I really don't know how to start this blog.
I rarely know how to start anything, to be quite honest, σbut that's a hangup that I'm going to need to get over if I ever want to start something.
For a long time now I really haven't started anything.
Maybe in some abstract way I've recently started on some journey I'm yet to know the form of, as one does with most things that you "get into". You really never know you're "in" something until long after you've started, and maybe by that point you've forgotten the exact point at which you started.
Take fashion for example. I can't for the life of me remember when I "started" getting into fashion, it just kind of evolved out of basically nothing. Sure, there are landmark moments that propelled me into developing a deeper interest in it, like joining a fashion YouTubers discord when I was 16, but if I didn't have an interest in fashion before then, I wouldn't have done it.
I sure as hell didn't suddenly think to myself one day "hey what if I started wearing stuff that looks cool and learning about what makes an outfit on the whole look cool", I was just sort of railroaded into it by chance.
See, there are things that you get railroaded into, a random flight of fancy that snowballs into an obsession, but other times there are just things that don't just happen for you. You have to consciously start, and you can't wait for the "right time" or "right mood" to start. Such a thing rarely exists.
And when you start, you can't really know whether or not it's ever going to go anywhere. I'm sure plenty of you have had those short little blips of random inspiration and motivation at some inopportune time of the night, thinking "this is the turning point! this is when my life is gonna start improving! I'm finally on the upswing! things are finally gonna change", only for that epiphany to lead to absolutely nothing and for you to be back behind your computer, sleepily skimming through your browser tabs less because you're actually interested in reading them but more just because you feel an obligation to finish and close them all in order for your mental slate to be clean enough for the "real work" to start.
Right?
It's not just me, I can't be the only one who has to deal with this.
I've certainly had that happen to me enough times for me to never get my hopes up.
If I ever have the slightest idea that whatever I'm thinking of doing "could be the just the plan i need to move forward in life, this is where it all starts", I'm quick to realize I'm lying to myself. In this sorry state of affairs, all I can really do is carelessly, robotically plant seeds without expecting myself to get invested or engaged with what I'm doing, because given how badly my dopamine sensors have been burnt out, that's an entirely-too-high bar to cross.
I give entirely too much of a shit about whether or not I'm doing any of the things I tell myself I want to do right, or whether it'll be exciting or intriguing enough to keep my lizard brain occupied. It's time I switched off the fun centers in my brain and started treating shit like a job. I tend to be better at doing things as a "job" than I am at doing them for fun, if that train of thought makes any sense at all. I feel like it makes perfect sense in my head.
Maybe this blog isn't going to go anywhere, but if there's by some miracle some market for text-based blogging in this age of bumblefuck badly-audio-balanced youtube video essays and ever-shortening attention spans, (from which I am sadly not exempt), then hopefully I can monetize this blog to turn it into a proper side-hustle, a job, not another doomed flight of fancy.
If this blog doesn't take off at all, at least I'll be able to use some of my writing as scripts for youtube videos, and I'll have developed some proficiency in writing.
Hopes and Ideas for this Blog
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Above: Ethan Wong
My main inspiration for starting a blog over say, a more audio-based youtube channel, as a format, was the blog "a little bit of rest" by Ethan Wong, who has firmly established his position in the menswear scene by being someone with both a reverence for the quirks and elegance of "Golden Age" vintage menswear from a young age, as well as being on the cutting edge of more current and casual men's style trends and perspectives that are out of step with (if you'll pardon the marxist dialect) the more "bourgeoisie" meta of "classic menswear", routinely promoted to and by approaching-or-past middle-age businessmen, seemingly concerned more with ideas of what it means to be "well dressed" that are firmly rooted in the 20th century, and as such, becoming increasingly out of touch with the climates, attitudes, and challenges of the 21st century, as the Millenials are getting on in age and the Gen Z "zoomers" of (which I am one) have never lived in a world where their dad left for work with a full suit and tie.
Ethan really showed me what the blogging format can do for discussion of menswear, or discussion of anything really, as one can easily link to other articles and attach and embed dozens of images and videos in a way that isn't possible with video formats, podcasts, or other social media sites.
As well as that, the barrier for what might be worth a new blog entry is not as high as it might be for a video. With blogs, there's less of an expectation to have a consistent formula than one might have with a youtube channel.
One can just chuck out a very basic review of a shoe or something, and the next day go on a long, winding editorial about the state of indie music and its future using the internet as its the main platform of distribution (ooh, there's an idea), and unlike the more maximal presentation requirements a youtube video might have, there's no expectation to maintain a consistent "style of editing" and always have some video in the background even if it offers no value to the point you're trying to make, and unlike with podcasts, there isn't a need to have an organic vocal delivery and clear, concise enunciation of what you're saying.
That's not to say I don't intend to try both of those mediums, but I feel people underappreciate the unique benefits of the written word because the focus required to engage with the content makes it less immediately accessible to anyone who hasn't quite developed the patience to read a full article. Hell, I can barely find the focus or time to read every word of a full-length article even on Ethan's blog. I can only just about write this blog with squeedly punk-rock or hypersampled rave music blasting in my ears for the whole time I'm doing it.
I don't think I've read a proper book in years.
My music taste described in one shitty reddit meme.
Also, I'm a bit reserved about showing my face and voice just yet, not out of excessive self-consciousness or low self-esteem, but rather because I prefer to live a more anonymous life online, at least for a while, and let whatever I make be appreciated for it's own merits, not because some "personality" is attached to it. (Plus, my current wardrobe and physique are pretty lackluster, and I'd like to be a bit more put together for when I finally step in front of the camera)
All that said, my current goals with this blog are pretty vague at this current point in time, but I'm pretty sure I want to do more with it than just talk about fashion.
I've always been rather fascinated with the idea of doing field journalism, the promise of being in the red-hot center of cultural, political, and artistic movements and events, even if those events are some annual niche subculture convention or mediocre, low-budget rock concerts that for all the niceties provided and people that arrived may as well have been set up in their garage.
It doesn't matter, just being anywhere and seeing anything of note go down will be far more exciting than spending all my time inside just watching it be live-streamed from the soul-spoiling comfort of my chair like I have for most of my teenage life.
Above: Some stills from Andrews numerous inteviews.
If you want a good example of the kind of silly things I want to report on, I can't think of a much better example than the youtube channel, "All Gas No Brakes", more recently rebranded to "Channel 5 News", where the curly-haired host, Andrew Callaghan, dons his oversized suit and tie to hold a microphone up to America's cultural underbelly, and lets its proud members speak for themselves, no matter how odd, awkward, or downright insane they sound. Like some sort of 21st century Hunter S. Thompson, he's been to flat earth conferences, adult video expos, furry conventions, proud boys rallies, even the 2020 Minneapolis protests infamously described by CNN as "fiery, but mostly peaceful". If there's any role model for wannabe journalists, he's echelons above any of the clickbaiters, smear merchants, radical activists, or tabloid wankers that hold the official occupation of "journalist" today.
In the midst of a 24/7 internet spew of trivia and celebrity bullshit, he's a breath of fresh air and a bastion of hope in the power and excitement of true, blue-collar journalism, and I hope to approach that.
As for fashion though, I want to expand on Ethan Wong's approach to the "classic menswear" discussion, combining reverence for golden age tailoring with an appreciation for more modern styles and attitudes, but with an even more psychedelic, colorful, and internet-age twist, given my love for the colorful experimentation with tailoring and subculture from the 1960s onward (Mods, Punks, Peacocks, and even the flared disco styles of the 70s), and background in various colorful niches of internet culture.
In doing this, I hope to bring a love for tailoring back to Gen Z, less as an antiquated symbol of affluence and formality and more as a canvas for self-expression, especially among vibrant subcultures and countercultures.
I have an idea for a blog where I pick apart the costume design in films not typically considered "menswear movies", to see if there's some style inspiration to be gleaned from them and maybe something a bit more eccentric than is typically discussed in "menswear circles". This is in no way a new idea, Ethan Wong has already done something similar on numerous occasions.
Some movies and shows I'm thinking of analyzing are:
- Twin Peaks
- Classic Doctor Who
- Modern Doctor Who
- HBO's Gotham (2014)
- Wes Anderson Films
- Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul
- Christopher Nolan's Batman Trilogy
- Fight Club
- Some late 90s anime (Trigun, Cowboy Bebop, Outlaw Star)
Yes, the above list is basically whatever I happen to be watching at the time.
I'm not very experienced (I'm 18) and I barely have a wardrobe worth posting pictures of myself, but that hasn't stopped me from developing an encyclopedic, almost autistic visual vocabulary of menswear details and structure, and I don't have money, or a very good chance at getting myself into any fashion design courses at college (at the moment), so doing a blog like this is the only way I can make use of the kind of knowledge I have.
I said at the beginning of this blog that I really didn't know how to start a blog post, and I'm just as unfamiliar with how one ends a blog.
So uh, the end, I guess. But it's also a beginning? I don't know, I just started.
