It's very almost winter!

And that means, It's cold. You're cold. Are you cold? I'm quite warm actually.

No wait, questions first.

1) Are you indoors or outdoors?

2) Are you outdoors and cold?

3) Are you indoors and cold?

Let's imagine that you are outdoors.. and you are cold. What do you do? Well, there are several options; you could stay cold. You could jiggle about on the spot hoping it will pass. You can go for a jog, to keep your blood flowing. You could snug up to someone else's warm body and share a lethally heated fast food "apple pie". Or you can go back indoors and fetch a coat. It's pretty easy to pick the last one before you even leave the house, and most people do - coats, tights, hats, layers of all types. We pile them on and go out to bonfires and walks and shopping and about our daily autumn-winter business. And then we're not so cold, and that makes perfect sense, right? Right.

But if you are indoors, consider if you feel yourself more likely to say "I am cold, I shall turn up the heating" or "I am cold, I shall put on more layers until I am temperate". Maybe a mixture of both? Do you consider, every time, which might be.. better?

I talked about responsibility within fashion last month and I guess I've not run out of things to say along those lines just yet, because here we are again. The thing is, carbon footprint blahblahblah. Am I a drag, ducklings?

On my internet travels, I've more than once come across someone explaining the concept of "sunk costs". It's an economist's term which can basically be summed up by saying "money you spent in the past isn't money you have access to now, so it doesn't really count as 'a loss' if you decide that that investment wasn't in something you find worthwhile now". If something is a sunk cost, you can move on from it without feeling that you are wasting today's money (or time, etc) - because you aren't.

The difference between going to your shelves and taking out a jumper you already own and going to the radiator and turning it up a notch or two is that the energy expenditure that went into creating that jumper is a sunk cost. It happened in the past; you can't take it back. The extra radiator work is the opposite - it's using energy right now, every second; to keep to the money/power analogy, this is live-action loss. And of course, actually, the money you spent on the jumper is old news too while the cost of your electricity bill is (depending on your contract) going up as the cozy minutes jog by.

I have explained all this in a handy comic-strip format, but technology is - once again! - my enemy. Look for it in the e-book, kids!

Though there may be more energy involved in making, shipping, selling and claiming one item of warm winter clothing than there is in warming a room all winter (and there may well not be, but let's suppose for the sake of dotting all lower case 'J's), any damage done by the creation of something you own is irreversible, sans time machine (and one point twenty-one jiggawatts of electricity does not make for an insubstantial carbon footprint, let me tell you). All you can do about it is make sure that your already-bought clothes are worn enough that the energy they represent becomes far overshadowed by the energy they've saved by keeping your body warm.

Don't think you have to just plonk a jumper on over eveything else, either. Wear them under gilets, pinafores, waistcoats, harnesses, you name it.

Perhaps you are wondering how this is DIY. Well, so far it isn't, you can see that. I could make an argument that swapping electricity for eclectic layering is DIY eco-activism, but.. I'd be being a bit of a wanker. So I won't.

But I don't underestimate the thought that you may not have a jumper you really like, or that you don't have any old ones you're not bored with. Or maybe you do have a jumper you really liked last year or the year before, or that you inherited from a friend or relative or found in a jumble sale but which turned out to have holes in it when you got it out this November?

Buying a new one, or just doing without and turing up the thermostat are the easy answers, but not the only ones.

As you probably remember, Editor Supreme Amy and a number of our other staff and columnists (as well as many of you, probably, come to think..) attended Britain's Next Top Model last month. I didn't go, and I wasn't planning to go until I got an invite to an event hosted by Global Cool. They were presenting some workshops to big up their eco-fashion project "Turn Up The Style, Turn Down The Heat"; how to monogram your jumper, how and why and inspiration to embellish old woolens that attendees just weren't keen on any more. Make the old newly personal, and it's like a whole new garment.

I was in communication with one of Global Cool's reps these past weeks and there was talk of a BSB-exclusive interview with presenter and presumably keen eco-example-maker Gemma Cairney.. That seems to have fallen through since I haven't heard from that rep in a good while. but I like their message and I like their project, so I'm going to big them up anyway.

Global Cool are running the above initiative to try to get people to appreciate the difference making do and mending (only without the dreariness that "making do" implies) can make to your own life and to the world. I think that's pretty neat. They're even going so far as to offer competition for vouchers in their "I love my jumper" mini-campaign: send them a picture of you in your winter warmest, and see if they think you and your knitwear make a winning combination. If you do that this week you can win £100 worth of American Apparel gear (which is why I'm not entering this week, to be honest), which.. spend it on Christmas presents? Get warm layers for all your friends, so they can (in future) follow your warm ways.

If your jumper problem is holes, then I hear ya. I also have good news - click here for a post on my other other blog about learning to darn. Think that sounds hard, or pointless, or like it's bound to go wrong? It's not, did you read this post, and it won't (see below). Even if it does you can always put a badge over it!

Peace out.

1. When I read fashion blogs, I think that the biggest draw for me to add them to my Reader is the inclusion of their thought processes that went into and came out of their outfit choices. Their inspiration. Much the better if they have a "concept"; a story they're telling themselves (and their audiences) with their clothing. Well, no. The biggest draw is when what they say is interesting. "Fashion as communication" is what convinced me of the validity of fashion blogging the minute I discovered it - I want to know what people think they're saying with how they look., and how their interpretation differs from mine.. and I don't think I'm alone in this. Right? 2. The interesting thing about personal use of "the internet" is that it made globalisation happen in the most interesting way - everybody has access to everybody else's stereotypes and shorthands. Everybody is going to see their own personal hurts trampled all over by people who either truly know no better, or by people who truly value their right to unchecked speech over the toll that pain and frustration takes on other people. 3. And just like EVERYTHING, this is reflected in the world of fashion (blogging)! It's pretty probable that, you being discerning readers, you have come across bloggers (or, "people") talking about "appropriation" (I put this in quoties because I want to examine the meaning a little, not because I don't believe in the concept). Then again.. the internet is a big place! Maybe you've missed it. Appropriation vs Inspiration is ages old and evident in every creative channel that I can think of - you've probably been outraged at an example of it yoursef. Were you unimpressed when a budget clothing chain used images found on DeviantART and tweaked to decorate their t-shirts (link lost, bummer)? They pinched ('appropriated') the artist's work. Did you shake your head over Nick Simmons' alleged use of Bleach panels in his comic Incarnate? He copied ('appropriated') (allegedly) Kubo Noriaki's panels. Have you been involved in a debate about knock-off designer goods in highstreet chains or on markets? Stealing ('appropriation') of trademarks. Or have you read Susie Bubble, Native Appropriations, or Threadbared's entries (or featuring of other peoples' writings) on the subject? You should. They're excellent. Each of these thoughtful bloggers have opened conversation on cultural appropriation, and this is one of the most problematic issues, in my opinion, in visual arts. Particularly (or maybe only particularly visibly) in fashion. Fashion runs on trends, and trends run on a never-ending supply of inspirations and changes and experimentation - those inspirations are often cyclical, of course, but they're never identical the second time around. The sixties minidresses weren't the same as flapper dresses. The early nineties Lois Lane business suits were wide-shouldered, thin-hipped and had intricately cut lapels, but were longer below the waist and lacked the peplums than 1940s women's dress jackets enjoyed. Of course, simple creativity is involved, but finding the next thing 'before it happens' is also talked about a lot. Some people invent, and some interpret. That's cool. But sometimes the things that designers or people getting dressed use for inspiration are things from cultures that they are not a part of. Sometimes, an aspect of a culture one is not a part of has taken on a semiotic meaning which the designer or dresser would also like to express. Try the number of couture designers who have referenced "the homeless" in their runway shows and commentary surrounding actual homeless people in the online style industry; "effortless cool", "i don't care but I look great anyway", "the romance of the imagined vagrant's lifestyle". I am sure you can think of a time when, in fashion, an ethnic identity or nationality was visually referenced in order to.. less say something than give a flavour. The number of "paint a model darker" (or not) photoshoots that have been swimming around recently, f'rex. This style shorthand is easy to do - people interested in fashion are probably people who process visuals quickly and it's easy to forget, if you aren't someone to whom an image or garment means a great personal deal, that using an image or garment that is so far out of your personal life experience that it stands for an ideal to you -

- rather than making you think about the middle-parts of that semiotic equation, and the modern-day people living modern-day lives who are caught up in that image or garment's context.. that there are people who have more rights to some images than others, and they aren't abstract or too far away to matter. They're right here, in your internet(s, eatin' ur cheezburgerz?), and they matter. You wouldn't say "that's so gay", would you? Because you have gay acquaintances whom that hurts. Because people who overhear you could be hurt. Because you care about people, so you learn, and you think. Don't you? I'm gonna go ahead and suggest that we try really hard not to appropriate, when we're looking for inspiration.

On the second of September I took a scissor and I cut off my hair.

Now in itself, this is not much of a new beginning; I've been doing my own hairdressing since September 2003 (come to think, that makes this most recent cut an Anniversary..) when I looked at my I-never-called-it-a-Rachel on the night before I started sixth form and thought,

That was a new beginning!

I'm not sure exactly how our readership skews, but let's assume that a bunch of you are, like our own boss-editor Amy, goin' off to Uni. Everyone else - I'll get to you in a minute but listen along, OK? You're smart enough to adjust things to your own situation.

University, of course, is a great time to do some pretty drastic "image experimentation". Even if - like Amy and my little Uni-bound sister - you're going somewhere where a pack of your old friends are also gonna be (you wacky kids!) there will still be a) loads and LOADS of people who have never set eyes on you and b) plenty of places to hide if you want to avoid anyone from school who might turn up their noses or ask a snooty question or two.

So let's assume that you don't need to worry about raised eyebrows from the old guard, for whichever reason. If you're in a new place (town, city, country, campus, nighttime hangout, friendship group, class of peers, etc), now is the exact time to move outside your comfort zone externally-expressively as well. When else can you guarantee that the majority of people you meet will first-impression judge you on the green hair or head-to-toe lace that you've always secretly dreamed of- or just once idly pondered what it might be like to have? Quite possibly NEVER. NEVER EVER.

Grasp that chance, my ducklings. Meet your immediate, enormous future with a face that you have constructed around 'possibilities and freedom and mental workouts!'

You can take it all off and grow it all out if you find you don't like it. Then the 'old you' image will be new for all your fine fresh acquaintances, and won't that be interesting?

Hmm, perhaps you are thinking but people may laugh at me? Well, that is true, but people may always laugh at anything. I can tell you that no-one decent is going to laugh unforgivingly at a University student looking silly - even if they do reckon you look daft, daft-lookig students are a deep enough cliche that they're just endearing. Actually, no-one decent is going to laugh unforgivingly at anybody looking silly, are they?

Like I implied earlier, the easiest way to change your public face is to change your hair. You can be conservative and go for a 'new style'.. which I can't help you with. But the internet and magazines and whathaveyou can! You can be as drastic as you please with hair cutting, and presumably you can be as drastic as you like with hair adding. The only experience I have with additional hair was a purple streak I had glued in at the Big Bash in year seven. My form tutor made me cut it out, which I resented, and then I stuck it to a hairclip. But your local hairdresser or hair shop probably have libraries worth of knowledge to help you with that - so get on down to one if you're feeling underwhelmingly hirsute!

If you're looking to cut, there are two obvious choices. You can go to a hairdresser or barber (turn to page 16), or you can cut it yourself (turn to page 48).

We're gonna turn to p.48, because I have no patience with and cannot afford hairdressers and if you decide to visit a professional, they can tell you everything about the procedure/your choices themselves. So! Let's cut our hair!

The trick is in remembering to think of your head as a 3d object. Hairdressing is sculpture, or modelling, or possibly engineering? Think of it in the terms most relevant to your area of interest or expertise. You're trying to make your head into a shape, not a flat image.

Remember: IT DOESN'T MATTER IF IT COMES OUT LOOKING LIKE CRAP. Three reasons: 1) other people probably think it looks charming, 2) think about yourself; all that brilliance can't be dimmed by one lopsided haircut, 3) you can just keep going until it looks "like you". Also remember: A haircut is a work in progress, always. Because hair is always growing! It's going to change amongst itself over time anyway!

My personal, non-lifestyle change New Beginning was how much of my hair I cut off, five days ago when I post this

Aaand I'm back to those of us who aren't off to University. We're probably stuck with the same old colleagues, family members, friends.. OK OK I kid, I kid. What I mean is that we're almost certainly going to be placing a fair bit of stock on, essentially, what the neighbours are going to say about any new look we care to try on. But that's cool - there's no shame in trying out new methods of self expression. Outside of workplace dresscodes, people who jibe you about your skirt or your bob or your whatever are not worth listening to about personal attire. Say to them, "I think it looks nice".

New beginnings, image-wise, are try-outs. Hair grows back - and if it doesn't, there are myriad head-covering options. Clothes can be recycled or gifted or upcycled or donated or sold. Even piercings heal over or can be taken out! Whether they turn out to be a step on the path to your ultimate super-image, a momentary source of interest or respite, a pain in the neck that you don't want to repeat or.. whatever you discover; the only things that threaten to remain are photographs.

And what do photographs prove? "I used to look a way I decided I didn't like, so I changed".

Addendum: If you wear a veil or other I-am-definitely-going-to-wear-it headgear - or perhaps have health-related hair-in-public issues - please forgive me for concentrating on a section of public grooming that doesn't quite apply to you. Add your own tips or ideas in the comments? Please!

Poorly edited-in X-Men cover (so sue me, I only have Pixen and a laptop touchpad right now..): X-Treme X-Men #31, by Chris Claremont and Igor Kordey, cover by Salvador Larroca, published by Marvel. Apparently issued in November 2003 but AH SWEAH I had that picture in September. Seriously, you guys!

Festivals, huh?

I don't have much festival experience, to be honest, because I find the idea of being trapped in a compound with a bunch of drunk people in wellingtons pissing up the walls leaves a little to be desired. And it's not like you need me to tell you how to dress, right? Even if you haven't seen any of the 'festival style' article every newspaper or magazine prints around the end of May every year, your average basic advice is: dress up like Noel Fielding. And leave your bra straps visible if you have them.

So my personal perspective on festivals come from the one time I went to V with a couple of friends in.. year ten? Here is what happened:

1. I threw up (in the car) after eating a nectarine, which made my vomit a sort of neon orange colour
2. At one point, a pair of knickers fell out of my bag. We were watching Athlete; I found myself slightly interested in how not-embarrassed I was.
3. This:
   
   When in doubt? Front!
   Maybe I'm sheltered? Yeah, I'm not ashamed. But I swear, I'm not making it up about the hat
4. ..And I saw Elvis Costello play. That was neat.

This year my only pangs are in the direction of Reading - my sister's going, and Gogol Bordello are playing, and that makes me want to choke a little bit I guess. Oh well! Trade-off's fine.

But that's me. And you're you! And presumably, you're considering - or definitely - off to the fields for a bit of fest this (or a future) summer. So let's think about what you need, and how to make it look better.

Thesite.org's tips on festival camping safety says "Keep your stuff to yourself:
Carry your cash, cards etc. with you at all times and never leave anything valuable in your tent. When you're asleep you might want to split your cash between two different secret spots - just in case one gets broken into.
I'm not going to say "bum-bags". Because those are pretty gross, most of the time. I am going to say "pouchbelts".

I use one whenever I go out because it makes me feel like a badass and keeps my hands free - which are the kinds of things that are useful, in super-social three day weekends. Look at these, all on etsy; these are flippin' rad. Click'em to check prices!

You can also hook your brolly on your belt if you take a curve-handled one.

Go forth and festify, citizen readers!

This month's brief: KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON - revision month. Tips for people under the yoke of academic study.

So what do I know about revision? Nothing, that's what - if I knew about revision, I'd have a job and a house. This left me at what seemed a minor creative disadvantage, this month.

Then again, I do know about being at home. And then again, this is a style-fashion blog. So what do you need from me? You need clothes-related calm-keeping. And that, I can give you!

It was my mother's birthday on St Patrick's day, this year (like every year), and (like every year) I had no idea what to give her! She's tricky. So you start at the start - what does the giftee do with their days? In the case of my mum, she teaches all day, and then she comes home and researches and plans for teaching in her office. But she gets cold - she ends up spending all day with her dressing gown or outdoor coat on over her clothes. Which really doesn't breed a comfortable attitude, for hard work or a quiet mind.

Etsy time! I got online and put in a search for a housecoat. Here she is work-ready, now - she's a part of the daytime world, and a part of the indoor world too:

Houseclothes have pretty much vanished from the average wardrobe, I'd posit. Watch something set in the fifties and you'll see housecoats and housedresses. Watch urban-based sixties and seventies films or shows and you'll probably see kaftans and velvety houseclothes. But by the time you're up to the eighties and onwards, "loungewear" (things you wouldn't wear outside) has pretty much become jersey and spandex, or sportswear. Things that actually, are perfectly socially acceptable to wear outside. Especially now.

That is what you, as a person actively revising or studying, want to avoid. Avoid avoid avoid!

If you have trouble, when you need to get down to it and work, you want to wear things that you wouldn't feel OK sleeping, or getting ready to sleep, in. Dressing gowns? Out! Pyjamas, oversized t-shirts? Out! You don't want to feel chillaxed. You don't want to feel sleepy or lazy. You need to feel ready, and capable, and Dressed For The Day. You need to feel prepared.

But you also don't want to be ready to go out. If you're dressed in a way that would not invite comment if you popped out to the shops, or went to the park, or went to roam around with friends for a bit - then you're encouraging yourself to do those things. And if you are doing those things, or thinking of those things, then you are not revising!

Revision dressing, then, might be taken in three basic directions: "classic loungewear"; "wacky experimentalism"; or "take luxury where you can find it".

All of these pictures bar the couple that are of me (the last pair in the first section) are of garments available from Corina Corina in Warwick; owner Ella was kind enough to let me invade her shop for a while last gloomy Saturday!

Classic Loungewear

Here we're talking clothes that were actually designed to be worn in-house only, OR clothes that are loose and comfortable against the body and currently off-trend. Some of these, like the Kaftans and smocks, are quite possibly still relevant to your everyday wardrobe - things you'd be perfectly alright with wearing outside. If this is the case.. pick a different category!

Personally when I wear designated houseclothes, I feel serene. I am where I am meant to be ("in the house"), and I feel comfortable, because these items were designed, specifically, to be no kind of hindrance to a person going about daily chores or catching up on correspondence.

Wacky Experimentation

Things that aren't technically "houseclothes", but which would make people, in an average British town, raise an eyebrow at you. I know, aren't people rude? But in exam season, it's probably best to keep sartorial experimentation to private hours.. because having people yell at you is neither calming nor focus-enabling. No, really. Don't bother being brave, just now. You need to concentrate.

These are good choices because they're fun, and fun is an antidote to soul-crushing anxieties such as "Oh man, what if I fail everything and die". They're creative expression at a time when it seems like your sole purpose is to be a fact-retaining machine, a repository for other people's discoveries. Did I mention I hated and was poor at revision?

Don't forget that WE houseclothes can also be physically practical - keeping your hair under control when your head is getting closer and closer to the textbook, when you haven't showered for days because you NEED THOSE EXTRA MINUTES.. yeah. Try out head wraps and bandannas! If you wear them already, step it up and opt for something bigger, brighter, or involving more knotting.

Take Luxury Where You Can Find It

If you're in school, or college or University, or.. well, if you are a member of society and answer to society's expectations, you probably have an outfits worth of occasional wear. Evening wear. Posh togs. And when do you wear it?

When I was in sixth form I skipped the prom, but I did go to my friends' joint birthday party. This required a dress. Not a cotton dress or a daydress or a sundress; a fancy dress, with beading and velvet ribbon. In my life, I have worn this dress out once: to that party. That is a gosh darn waste of fabric! If you have a dress or evening suit, or if you see a dress or evening suit and you love it, there is no reason why you should experience the joy of wearing it on nights dictated by the ebb and flow of your high-class social life.

If you have an item, you can wear that item. You can wear it to read notes on the scandals of Popes through the sixteenth century. You can wear it to organise your folder of Mondrian postcards. You can wear it with sequined shoes to make yourself a bracing cup of tea before diving back into what exactly the billboard meant in the Great Gatsby. If the dress is wonderful, it will make you feel wonderful - and feeling wonderful is conducive to a lack of stress and a belief in one's abilities. These are things that are important, when one's life is at a junction.

Good luck, readers! I bet you'll do great.

It's Vivienne Westwood!

Our April theme is STYLE ICONS; all of us columnists are having to ponder (or I guess for some of us, it's an easy choice?) who influences our style most. It's right there at the top of our homepage! For me, that's a pretty hard question, really. I don't let anyone influence my style the most - for one thing I don't really know of anyone who's shaped like me and more importantly, when I let anyone reign over my wardrobe-thoughts for too long I start to get itchy. It's not MY style any more.

The question for me is, who makes me feel the most validated when I follow my own ornery path? Vivienne Westwood, that is who.

It's true she's said some weird-ass things which make me roll my eyes,

Feminists wish women to seem like men. They're not men.

And that, in 2007 at least, she was speaking out as pro-Tory which is less than ideal to me. But since I was a wee piglet lying on my belly every Sunday night, soaking in the Clothes Show and the base-level knowledge that just as Raphael is my Favourite Ninja Turtle so Vivienne Westwood is "My Favourite Designer", I have been willing to bend where usually my fan-principles hold hard.

She's the mother of "the punk look", fergoodnessakes. I don't care how many punkhearts don't need safety pins and tartan to rock hard! Punk fashion sings to me.

There are endless debates (or discussions, really) about the difference between style and fashion; the consensus is generally that fashion moves and style matures. Style is the unfathomable you-ness, right? What you bring to the fashion. So a style icon has to have a themness about hirself..

I decided early on that I wasn't going to do a VW retrospective or a fact-based ream of praise because.. you're reading this online and she's a huge name and brand. You can find stuff like that out easily. Plus, I'm not talking in terms of "I buy her clothes and that means that she has influenced my style, because.. I don't. I don't have enough money to buy from her new, and I've never come across anything second-hand. Style icon; influence; Your Style - that's the brief. I wanted to give a tiny tour of how VW has had a so-called influence (I really couldn't say if she's changed me, or if I've just consistently enjoyed the existence of her work because her zest naturally appeals to me) on things I actually wear, rather than objects of hers which have themselves inspired me. You see what I mean?

Here's a season manifesto she wrote in 2008:

And here she is on Jonathan Ross recently, talking about saving the rainforests and the planet and admiring Prince Charles and LOOKING AMAZING.

This is why Vivienne Westwood is "my favourite". Her public image (personality/clothes hybrid) is about pro-activity and just DOING IT - creativity in motion. DIY and really really caring. She is.. cheeky soul? Look at that penis with wings, back up on the manifesto! Her website is called Active Resistance.

The following: Things I (love to) wear, captioned with the names of the flowers in-shot (learn them!), rounded up with the relevant September '08 manifesto line reference or quotation, and explanation. This is how Dame Westwood is my Style Icon: she is pro-worldsaving, and tells me I am right to dress how I do. Thanks, lady!

"Kerchiefs worn as knickers... or tied up as a bag" VW kerchief, which I have worn in both these ways.

I didn't do anything at the Queen, whom I admire.
"Badges (preferably with political slogans)" Well there is no slogan, and this is technically a charm not a badge, but - I am pro-queen and pro-royal in general. Does this (and that below) not proclaim it?

"Your old favourites - there is status in wearing your favourites over + over until they grow old (patina) or fall apart." This isn't an old jacket, but it's a favourite and it is certainly falling apart. WOOOOO TOPSHOP! I dig it, though, holes and all, and I'm not going to throw it away just because it's disintegrating. Wasteful, no? Holes mean patches, and patches mean "Badges (preferably with political[maybe not political-political] slogans)".

"[as above]" This kilt is moth-eaten as all heck. But it's my name-tartan. And kilts put me in mind of the whole punk thing again.. so O VW, once again you're on my side.

"[as above]" Apparently this kind of pleather doesn't age well? But pink plastic houndstooth kilt-skirts don't come along every day. I'm going to wear this untill it falls off. Vivienne Westwood told me to. Vicariously.

"[as above]"This was a gift when I was thirteen. I'm twenty-three (today!), so this is ten years old and going strong. Old favourite, old favourite, when will you grow your patina?

"[as above]" So I have a lot for this "old stuff's still good" point, but I wanted to get all the flower names in. And this one has darning. Darning's good to learn. I bet my Style Icon does agree!

I don't feel comfortable defending my clothes. But if you've got the money to afford them, then buy something from me. Just don't buy too much The kerchief was my first VW item. I felt kind of silly about being as joyful as I was to open it, but.. your heroines are your heroines. These shoes were the second, and they give me just as much squee. Anglomania + Melissa, post-season sale through YOOX. They make me happy. That makes me motivated.

It's just a visual association re:attitude. Active resistance! Wooargh!

You know (hopefully) that I'm all for 'fashion activism' and that BSB have embraced the idea of it too. So I think.. you can probably all share a little, in this pedestal-raising?

As you might have noticed from some of my previous posts here and on my own blog, I am a firm believe in the power of fiction. I've never had trouble understanding religious people despite not being an adherent to organised religion because I see in people studying and learning from, for traditionally British example, the Bible because that is exactly (or parallel-zactly) what I get out of the "genre" fiction that I like. I get morals, and lessons, and examples, and counter-examples, and reassurance, and guidance, and role models, and plenty of satan-alternatives from what I read and watch and listen to. This is not meant to trivialise organised or traditionally derived religion, at all - what I'm trying to do is to impress how seriously I take storytelling and art (which, basically, I look at in the same way) in general. I was looking at the cover of the MOOMIN complete collection volume two hardback the other day, and thinking just how amazingly excellent and powerful I find the characters, and noticing to myself "wow, Tove Jansson really didn't try to make her characters 'pretty', did she? I so admire her for that. It makes them.. even more wonderful". If they were pretty-pretty floaty drawings, they wouldn't be "Tove Jansson's Moomins" art.

This is common to a lot of the art that I really, really like. Paula Rego (above; possibly my very favourite) is interested in "the beautiful grotesque", and her work has strongly informed her son-in-law Ron Mueck. Frans Hals caught my eye in school with the Malle Babbe, Jester with a Lute and his "Gipsy Girl", all of which are about "the human face in action". The face in action is not what's asked for, in terms of "beauty". Is it? Claire Nelson's recent guest post circled this, too. The assumption is that you have to become an A-lister before people are willing to pay for pictures of your laughter, if it isn't in a specialised shoot.

Anyway, what I'm driving at is that art and fiction are great, great healers. Not only does art make the traditionally "ugly" (or just "not-beautiful" look wonderful, fiction makes it impossible to deny that the personality within a body is what really, truly, lastingly makes it shine. Having people to identify with who have great, unbelievable adventures helps make things OK. How many times have we heard Amy compare her hair to Hermione's? (Not complaining!) How much buzz was there about the Princess and the Frog, because now there would be a black Disney Princess and that would count? We talk about the media giving unrealistic body image standards, and we celebrate seeing more plus size models, and we know why: because seeing is believing, or at least a start at it. This is my advice: if you feel bad about yourself in any way, use fiction and art to combat it. Fashion comes under that heading, sure, but so do a lot of other things. Write a short story, silly if you like, about a girl with a great big arse. Make her life AWESOME, or make her big behind the thing that ends up saving the day, or just write a story about a girl, and know that while her derriere is large, that is neither the beginning nor the end of what makes her wonderful. Get out some coloured pencils and spend an hour or two doing detailed, better-and-better drawings of your "so weird" thumbs that you usually try to hide. Make a one-page comics about why the delicate, reactive skin on your face is actually kind of cool..

Don't go into street caricature territory. You aren't Lisa Simpson, and even if you're into chasing boys on roller-skates I bet you look just dandy doing it. Just draw what you see (what you REALLY see), or write the respect that you'd like. From yourself, and from others. If you really don't feel you can face what you think are your "worst points", or if you're just feeling in general "today/in this picture, I am just not having a good face day"? Within this week, drop a comment here, or email me your photo, and I'll do you an informal portrait. Maybe you can appreciate yourself when the only other choice is to say "I kind of hate the picture you drew of me.."? IT'S A CHALLENGE.

I was reading, recently. It was a recommendation-review, with scans, of the book Fun Home by Alison Bechdel (famed beyond her comics for the "Bechdel Test": does a movie have two women in it, who have a conversation, not about men? If it does, it's worth watching!). This panel stood out, because it reminded me of something. Once you've read it, I'll tell you a story.

Once upon a time, there was a version of me who was smaller, younger and all-round not quite as good as the one communicating with you right now. She was between, for the purposes of this tale, between fourteen and sixteen. I can't narrow it down any further, but I know that it was after Halle Berry wore that see-through, roses-over-the-boobs dress to wherever she wore it (and a fair bit before I met my beloved) because I was travel'd to London to see a design exhibition which included it.

We stopped at a deli for lunch and I ordered a massive and delicious tuna/mayonaise/sweetcorn white-bread baguette, when ALL OF A SUDDEN--

--And I just realised that when posting both my work alongside a published illustrator's, it's not good PR to decide to go with the sketchy-sketchy took-three-seconds look.. but! It felt honest--

--Things turned to the purple ink of a teenager's memory. You see, a lady appeared.

Not so unusual, not so noticable, just some lady. Spaghetti straps with no bra, that's maybe enough to raise an eyebrow? No, here's the thing.

Do you see?

And I.. I was like so.

I look back on this day and I am fascinated by the fact that I went a decade and a half without ever honestly realising that I didn't have to spend the rest of my life regularly depilating my underarms on pain of public shame and unwomanliness. I spent the rest of the meal like so -

My head kept going round and round, round and round, "You can do that? Don't stare/I'm not! You can do that??" And I thought she looked wonderful.

It took me until I was twenty one before I felt secure in doing away with the removal of my armpit hair. In school, sixth form, college, uni, I'd hear "I haven't shaved my armpits today, I'm so gross" and see my friends (lady ones) yank their arms down SUDDENLY because they realised they had the smallest, shortest amount of stubble. Drove me nuts, I tell ya, but I couldn't break away! Too nervous. I'm twenty-three in April, and I've not worn a sleeveless shirt in four years - since I started experimenting with shaving less. I will be this summer.

The thing about this memory, my story and this post is that seeing that woman in the summer in London gave me the impetus to take an eight year journey of courage that has made me happier, more enamoured of my own appearance, and massively importantly it's made me so, SO much less ANNOYED! I hated shaving my armpits, I hated the fiddliness of it and the requirement that I felt to do it.

Let's do some maths. Let's say doing both sides together takes one minute. Let's say that I 'had' to do it three times a week to keep 'decent', because my hair grows fast. Let's say I was going to live for seventy years, post-puberty. Three times one minute per week is three. Fifty-two times three is One hundred and fifty-six. Seventy times one hundred and fifty six is 10,920, according to google calculator. 10, 920 minutes is 25.3333333 hours, again according to google calculator. And for me? That means just over one day of purest, most concentrated rage, hate and resentment that I am so glad I rejected from my life.

I want to thank that woman. And you, because if you live in a way that makes you feel right, and follow your aesthetic truths, you're telling all the kids who see you that they can do it too - no matter how long it might take them.

Check out these and challenge that old rubbish!

Still looking for inspiration for our fashion activism challenge? There's still time to decide to join in! Please look no further than the - well perhaps not style but fashion icons: Patsy Stone and Edina Monsoon!

Yeah, there's nothing more to say about this. Listen to Pats and Edie. They know what to do.

About nothing.

But they have fun!

HEY - HEY FASHION BLOGGERS!

Excuse me --

I have a challenge for you.

I want you to (and I know you can do it) put together an outfit, a really fabulous outfit, that will help change the future.

You might know, or you may not, about the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen that will take place this month. You might , or you may not, have heard that the weekend surrounding the 12th of December (as the conference is happening) is going to be the date of international activism, dedicated to showing the world leaders in attendance that The People of the world care about it's future and encourage world powers to commit to actions that will stop, or slow, carbon emissions and climate change. 350.org is serving as a HQ of sorts for protest-based action.

Now, we're fashion bloggers. There's not much expectation that comes with this, and what stereotyping there is isn't, perhaps, so positive. But you and I know that that's bunkum. We're awesome! We care!

We care about living, and we care about living in a world where there's opportunity for frivolity and expression.

So my challenge to you is this:

On Friday the eleventh or Saturday the twelfth of December (that's the weekend after the one coming) I challenge you to turn your indoor heating off, or down. I challenge you to put together a marvelous, stylish outfit that will make you look just as good as usual, but that will keep you warm without the need for power or electricity. Lets show the world that we not only care, but that we're willing to find a positive side to cutting carbon emissions and to enjoy keeping our world safe.

Let's be honest, after all - how often do you get to wear your full vintage set of matching hat-scarf-gloves-purse? How often can you wear your '50s fur coat, or those two chunky cardigans that you know would look so good layered together, but just cause you to overheat when you try? I know that I only wear my green-blue suede gloves and hand-stitched woolen hat in the two minutes that it takes to get from my Dad's car to the building where we work. Four minutes in a day? Is that really all these garments deserve?

This is a challenge. It might not sound easy; dressing with warmth at the forefront of one's mind can bring thoughts of practicality over attraction, it's true. But it IS possible. Are you going to say you can't look good warm?

Turn your heating off, or down, all day of for an hour or two. 11th/12th December. That's all. Document what you wore and send it to claire@illustratorclaire.co.uk; everyone who takes part will be linked to and their picture featured here in a masterpost at BSB. A collage will go up on the 350.org website. I'm also offering ten small, mystery prizes to those who take part. You won't know what they are or how you can win them until after the 13th, but I can promise you that they won't be things I think are shit!

Make a stylish difference. We can do it! Are you in?

EDIT: If you're planning to take part, or if you feel it's a worthy cause, please add this banner to your blog!

Copy and paste this code to wear it on your blog, too...

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