hoodies

Hoods. Hoodies. Hooded sweatshirts. I like them. Plain. Pullover. No logo or design. That's exactly my favorite fashion.

 A hooded sweatshirt feels like protection. It feels like a hug from a lover. I would like to explore this idea of hooded sweatshirts and their place in society. Their place in the fashion world.

 The kind I like:

 The kind I hate:

If I had to wear the 'kind I hate" I think I would be in a bad mood. This is an interesting idea...how can the clothes that you wear affect your cognitive being? Halloween can be very empowering - choosing to wear something new and the abandonment of your dressing routine. Would I be more brave if I dressed daily in a fire-fighter's clothing?

Back to 'wear' I started.
From Wikipedia:

History

The garment's style and form can be traced back to Medieval Europe when the formal wear for monks included a long, decorative hood called cowl worn a tunic or robes.^[1] The hooded sweatshirt was first produced in the United States starting in the 1930s. The modern clothing style was first produced by Champion in the 1930s and marketed to laborers working who endured freezing temperatures while working in upstate New York.^[2] The term hoodie entered popular usage in the 1990s.^[3]

The hoodie took off in the 1970s, with several factors contributing to its success. Hip hop culture developed in New York City around this time, and the hoodie's element of instant anonymity, provided by the accessible hood, appealed to those with criminal intent.^[2] High fashion also contributed during this era, as Norma Kamali and other high-profile designers embraced and glamorized the new clothing.^[1] Most critical to the hoodie's popularity during this time was its iconic appearance in the blockbuster Rocky film.

By the 1990s, the hoodie had evolved into a symbol of isolation, a statement of academic spirit, and several fashion collections.^{[citation needed]} The association with chavs or neds in the UK developed around this time, as their popularity rose with that specific demographic. Young men, often skateboarders or surfers, sported the hoodie and spread the trend across the western United States, most significantly in California.^{[citation needed]} The rise of hoodies with university logos began around this time.^{[citation needed]} Tommy Hilfiger, Giorgio Armani, and Ralph Lauren, for example, used the hoodie as the primary component for many of their collections in the 1990s.^[1][2]

It's fascinating that the hoodie has become a symbol for such things. It does provide its wearer protection from the outside world. A way of hiding or becoming anonymous. Just recently hoodies were on the news in regards to the killing of Trayvon Martin. 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/21/trayvon-martin-million-hoodie-march_n_1371403.html

The visual culture of a hoodie was strong enough for this to happen? 

This site is under construction.

As New Yorkers, so I believe I can now also call myself, we see a ton of construction. Whether a building is going up or down or being worked on, there are visible signs denoting the 'construction.' Just today I came across a new kind of 'under construction' sign at my nearest subway stop of the G train at Bedford-Nostrand. On the side of the Brooklyn-bound track large offwhite sheets of fabric closed off the view across the span of the whole platform. There was no heavy sounding machinery or any overt signs informing about the site being under construction. After being used to the MTA preparing an extensive amount of signage and notifications this strikes me as a bizarre sight.

dorothy or...

At the coffeeshop I work at there is a little girl living next door who often comes by with her father. She is to either be addressed by her name, Elona, or when dressed in a blue checked dress, Dorothy. I find it amazing how this 3 year old identifies herself as a different person when wearing different attire. She is, of course, Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, a movie she has been watching nonstop for the last few weeks. What made her parents buy her the costume? Is it alright to encourage dressing up? Why should such a fantastical play idea only have its rights on Halloween, anyway?

Our Accumulations

Dear Diary,

I have too much stuff. Just today I tried to get rid of things...spring cleaning, you know? But as I went through all of the objects in my world, I found myself getting stuck in moment after moment of memories that each item of clothing or knick-knack brought forth. Csikszentmihalyi writes that, "...things stabilize our sense of who we are; they give a permanent shape to our views of ourselves that otherwise would quickly dissolve in the flux of consciousness."

Why is it that we all become buried in our stuff? Does it happen more easily to women than men? I got talking about this the other night with my boyfriend's mother and her sister. All of the us seemed to agree that a women is more likely to have sentimental attachment to objects than men; making for a more difficult departure with their 'stuff.' This was all based on first hand experience. My boyfriend's mother explained the situation in which she recently donated the remnants of their garage (they just moved) to a neighborhood church. Before it was to be collected, her husband began to go through the items asking if she was sure she wanted to get rid of them. At first she did the same thing that I found myself doing, reminiscing about the memories tied to the object and said, "I wanted to keep everything and tell the church picker-uppers to turn around and go back." While a fair share of the men we know, are able to keep their belongings minimal. Like my dad, he would own just one pair of pants and one tshirt if it weren't for my mom buying him new things all the time and managing his clothing.

There is something of beauty that can be found in every object; the slightly smooth texture that soothes your thumb when you rub it, or the way the orange bit glints in the sunshine. When is the moment that you are ready to get rid of something? What makes me so horrible at this while others can successfully keep their lives minimized with stuff.

There's that saying that one person's trash is another person's treasure. What if the one person is never able to give up their trash?

photo retouching

It is almost impossible to see an image in today's society that has not been retouched. We all know about the 'airbrushed' supermodels in magazines but how about your friends on facebook airbrushing themselves in iphoto before posting their photos online? Its obvious when a photo has been made to look vintage through various filters easily accessible on the iphone, but how about using photoshop to blur out blemishes and the clone tool to remove moles and to give a more defined jawline? Embarrasingly enough these are edits that I recently made to a picture of myself and as my finger hovered over the mouse about to click to post, I stopped myself. I decided that I didn't want to share a false impression. But for so long I have been editing photos of myself for the public world that I now feel that all 'real' photos of myself are too ugly. This makes me sick. What's next? People retouching their own children?

When I lived in Seoul, S Korea for a year I had a passport photo taken for an ID. When it was returned to me, the zit on my cheek was not there! A Korean coworker told me that it's very normal for them to retouch your photo before printing it. I kind of liked it but at the same time it's a bit strange to retouch a photo that is solely for identification purposes.

Bud Light Platinum on the Subway

Every hour should be happy. For the other 9 to 5. The night is always young. Every night has potential.

Covering the entire length of the subway car in all capital letters are these words which one reads over and over in a matter of seconds with nonchalance.

How is it that our government can support these advertisement campaigns on mass transit in NYC. Why does alcohol even need to be advertised? It seems to be one of the main subway advertisements that I see, whether its for beer, whiskey or rum.

Taking a closer look at the BUD LIGHT PLATINUM ads...the only image used is of the bottle from the neck down on the banner ads. The bottle is glistening with dew drops. The background is a subdued halo effect of blue surrounding the bottle and fading into blackness. The shiny bottle with its glowing reflective smooth surface draws the eye simply to the text and back to the image in a circular way. There is additional text provided so that you can even tag it in your twitter posts with the hash tag that is provided. The very idea that beer is responsible for having a happy life. Coming from a family where alcoholism is a factor, these ads are a slap in the face. "Every night has potential" the ad pushes in your face the bottle of Bud Light. Every night could be great and make you happy if you simply had a beer. To equate happiness with alcohol is a total disaster. Especially saying that every hour should be a happy hour. Is that to mean we should always be drinking Bud Light Platinum to attain happiness? Alcohol as a drug is a depressant...it cannot make you happy.

The beer was introduced in advertising during the Super Bowl of 2012. The advertsing is targeted for social networking sites and is meant to be spread about via Twitter and Facebook using the hashtag "MAKE IT PLATINUM" Apparently this advertising is working as you can see how many people, "Like" it.

WANTED

Kept looking at this on the subway today. A little bit confused with the smallness of the type notifying you that "wanted" is available on iTunes. Which led me to believe that Sasha Gradiva must be a musical artist with some new hit single called, "Wanted."

This is the first police wanted poster of British history dating back to 1881.

Sasha Gradiva...trying to make a name for herself with the boldened typeface and catchy and seductive colors of red, white and black. Her face is central to the ad making it the focal point. Yet her face is in quite the disguise with all of the makeup she is wearing. "HELP TRAP A SPY!". I'm really not sure who this ad is targeting. Most likely teenagers that would be entranced by the costume appeal and by the game of the ad.