Fashion & Style, The Sartorialists — September 10, 2012 at 1:04 pm

Show Us Your Fall Fashion The “Different Is Cool Way” with Lookbook

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The cover of US Vogue’s massive 2012 September issue, featuring one of our favourite fashion eccentrics, Lady Gaga.

Hey, it’s September!  Or, as it’s known in fashion circles, the most important month of the sartorial year.

Fashion magazines produce their largest issues of the year in September [this year’s American Vogue boasts it’s biggest issue ever, at 916 pages] and retailers stock their shops with new merchandise, all in the hopes of courting consumers of all ages to get into the “back to school” spirit and purchase new items.

I love fashion – some of my first memories are of fashion – my mother’s glamourous 70′s silk jumpsuits, gold jewelry and deep tan is burned in my brain & a look I’m still attracted to; the denim overall hotpants with rainbow butterfly embroidery on the bib that I wore in kindergarten [my sister had a matching pair, I thought we were as cool as The Partridge Family]; my adored black & white, faux-python pilgrim shoes that I wore throughout 2nd grade [I famously wore them with tartan wide leg pants and a red & white maple leaf blouse for our class photo – don’t judge me, it was the 70’s; besides, Marc Jacobs showed pilgrim shoes for FW12-I was just ahead of my time :) ]

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Marc Jacobs’ pilgrim shoes from his FW2012 runway show.

 

Expressing oneself through fashion is something we all do – whether conscious or not – and for a lot of people each day’s sartorial choices are governed by their mood, their schedule and the weather – and, often, the trends as set out by fashion’s arbiters of style.

At Different Is Cool, we obviously always vote for individuality above conformity, and that mindset spills over into fashion.

So, while I recognize that fashion trends exist [believe me, I’ve made some questionable, trend-driven choices in my time], I laud those designers and everyday people who rail against them and march to the beat of their own, Sgt. Pepper-military-inspired, drummer.  [See “Related Posts” below for a few of our favourite fashion designers, eccentrics and blogs.]

As I’m a literature, art and music fanatic, I’m especially drawn to those who take an intellectual approach to fashion – referencing literary characters, paintings and music in their wardrobe, hair and makeup looks.

With that in mind, this fall fashion article will focus on a website I love:  LOOKBOOK.nu.  

Lookbook is  a super-hip, community-based fashion and culture website, allowing young, everyday people to post photos of their looks and garner “Hype” [ie. “Likes”], Fans and “Karma” [the average number of hypes received, divided by the number of looks the user has posted].

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What I love most about it, is that it’s worldwide, and the users’ styles are as varied as the number of countries they come from…it’s a worldwide web of individualism and ferocity.

One of my favourite users is Olivia H., a stunning 19 year old from England.  Her look is a bit gothic, very rock ‘n’ roll, a bit mad hatter’s tea party and glamourous.  She’s the best of British eccentric.

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A look from Olivia H. Photo is her own.

 

Or Chloe T. from Melbourne – who describes herself as a “26 year old creepy stranger” [Note: she looks about 14, so I’m not buying 26, however, she had me at “creepy stranger”].  Her look is colourful, textural, strange, humorous and smart

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A look from Chloe T. from Melbourne.

 

There are 10′s of thousands of users on Lookbook to peruse – and I’m delighted to say that each one is a Different Is Cool kind of person – proud, self-confident nonconformists.

So, go ahead and join Lookbook.nu and start posting your own fierce style.

After all, you’re not the kind to be put in a box of someone else’s creation.  Forge your own sartorial path…you’ll feel great and perhaps even garner some sartorial karma. :)

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If you’re so inclined, here’s a little video piece about one of the greatest Fashion Eccentrics of them all: the late Isabella Blow.