September 22, 2009
Tavi Gevinson, thirteen year old phenom and fashion blogger
Please go here to watch the video.
Her blog.
From the article where I found out about her.
Gevinson recently posted an extract from her barmitzvah speech. “As I said earlier, the Nazarites wore just enough to keep them warm, believing that that was the wish of God. Over this past year I have become increasingly interested in clothing, and have developed a clearer understanding of the idea that clothing can be art… Rei Kawakubo, who many regard as the first conceptual designer and whose clothes can often inspire uncomfortable thoughts or feelings in people, is my favourite designer in the world… Using fashion as self-expression can go beyond wearing a shirt with a slogan, as clothing has the ability to evoke an entire feel, or atmosphere, or emotion, or world.” She has also posted a video of her performing a rap about the Comme des Garcons collection for H&M.
I’m officially in love with Tavi.
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Cindy, was this you at thirteen?
hmm. not in love with the kid. Needs to spend more time playing outdoors or with friends.
I’m with you Deron.
Love.
Amy and I are filing for adoption.
Can Danny and I be god-daddies?
Ha! When I first heard about this girl months ago, I was completely weirded out. I guess I had the range reaction.
Rick, we would insist.
Oh, I love this! I love her! She’s not me at 13, though. I was too obsessed with basic philosophical questions at the age of 13 to concern myself with the high art of fashion (that discovery came later–and, I swear, my thinking remains to this day pretty much exactly as Tavi articulates it in your excerpt). Tavi strikes me as being much closer to India at 13. India, is this you?
Also–and completely unrelated–I’ve been in Austin on business the last couple of days. I stayed at the new conference hotel on the edge of the UT campus. I awoke around 2:30am to the sound of heavy rain outside, so I got up and opened my curtains. My view was of the UT Tower where Charles Whitman opened fire on students in 1966. It was the oddest experience–sitting in a hotel in the rain, looking at that tower, not a soul on the street. I thought of Deron and Mary and Aaron and Barry and other people I’ve known who have walked that campus, carrying their brilliance with them. It was so strange–it felt as if I were alone in the world, except for my knowledge of others who have experienced the same place. It was truly a transcendent moment, but one whose significance is still out of my reach.
Well she sounds like she is really into this, that she has a passion for it, and I don’t actually think that needs tempering by the outdoors if that is what she is. There are people shut up for 8 hours a day playing piano at that age, and sometimes it is good and sometimes it is not good. And that will always be the judgement of the beholder.
When I clicked on the Guardian link though, I have to say it made me shudder. That photograph, Christ. Everything about that world makes me shudder, really. What she said in the above quote seems exactly the kind of insight a smart thirteen year old can have, and let’s hope that she can continue to think and feel in that way, or that after forgetting it for 20 years she finds it again. I think fashion is a pretty tough world for any human being to get out of without acquiring a hunchback that they’re trying to hide, really. That’s what those people on the front line look like to me. The whole thing gives me the creeps.
I had a Tavi appreciation blog for a while about a year or so ago. She frightens and confuses and… I don’t know. I think I know way too much about Tavi in general.
Lucy? Guardian link?
Amanda? “way too much? In general?
Links, please.
thank you, Cindy. I appreciate having access to that moment.
The link’s in the post, Rick. Just above the quote.
hermosa