Being Alone: Pesky Insecurities and Lessons Learned

Image Credit: Verne Ho via Unsplash

Hi there! Today, I wanted to talk to you about something a bit more personal.  I'm writing this super late at night and I'm hoping that it'll help one of you out there. However, like some bloggers have admitted in the past when writing more personal pieces, they not only write it in hopes of helping others and sharing their experiences (I don't want to use the word wisdom because I don't consider myself to be that wise), but also to help themselves get through or accept a certain thing.

The title "Being Alone" can be interpreted different ways. Maybe the first thing you thought of was being alone in a crowd and feeling lonely and lost despite the company. Maybe it was not being in a romantic relationship. Maybe it was taking time to take care of yourself. Whatever it was, hopefully, I'll touch on it in this piece. Grab a cup of tea because it's going to be a long one.

What Really Is This Whole Fast vs. Slow Fashion Thing?

Image via Wikimedia Commons

Hi there! I'm sure that you've heard the term "fast fashion" a decent recently. For those who don't know what it means, basically, fast fashion is clothing that is made to keep up the most recent trends presented at Fashion Week. It's basically retailers like Forever 21 and H&M that fall under the fast fashion category.

Fast fashion retailers have also been put under the microscope for not only ripping off much more pricey designer labels, but also for making clothes cheaply and dangerously that lead to tragedies like the Savar building collapse in Bangladesh. That's why some bloggers have coined the term "slow fashion" and are in favour of buying fewer higher-priced items that will last much longer.

Dear Alexander McQueen...

Hi there! When I was about 12 and started to really get into fashion and stay in the know about the industry, Alexander McQueen's death was a very, very big story, big enough to get an exhibit at the Met. I didn't spend enough time researching him as a designer and was probably too young to understand his impact on the fashion world at the time. However, recently when I decided to enter the Sears Design Competition (if you have no idea what I'm talking about, here's the lowdown) and had to design a garment based on a historical or contemporary designer, I jumped at the chance and designed something inspired by the legendary Alexander McQueen.

To get a better understanding of him as a person and him as a designer, I read bits and pieces of Katherine Gleason's book called Alexander McQueen: Evolution and boy, did I learn a lot. I also got to appreciate his fantastical and regal vision.

Reading into McQueen's life was also a shocking reminder of suicide. I know that I don't usually ever mention topics like this on my blog, but I think that is so, so important to talk about. I won't linger too long on the topic as this is a McQueen appreciation post, but if you know anyone who is or you suspect them of harming themselves and/or are thinking of suicide, please get them help. This is most definitely not one of those problems that you can just ignore and it'll go away.

Anyway, moving on from the heavy bits, here are a few of my favourite pieces that he's ever made.

VIDEO: Am I Superficial?

Hi there! I made a video two days ago rambling about being superficial. It was definitely a much more personal video for me and it didn't work out so well the first time, so I tried again and I'm pretty proud of how it turned out. I hope that if you've felt the way I felt - really dumb and stupid because of your interest in fashion and/or beauty - that this video was able to help.

So I Went to See "Dior and I"

Image Credit: Dior and I

Hi there! Over the weekend, I went downtown to this little theatre that shows indie or lesser-known movies to see a fashion documentary called "Dior and I" with me, myself, and I. (More on that experience in a video to come in June.) While it was a bit stressful because they only took cash (which I didn't have on me), so I had to use an ATM, well two to get cash to pay for my damn movie ticket, it was such a freaking amazing movie. Like oh my GOD, it was absolutely incredible.

Before seeing the documentary, I wasn't that well-versed in the world of Dior and only understood the general gist of his story and not the little details like a devoted Dior fan would. In terms of more modern Dior stories, of course I knew of when Raf Simons replaced Bill Gaytten as the creative director of the house, but that's about where my knowledge ends. 

Over the years, I've kept up with the Dior shows at fashion week and was always particularly fascinated with their couture pieces. This documentary shows us the intense stress, hours upon hours of labour, and distinct, clear-cut vision behind such a beautiful collection. Usually, the seamstresses (who deserve so much more credit for their work) and the whole team has about four to six months to complete an haute couture collection. However, this time around, Raf was given his new role as the head of couture, which he has never done before, and had to complete the collection within eight weeks. EIGHT WEEKS. 

So of course, that would've been just a smitch more stressful than usual.

You're Only Human

Image Credit: Jessica Polar

Hi there! Something that I feel like we forget a little too often is how we're only human. We'll pile a crap load of stuff on our plate and somehow expect ourselves to accomplish it all. Or we'll do something stupid and expect to be able to bounce back immediately and when we don't, we get mad at ourselves. They say that you're your own worst critic and that proves to be so true - we tend to expect a hell of a lot out of ourselves, that's for sure.

Falling Out of Love

Image Credit: Helga Weber via Flickr CC

Hi there! Today, I decided to write something a bit more personal and share a ramble with you all. While February is essentially the month of love whether you like it or not with all the stores trying to sell you all the lovey-dovey stuff, but another important thing that should isn’t often discussed is falling out of love.

I’ve never had to endure the heartache of having to experience it with (or rather because of) another person, but I’ve had the stress of having to do it with an idea, a dream that I was very blindly chasing. As you may or may not know, ever since I was about 12 or so, I knew that I wanted to work in the fashion industry. I wanted to be a fashion designer, show at Fashion Week, and do all of that – that was the ultimate dream. The problem with setting your mind on something at 12 is that regardless of your ability to execute said-goals, you tend to romanticise it all.

Merry Christmas!

Hi there! I just wanted to pop in a wish you guys a very merry Christmas, or if you don't celebrate it, a very happy holiday season. Honestly, I intended this post to be a heck of a lot longer and more detailed, but I've been really sick for the past week or so (the illness acting up especially acting up as we approached Christmas), so I've just been sleeping all day to be completely honest.

I also wanted to say a huge thank you for sticking around through thick and thin this year as you motivate me to just keep on writing and blogging. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I'll be back for a bit longer tomorrow to talk to you more about how I celebrated Christmas, but for now, I hope that you take a bit of time offline the next few days to just enjoy with your family because that's something that's really important, I'd say.

I love you. :)

Thank you so much for reading!

- J

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Change.

Hi there! I'm feeling especially motivated today, so I thought I'd take advantage of that and give you guys a little spiel about what's been on my mind for the past few days/weeks because I've missed a few Sunday Fundays and just posts in general and I really miss talking to you.

Oh, and I have no idea in which direction this post is going and it might be totally rambly (hence being categorised in "Rambles") but I hope that you'll bear with me. :)

Sunday Funday: 8 Things I Learned While on Hiatus

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Hi there! It feels like it's been so long since I last opened up Blogger and sat down to write something. Probably because it has. I won't even go back to see when my last post was because then I'll feel all kinds of guilty and I'm just not in the mood for that.

I'm sorry that I've been away for a bit, but I'm going to keep the excuses to a minimum here. Of course, I've been away because I've been so busy and today is going to be my busiest day yet (and I have NO IDEA how I'm going to handle it). However, after this whole little wave, I should be good for another, err, week before Christmas cardmaking starts and I die in a whole sea of cardstock.

Today, I thought I'd do a little spin on my usual Sunday Funday and share with you what I've learned over these few weeks.

Response to Independent's Zoella-Bashing Article

Hi there! Wednesday night, after all the craziness of everything that happened (if you don't know what I'm talking about, here's some clarification), I was scrolling through Twitter one last time before drifting off when I stumbled upon some tweets from Zoe (better known as Zoella on YouTube) about some article on the UK's Independent. Naturally curious, I went to check out the article and wasn't very happy at all once I was done with it. Go read for yourself if you haven't already.

As you may already know, I'm a big fan of Zoe and always feel so much better after watching her videos. She shows herself as being such a happy and positive person, but also very down-to-earth. Her radiance is infectious and that's what I love about her.

Maybe you'll see this response to the article as biased because I am such a big fan of hers, but you know what? That article doesn't belong on such site as it was very thinly veiled bullying. For the most part, I find that newspapers and their websites do a decent job of maintaining some kind of subjectivity but this offered anything but.

A Little Too Nice

Image Credit: Unsplash via Pixabay

Hi there! First off, to all you Canadians out there, a huge happy Thanksgiving to you! It’s a bit odd that our Thanksgiving is so early in the fall months, but I guess it’s never too early to be grateful. I also just wanted to say a huge thank you to all of you who have been reading and following this blog through all of my craziness and through my erratic posting schedule. It means a lot to me that you’re all a part of my life and I hope that reading my blog everyday (or however often you read it) brings you as much joy as it does to me when I write it.

Speaking of thanks, today, I wanted to talk to you about this one teacher I have.  He’s new at my school this year and I’d say that he’s about 50 years old. I have him as both a French and a history teacher and overall, he’s a really nice guy. But the thing, is with teenagers, we can’t seem to accept extremes and whenever someone is a bit too something, we call them out on it and spin that certain character trait in the complete opposite direction.

Oh, is she too peppy and cheerful? She must be doing for reasons x and y. Is he is really mean and cold (but just so happens to be good-looking)? He is so cool. You get the gist.

The Imposter Syndrome & Self-Doubt: A Response to Rookie's "You Can't Fake Real"

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Hi there! As a blogger, I read tons and tons of blog posts. I might not comment on as many as I should, but I do read a lot of them. Maybe if you aren’t a blogger, you do too, and can relate to this, as well.

When I saw You Can't Fake Real from Rookie in my Bloglovin’ feed, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I thought that the post would be more about something like high school girls being fake and how we should all be ourselves or something like that, but never did I expect to relate so much to a post. Ever. This is a big thing to say, but I’m pretty sure this has become my favourite article ever on the internet.

Back to School: Sophomore Thoughts and Reminiscing

Hi there! If you’re in the States or elsewhere in the world, you might already have been in school for a solid couple weeks now, but where I live in Canada, today is our first day. It’s kind of crazy to me to think about how I’m going to be in grade 10, and even though it’s not that big of a number, it’s still a bit mind-boggling because it’s, well, two digits.

Last year, I went into my freshman year a bit worried and apprehensive, I think, but with a fairly open mind. I didn’t really have a support system of friends that I could just run to at lunch and vent or rant or whatever from the get go because I was the only one from my school going to that certain school. Daunting it was, but I was up for it.

It’s really important for me to always push myself out of my comfort zone and try something new. I did a lot of that this past year and accomplished some things that I’m really proud of, but most of those things didn’t happen in school, but rather outside of it. If you followed my Confidence series, you’ll know that I was a relatively shy, actually, very shy girl in my middle school years and it has always been something that I’ve been labelled with ever since I was pretty young.

The Dilemma of Sporting the Half-Tuck

Image Credit: justbloomed from WeHeartIt

Hi there! Ever since I started doing the half-tuck starting sometime around grade 7, so that was in 2011, I’ve always had quite a few constant fears running through my head whenever I decide to go for that look. My mom has always been one to advocate neatness and cleanliness before anything, so I’m sure you can imagine what I’ve always thought she’d say.

Anyway, today, I thought I'd share with you my paranoia whenever I sport this look.

Oh my Goodness, I'm Fifteen: 15 Before 16

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Hi there! Uhm, uhm, how is it that I’m fifteen now? I kind of can’t believe that I’m turning fifteen today. I feel like that number is such a big step from a measly fourteen and I feel like the time I have left in high school is already too short and it’s kind of (really) scary. But like everything else, I’ll learn to deal with it.

Yes, I know that I turned 15 like last week, but I wasn't able to post this on the day of unfortunately due to my blog being down, but here it is anyway. I figured that I wasn't going to write a huge post and not post it, so yeah. :)

This past year was definitely a big year for me because I’ve grown so much and I’ve become so much more comfortable with who I am. I’ve always known that I’m that fashion freak (and proud of it!) and I’ve always had my priorities and values straight. But if there’s one thing about the whole fashion fiasco that bothered me the most, it was that surprised look that would flash across everyone’s faces whenever I shared with them my plans for the future that used to make me so uncomfortable on so many levels and self-conscious.

After a while, I got used to it and just stopped caring, so that was one step that started a bit before I turned fourteen and was completed pretty early on this year, actually, so I’m pretty proud of that.

I’m also really proud of how I got my lazy non-athletic butt to the gym. I’ve always been the girl who absolutely sucked at gym class and I can’t quite believe that I’ve now gotten into the habit of going pretty regularly to the gym. I’ve also started eating so much healthier and feel so much better now. I’m so much happier now than I was before and I’m so, so happy about it.

I know that I’ve kind of neglected Style Generis this year with school and everything, but it’s been one of the highlights of my year. Blogging makes me extremely happy and it’s a goal of mine this year to invest more time in it.

God, there are just so many great things that have happened this year that I think would be more appropriate to recount in the post at the end of 2014, so I’ll end the reminiscing here. However, I was on A Beautiful Mess the other day and saw Elsie’s 28 Before 29 birthday list where she wrote down a list of 28 things to do before her 29^th birthday and I thought it was such a cool idea, so I decided to do the same thing this year.

Motivational Monday: "I Want to be FAMOUS."

Image Credit: Classy in the City

Hi there! A couple months back, my English teacher told us that most teenagers nowadays when I asked about their career plans just wanted to be one thing: famous. A survey done on UK students had 54% of students answering that they planned to become famous by appearing on reality TV shows, or dating celebrities, and other tactics like that. Honestly, shouldn’t that be a bit, I don’t know, sad?

I’ve always been someone who had big dreams. When I was younger, even when I was getting influenced by other people to achieve something that I hadn’t realised I was necessarily that interested in, I still planned big and wanted to do something significant in the field. I never settled for something average or ordinary. Which is why it’s such a shock to me that such a big chunk of teenagers are ambitious but in my opinion, in the completely wrong way.

Motivational Monday: Be True to Who You Are

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Hi there! I decided to start the new blogging year off on a motivational note (even though it technically started yesterday, but we can just ignore that little bit) by attacking a topic that is very important to me: being true to yourself. I know, I know, it’s been covered quite a bit by pretty much everyone at some point. I briefly touched on it back in October, so today, I wanted to go a bit more in depth. I’ve also been through a bit over half of my freshman year, so I feel like I have a better grasp of it all now, which I’d like to share. Obviously.

But first, I just wanted to say that I'm not trying to offend anyone who chooses to do any of the things I'm about to mention and am trying to sound all mighty or whatever. I'm just stating my opinion. :)

I'm Feeling a Bit Nostalgic

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Hi there! With Spring Break coming up, I’m definitely going to be relaxing and taking advantage of the week that I have off, which I’m so stoked about. During that week off, I’m planning on spending a bit of time in a coffee shop. I don’t know, there’s something about them that are just so alluring and I can’t help but want to visit every once in a while. And there's something so nostalgic about that to me.

Image Credit: FullStart

I think the reason why I can’t help but be drawn to them is because of 7^th grade when my friends and I spent our lunch time at a cute little place a short walking distance from school. It sat about twelve people, I’d say and I remember each time we walked in after being outside in the cold, my glasses fogged up to the point where I couldn’t see, but being able to smell the fragrant pastries was more than enough.

Words: The Freedom We Take for Granted

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Hi there! I’ve put off this post for a while now. I kept getting the itch to write this, but I never got around to it because I didn’t feel like I’ve figured out the right way to say what I needed to say, but I think I’ve finally figured it out.

I’ve been reading a lot more lately, interviews, books, and it has gotten me to really think about words. I can’t decide if it was inevitable or not because though we all read the words on the page, I don’t know if we register what it means and its impact. We talk everyday and use words to communicate. Most of us probably write emails or papers, or something of a sort daily, and we absentmindedly read everything from billboards to newspaper headings on a daily basis. No matter how you cut it, words are all around us and very much a part of our lives.