Asian Anna Wintour

My favorite way of passing time while traveling is to pour over every fashion magazine available that month.  I furtively flip through airport bookstore stacks and during flights I whiz through my personal pack until I reach fashion delirium and my head gleefully spins with outfit inspirations, color combinations and trend forecasting.  Happily, I devour the fashion editorials, study the hair and makeup, admire the models, search for trends, and dissect the advertisements. Oh yes, and I read the articles too. I actually read every page – advertisement taglines included.

photo from wednursedead

This may seem quizzical to some but I thoroughly enjoy every aspect of fashion magazines and can’t help but stop to notice and admire every simple detail. I’ll notice the color theme and formatting of each page’s layout, I’ll  scan ads and notice gorgeous backdrops and exquisite lighting, I’ll even question the casting for photo shoots and I”ll challenge myself by asking how I would have styled that same scene/outfit. Obviously, I should have worked for a fashion magazine and grown up to be Asian Anna Wintour.

But alas, my fate was to grow up in MI where I was shown only the most traditional career routes. Be a doctor like dad, teacher like grandma or full-time mom like well, mom. I didn’t grow up with the luxury of reality TV shows that opened my eyes to professions that didn’t have the obvious college major match. I didn’t know what fashion PR was back then. I didn’t know anyone that worked for a fashion magazine. I didn’t even know you could make a career out of planning events for fashion companies.

My mom would have disowned me if I had tried to even consider a career in fashion anyways. She was always on my case for spending too much time reading fashion magazines and not enough time reading the local newspaper. “Bo-ring!” or so my teenage self secretly thought…

Yea, so I’m no intellectual. I’m a self-confessed fashionista with no hope for a cure. Recent conflicts with my boyfriend over the importance of fashion in my life have spurred these introspective thoughts and have motivated these blog entries. So here I have it, my very own little cyberspace in which I can relish, rant and rave about all things fashion. Launching fabgabblog.com during Fall 2010 NY fashion week seems oh so appropriate. Maybe just maybe this blog will help legitimize my love for and life’s need for fashion.

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Fashion Fixation

Sure fashion week is frivolous but it is fun. It is my glorious chance to walk straight into the pages of a fashion magazine, sit near the editors I’ve followed in print, be within arms reach of the most famous models, offer real-time critiques straight off the runway and envelop myself in the glamour that is fashion.  I’ve been accused of having some sort of deranged, fashion fixation.

I admit, I’m a bit obsessed. I adore clothes, accessories, and shoes (as evidenced by my floor-to-ceiling shoe closet and overflowing wardrobe). So obviously the sound of a full week dedicated to showcasing, honoring and previewing fashion sounds exciting to me. I enjoy the week full of eye candy and as an event planner, I’m completely mesmerized by the production value of each runway show. Moreover, I’m inspired and endlessly fascinated by the people who design, who style and who wear fashion well. And I find myself enthralled with the entire makeover process – the transformation of the hair, the makeup, the wardrobe not to mention the magic that goes into showing off that one awe-inspiring look.

Right now though, I find myself in constant search for ways to validate what could be seen as an unnatural passion.  While “It’s my hobby” may alleviate the superficial undertones of my focus, it doesn’t quite encompass the way in which it is in actuality a necessary component of my life. While “I’m a visual person” is true, it doesn’t explain the focus on fashion. And while “it’s a girl-thing..you just don’t understand” sometimes works as my lazy way out of the discussion it never fully satisfies.

How do you legitimize YOUR passion for fashion? If you had to take out work from the explanation how might you explain yourself?

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