage. It makes sense to me that we should make our choices in line with those that, if collectively agreed on, would do the most good. I know I massively waxed philosophical there, but itās just for the sake of illustrating the thought process behind the decision to remove certain brands from my posts. Without this context, it would likely seem I was kinda detached from reality when it came to weighing up the level of fucks anyone gives about my Tumblr, lol, so I wanted to clear up the idea on the grounds of the slim possibility this gets read by more than like, two people:D
Anyway, with all that being said, and my not wanting to post things which in some tiny way help maintain the prestige of these brands, I thought Iād just reflect on my thoughts about what determines whether a brand should continue to be acknowledged in fashion discourse. I know thatās an unserious phrase, but think about it. For every high fashion Twitter account whose image of a Chanel bag attached to a heart eyes emoji does numbers, how many more people now get the idea that this is a brand to be revered and to aspire to spend our money on. We canāt stop major fashion news outlets from covering them obviously, but we only have to look at the way endorsements by online personalities have led to huge increases in profits for smaller designers to know the internet plays as significant a role in determining success in the fashion industry as it now does every other creative medium.Ā
So which companies do we want to see succeed? What is the threshold for determining which designerās success runs parallel to causing direct harm? I know when there is wealthy shareholders money at stake, most executives will do pretty much anything to keep them on their bankroll and likely already exploit people somewhere, so potential to do damage is pretty much a given where we see a lack of legal constraints on the way business should conduct themselves. Not to beat a dead horse with the āthere is no ethical consumption under capitalismā shtick but there is typically exploitation going on somewhere down the line whatever it is weāre consuming. If this is unavoidable, the least we can do is reduce our participation in the success of companies whose ethical transgressions go beyond the damage inevitably caused under the global paradigm of unregulated capitalism. I think most reasonable people can agree that directly funding a government who sees human lives as little more than an obstruction in their desire to expand territory goes beyond the ethical compromises brands make in a competitive market, no?Ā
So yeah, by those measures, Chanel quite clearly crosses the line for determining what constitutes a malignant entity, lmao. There is no time where the success of a business should involve becoming an active catalyst for war crimes. Itās a decision which Iām sure anybody who reads this with a differing opinion could claim is hypocritical. Like there are brands I continue to praise who have done harm at one point or another. JFC, Saint Laurent do harm to me every time I browse their newest collection and realise every single model on that runway looks undeniably malnourished. That was the ideal I was exposed to when my issues with body image and eating first began, being common practice on most runways. Though aspiring to, and failing to meet, that standard is just the medium through which I channelled underlying difficult emotions, my exposure to it gave me a skewed template of what perfection looked like. I continue to include Saint Laurent because 1). I highly doubt the intention is to play a role in young people developing anorexia, 2). I donāt think that we can say simply being exposed to an idea robs people of the agency to hold views which oppose the idea and 3). itās now in the minority when it comes to its lack of body diversity on the runway. Itās outdated, but it doesnāt differ imo from any other media which contains harmful imagery. In my head now, I just approach YSL as if there were trigger warnings under the header. I suppose ultimately, itās that admiring Saint Laurent, and contributing to positive recognition, doesnāt facilitate their beneficiaries doing more harm.
On the other hand, consider brands like Alexander Wang and Dolce & Gabanna. One has been accused of sexual assault multiple times and the otherās founders openly declare their racist views. Itās fathomless that anyone who doesnāt condone that kind of behaviour would be so closely associated with the brand as to be a significant benefactor. These are people with the capital to do actual harm, who likely themselves own and oversee conduct of other companies and donāt see blatant racism nor probable sexual assault as reason enough to cut ties with these respective brands. There is an alarming lack of moral standards there that suggests these are the kinds of people we canāt take a chance on further supporting.
In a long tenure at the helm of a company, or as an established creative director, questionable creative decisions can be made, but that is par for course in fashion, which is something i think can be said to be true in every creative industry. I just think thereās a difference between something like that and an instance or revelation which is reflective of a larger issue amongst the company culture and norms. On some occasions, a brandās conduct goes beyond a difference in interpretations, and the harm caused is inexcusable. Chanelās funding of Israelās apartheid regime, the outright racism Dolce & Gabanna have unrepentantly displayed and the Alexander Wang sexual assault allegations are all examples (for reasons Iāve gone on about for long enough) to place them firmly in the second category.
There is no debate, difference of opinion, or learning that can justify their conduct and thus any scenario where Iād want to contribute to their success in any way. Once D&G or AW kick the bucket, maybe Iāll reconsider them, lmao, but in a fair world and in this day and age, Chanelās material support of Israel shouldāve caused them irreversible damage. To reiterate, I donāt think I actually have any influence, lol. It just that it doesnāt sit right, in principle, that we overlook these things, which we are essentially doing when we recognise their work, however great it is. So yeah, there wonāt be any more of them in my recaps from now on.
Anyways, hope that last paragraph clears things up and explains why I already donāt/wonāt be including some brands in fashion week recaps going forwards. Apologies for if this post is kind of disjointed or jumps back and forwards in time, I've done the best I can to bring it all together to make sense where we're at now!
Resort 2026 collections and Haute Couture S/25 have both been released plus weāre currently in the fashion week period so I will have a post for those soon:-)
It feels right now like there isnāt much point in overly wordy posts where I just ramble and give my unsolicited opinions, in the grand scheme of things anyway. Itās probably why this has taken so long and IS such a long post. I still have a couple of drafts related to films, TV series etc. that I might finish at some point but generally speaking, there isnāt much point in me writing this much if Iām not enjoying it and most of the things Iām thinking are being said by so many other people (who are much more equipped to handle the subject matter) far more concisely anyway.Ā
Maybe at some point the world will feel less chaotic and serious again but in the meantime, Iām sure anybody who follows me will be RELIEVED to know things will be much more picture-focussed:-)
Final words are donāt stop seeking out updates on Gaza. Israel have launched strategic attacks on journalists which means thereās less information out there and key points get buried by the rest of the news cycle, and now thereās been a so-called ceasefire, the mainstream media seems to be satisfied that they no longer need to report on it. Itās absolutely still happening and wherever you are, there are always ways to show your solidarity. Whether itās through continuing to adhere to the boycott, keeping updates in circulation or taking part in peaceful protest (https://palestinecampaign.org/events/), there is always something we can do.
annaxmalina
dailybridgerton
romaincrisis
dededos
vaporwave
turnnoffyourmind
