My Father's Daughter

I wanted to clarify (or perhaps continue) the points I mentioned in my post Paradoxes of Blogging. The main point today is: wearing an outfit for the sake of a photograph. While I said, I do wear certain outfits for the sake of the photographs this doesn't mean the outfits are only worn for the length of a photography session.

Admittedly, I have on occasion put things on only for the length of my picture-taking, but these posts generally state something to that effect. See this post where I wore my vintage white dress; I put it on and photographed it, then took it off. I made this fact clear in the post and only photographed it because I was planning on altering it and I wanted to be able to look back and remember how it had been before I changed it. I also wanted to share the find as I thought it was a sort of special piece. It was impossible to wear unaltered because even with heels I was tripping over the hems; so wearing it was not an option.

However, that sort of post is rarity. More often, I will have my "style experiments" which I wear all day, but my point is: I wouldn't have worn them all day if I didn't have this old fashion blog and the thought of pictures in the back of my head. That is what I meant by "the process of recording alters the record." In the conscious act of deciding to record things we begin to construct items to record and alter what we are recording; if we hadn't decided to write blogs then the day, outfits, and ourselves would be different (although possibly this difference is minor). My outfits are definitely being worn, but in a "normal" world they probably wouldn't have been outfits I tried out. My blog has given me some sartorial courage and a reason to exercise it. If you came upon me on the street (or path in the woods), they are what I would be wearing that day.

There is the inherent staging effect of taking pictures; particularly when you take them of yourself. I mentioned this way back in 2008 and with photographic illustration. In that post slightly clashing elements of a tote bag and leopard print headphones were highlighted when they normally would have been removed for the sake of blog images. Such edits happen frequently and not always by conscious choice (often I merely forget to photograph my purse rather than purposely leave it out). Many other factors lead to the staging of outfit shots as well. Most of the winter I removed my coats in order to photograph the outfits I was wearing underneath them, misleading some people to think I lived in a warmer clime than I do. I also spend more time every day barefoot than I do in heels; one of the joys of working from home, no?

Truthfully, even if I could paint a perfectly accurate and realistic image of my life and my outfits: I doubt I would. This blog is escapism as much for me as it might be for others visiting; so if only idealized images of this period in time remain to jog my memory later, I'm content with that.