I've moved on...
...to a different domain. Why, what were you thinking? The truth is, I just woke up one day and decided it's time for a change—a metamorphosis, if you will; or, in layman's terms, if Britney can shave her head, then maybe so can I? Nevertheless, it's been a rather handsome 10 years of talking to you, and thank you for putting up with all my moodswings and terrible dad jokes. Fear not! The hormonal imbalance and jokes are more terrible on CUBICLE, see you there.

The Circus Bookazine Blogslam was truly unlike any event I’d attended. The bookazine is a blogger-only publication, and the first issue was on Fashion – so I’d expected the usual roster of fashion bloggers with the latest of Jeffrey Campbell trotters around the Asahi beer lake, but the entire night I didn’t see a single familiar face. I attended as a contributor after having sent a few shots under the theme of DIYA: Do It Yourself Alone, featuring GyuEllen and Daniela from the F Blog. But these bloggers wrote about politics, human rights, relationships, feminism… and some of the things they read out during the blogslam competition, my my, couldn’t keep my Vitamin Water booze down. There are just so many more ways to blog than posting pictures of what you wore, check out Scalene Adventure for example – the readers decide the fate of the storyline, now how neat is that.

This might come across as blasphemy from someone who is allegedly a ‘fashion’ blogger, but I never read the contents of Vogue or Elle, simply because I don’t agree to the perishable lifestyle they promote. This Bookazine on the other hand, I’d like to sit down one day and read it cover to cover. The articles are smart, humble and written with humility – rare trait in fashion, wouldn’t you say? My favourite quote must be from one of the articles by a 19-year-old model: ‘I don’t consider myself a model; the word ‘model’ means something that should be followed for its perfection, and no one is perfect.’

The bookazine is in both German and English, available here! Thank you Anke & Flo & Circus Team for the hard work and Flo for editing the video!

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28 Comments

  1. “There are just so many more ways to blog than posting pictures of what you wore”

    I agree with this statement wholeheartedly. I love clothes as much as the next girl; but I wish bloggers would concern themselves with something more. Writing for the sake of writing, photography for the sake of photography, a rant on something smart, something political.

    Honestly, two main reasons I follow your blog? Your great photography and your smart and humorous outlook on things. Mostly the second. Although your innate and impeccable fashion sense helps a little bit, too.

    There’s a huge world outside of fashion out there. I wish people would open their eyes and take a look around.

  2. jeffrey campbell trotters – haha. so why do many women still wear them? i do wonder, sometimes.

    i think i speak for all: we know that bloggers could do more than post pictures of what they wore. that they don’t do it more surely doesn’t mean they’re not concerned with more serious stuff? i’m sure this has been debated long before i ventured into this space called blogosphere. it’s been quite a number of years already yet look at where the engagement is, if we base the degree of it simplistically on readers’ comments. but you see, this is just one place we’re looking at.

    i used to buy glossies but not anymore cos they cost quite a bit. i sometimes did come across articles that’re worth reading. at least, they appeared so to me. and it’s probably cos i’m not very well read and so am easily persuaded? the other lifestyle bits offered temporary distraction and escapism. i’m not throwing this at you, Shini. i could see that you’re not saying that to fish for compliments. i just think it’s easy to forget that the media is just part of ‘reality’. it’s like we’ve been in this ‘matrix’ for so long that we’ve come to think things this way. .

  3. Dude, I have no idea about those Campbells. I still don’t see the appeal of those new ones that are floating around…

    I do think it’s harsh to judge style bloggers and put them in pile labelled ‘shallow’ or ‘avoid’, we all know that’s not their fulltime job. Some are medicine students, some are architects…smart people. But the whole trend, and the celebrity blogger phenomenon encourages young girls to latch onto opening a style blog without having had the opportunity to find that other interest that would get them to that art, architecture, medicine degree… All the while worshipping skinny models and prosperity.

    So very true about how media is part of reality, we live in media, media lives in us…right? Maybe I’m not paying my respect to amazing fashion journalists out there but then again its the commercialized topic & lifestyle I’m peeved at, not the writing talents. I guess there’s no right answer to this. As long as one has their head screwed in properly and knows how to keep ground and stick to their beliefs then maybe that’s all the difference it makes…

  4. Just Silvia

    I understand thet sometimes posting about fashion may be seen …superficial and there is a whole world outside the “fashion world”, but i don’t completely agree with you. There are many things about you can blog, but a fashion blog is about fashion. And there’s nothing wrong about it. You would never see a reference about chloe latest collection in a sports blog or something, and i think is fine. The thing a like the most about blogs is that they are highly thematic. I read lots of architecture blogs too, and when i am in the mood for architecture i don’t want to be assaulted with the political ideas of the person behind the blog. If i were, i would be reading political opinion blogs.
    Anyway i only follow fashiong blogs that “give” me something: good photographs, information about designers, good places to go eating or visiting… Blogs like yours.

    P.S. I miss your DIY’s

  5. Well, I absolutely agree with you. The magic of fashion blogs is that it’s a bit of a fantasy world and it’s visually enchanting, there’s really nothing wrong with them. Worrying only starts when young girls decide to open a blog after looking at the successes of certain style bloggers (celebrity phenomenon…) and not consider other ‘smarter’ topics they could explore. Of course by ‘smart’ I mean something that doesn’t just rely on how you look like and what material stuff you have in your closet. I feel like having a blog is a great learning assistance, but one of the cons of having a fashion/style niche is that you lock yourself out from learning about other things, and that might be dangerous to young girls.

    Love having smart readers, I’d like to kiss you with many DIYs.

  6. I especially like the picture of the book’s page, where is Maria from Finland ;) ‘Cause that’s where I’m from!
    But I just wanted to say, that I’ve been reading your blog for a while, and it’s on my top 3 -blog list. I love your style so much and you’re very inspiring :)

  7. oh shini what an amazing project to be involved with!
    i love you all the more for disliking the elle/vogue lifestyle! this blogazine is definitely something i would be interested in reading.
    <3 fi
    http://saveourshoes.blogspot.com
    ps i will catch you for brunch soon! x

  8. Hi, I’m a follower and fellow blogger from Greece. I think that I agree with Just Silvia about the contents of a fashion blog, but I would like to see (read) more words and not only pictures. They say that a picture is worth a 1000 words, but it’s not the same, is it?!
    I laughed with your “jeffrey campbell trotters” remark! I recently came across an article on How to be a star style blogger and the Jeffrey Cambells were a prerequisite! I don’t own any (although I have a big shoe collection), does this is mean I’m doomed to never succeed in the blogosphere?! Gosh, I hope not! :))

  9. Saw that too! Haha JC trotters and the squatting pose – I don’t have either so I guess we’re both doomed! (I guess I do have the occasional squat but I am a professional bum so…)

  10. Great pictures!!!

  11. Ah, finally!

    I completely agree with what you say about the contents of those fashion magazines. I used to buy Elle, but then I realized all I did was looking at the pictures, and thought it a waste of money. I can find those pictures on the internet as well, or just skip through the pages in the store and put it back on the shelf, no?

  12. i agree how this whole fashion blogging entity is turning out, & i’m guilty of being one of those hugely keen on such ‘perishable’ topics as you’ve described it as. your post is truly inspiring, & i love the photos featured inside. that quote from the young model puts me to shame and makes me think of how i always obsess or fantasize about how others see me. thanks for this post, truly!

  13. I was wondering where this series of photos was going to lead me. The bookazine looks marvelous.

    In my current state as an academic, I find myself so entrenched in the more esoteric aspects of life that sometimes I feel like I can’t find my way out. But at the same time, I never truly want to leave. This seems like a lovely way to bridge that gap!

  14. “This might come across as blasphemy from someone who is allegedly a ‘fashion’ blogger, but I never read the contents of Vogue or Elle, simply because I don’t agree to the perishable lifestyle they promote.”

    This is nice to hear and I wholeheartedly agree. That’s why I prefer to think of myself as a style blogger, not a fashion blogger.

  15. Looks like a fab fab fab event! I agree with the ELLE and Vogue magazines these days – the ‘affordable fashion’ pages are like £400 for a dress and £70 for a shirt. Hello? I’m on a student ‘income’! It needs to be more about what I can get for under £20 not £200!

    Plus they never talk about anything worthwhile. Fair enough I’m a girl and I like to look at pretty dresses and muse over this season’s Chanel but I would also like to read about politics, eco living, sporting activities, hobbies, science, space exploration, cooking and maybe a short story to two… This would be my perfect magazine!

    flossyblossom.blogspot.com

  16. Great pics! I love the spider man chair :DD

    http://www.maddenim.blogspot.com/

  17. really nice project

  18. Oh this event looks like SUCH fun! Wish I could have gone. Is there any way to be apart of the blogazine? Any submission details and such? PLEASE let me know! I’m all for being yourself and broadcasting that to the blogger world- to me, being a blogger is SO much more than posting outfits of what you wore.. after awhile that can get so boring.

    And beautiful quote by that young “model”. She couldn’t have stated that any better!
    XXXO
    M

  19. Hey youuu: http://circus-bookazine.com/contribute/?lang=en

  20. ah, i saw this on sequin magazine a few weeks ago – still anxiously waiting for it to arrive safely in my hands here in tokyo!

    though my own blog is almost exclusively visuals/audio (mainly because i cannot write compelling texts to save my life), and most of the blogs i read are mostly based around the same, i think there’s a difference between compelling pictures and the regular straight-up, what-i-wore-today. in that sense, i think it’s quite a skill to have a good visual blog – almost as much so as a good writing blog. and ah. i don’t quite know where i’m going with this. if only i had a picture to post instead~!

  21. This is such a fascinating post and important topic – and if I didn’t have to run out soon I’d sit and read every comment but I will do when I’m back home.

    I so so so agree with you all – and I just realised this is probably the friend I met with you @ LFW – the event she invited me to but I couldn’t go. I WISH I had. I’ll be buying this book.

    And another thing I didn’t know about you: I don’t read Vogue or Elle either, for the same reason. For exactly the same reason. It was a little fact I kept to myself, until now.

  22. This is an amazing Blog. I love the fashion, the pictures, everything.

  23. I am truly relieved: I have not picked up a Vogue in some years now but I understand their importance. I am not attracted to the latest “it” purchase or celebrity or even model. However, it has come a point in the “fashion blog zenith” that people feel the need to throughly define and abstract it. I feel that this zine is a contributor. As a blog reader, it is something that is a little disturbing but as a historian and student it is compelling.

  24. Ps. I would love a chance to contribute to any theme they throw out!

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