Ethics, ads, and curling

I am finally back in New York, and I look like someone who has spent the past week eating deep friend Cajun food and staying out too late with reconnected friends. Maybe an outfit post later, but I wanted to chime in on some of the debates going on in the fashion blogosphere (to which I am a real newbie).

One of the cool things about NYC fashion week was the new emphasis on bloggers. The wonderful folks at 39th and Broadway have a great piece on the role of bloggers at fashion week. One of the recent controversies in the (non-blog) press concerns whether or not (certain) bloggers are just mouthpieces for certain brands. Wendy Barnes has a brilliant post about how bloggers should disclose their activities, sponsorship, and swag fully, and the conversation that ensued was really insightful. I understand that everyone blogs for a different reason, but I agree with Wendy Barnes, that if a blogger have certain obligations to certain sponsors, than he or she should be very forthright. The blogger/reader relationship (and often it's not a huge distinction, and many readers are also bloggers) is a delicate one, and people can get turned off and offended easily (both side). I suppose that for this is not a problem for me as I only have a handful of readers and I have no aspirations to make this into anything but a hobby. I am no one's mouthpiece but my own. I have my own weird style, and my own weird preferences, and I hope that a few folks read this, find it amusing/entertaining/practical (I first starting reading style/fashion blogs as a form of procrastination, but it became something else).

That said, I would like to disclose why I've started this style blog, by citing the comments by Sal from Already Pretty in response to Academichic's discussion about the "politics of style." I engage in this both as a way to encourage my own style development, but also because part of me believes it's important for non-normatively attractive woman to engage in creating style. Like Sal, I want to challenge the hegemonic notions about beauty and style.

I have recently discovered Jessie.anne.o's blog. She lives in Brooklyn too, she's adorable and stylish, but also incredibly insightful and socially aware. She had a logo (now visible to my left) of the "Ad-Free Blog." I loved the whole ideology behind the Ad-Free Blog, and so I want to commit myself to some idea of social responsibility, sustainability, and progressive politics whilst engaging in something that is generally considered trivial and vain. I'm certainly not the poster child for any of these things (although we live very green compared to the rest of the United States in NYC, without a car, with barely any heat, and eating a mostly vegetarian diet).

Enough heavy politicking, as I tend to do. How cute are the ladies on the U.S. Olympic curling team? I was once a dedicated member of the St. Paul Curling Club (biggest in North America). My curling broom now hangs on my broom rack in the kitchen. One day, I will have more time and money and I will start curling again (it's hard to do this in town. You gotta be Canadian or travel to Bridgeport, CT; Ardsley, NY; or somewhere in NJ (all expensive to get to on commuter lines).

Source: The U.S. Curling Association