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Blogosphere fashion
T I A 'THE THIN RED LINE'
(1998), 20TH CENTURY FOX
Dividing along the
'Thin Red Line'
Thursday, February 9, 2012//The B-Side- 3B
Finding snazzy, second-hand attire
Students blogging
the latest trends
around campus
By KELLY ETZ
Daily TV/New Media Editor
For students with lectures,
exams, papers and a host of other
time-sucking activities, where
should fashion rate on the impor-
tance scale? Should personal
appearance be an issue worth wor-
rying about?
According to LSA sophomore
Stefanie Rubinstein and Business
sophomore Zoe Baris, the way you
present yourself may be just as
essential as your other qualifica-
tions when it's time for that all-
important interview or the first day
of a brand new internship. It can
even be a factor in how professors
consider in determining a student's
credibility - not anything to scoff
over when the time comes to ask for
a letter of recommendation.
"You are your personal brand,"
Baris said. "So, what you wear to an
interview, what you wear to class,
even what you wear out to a quick
lunch or something, you are seen
and that is how people perceive
you."
"I don't want to raise my hand
in a class if I feel like I look like a
schlup," Rubinstein added. "You
want to project yourself as a good
image."
Rubinstein and Baris teamed
up this past summer to produce
their own fashion blog, The Chic
Classmate. Filled with clever 'tips
- winterwear under 50 dollars,
SMITH-EPPSTEINER
From Page 2B
curiosity on the topic of last-
name options was in fact spurred
during a discussion in my English
course that looks at "Love, Mar-
riage, and the Rise of the Novel"
in the 17th and 18th centuries.
I heard a variety of responses,
from "I want my wife to have my
last name, I insist upon it. I'm a
believer in traditional stuff" and
"I want to honor my husband,
he's the old-fashion type, you
know?" to opinions such as "if my
wife had a cool-ass last name, I'd
must-have accessories, the chicest
backpacks - and photographic
inspiration from the runways to the
Diag, the blog takes an inside look
at the street style here on campus.
"When average people put them-
selves together, it's not like they
have a stylist," Rubinstein said.
"They are going on their own to
put together something amazing
and they aren't even thinking about
the fact that people are looking at
them."
Recently reaching its 100th
post, The Chic Classmate covers all
things broadly defined as "stylish,"
- including posts on haute cou-
ture designers such as Chanel or
Versace - while also trimming the
focus to view fashion through the
lens of the average college student.
In their Model Student posts, they
highlight "ordinary students who
are doing extraordinary things
around campus."
Another student blogger, LSA
junior Nikki Williams, is the Uni-
versity of Michigan correspon-
dent for the website Hercampus.
com. Her Campus is tailored spe-
cifically to college-age women and
has specific sites for over 100 col-
lege campuses across the United
States. Each individual campus site
is a primarily student-run venture,
allowing the student correspon-
dents to get an in-depth feel for
what the online magazine industry
is all about.
The Michigan site is structured
simply - it lets the content do the
talking and is chock-full of Ann
Arbor-inspired goodness. Williams
contributes with her own fashion
blog, taking an insider look at the
up-to-the-minute trends - all-
take hers," to a female speaking
about hyphenation as a symbol of
a merging of heritages.
A friend of mine made me aware
that some people are, as of late,
opting to combine names to create
something fantastically fresh. This
would look like Phillip Glass and
Lucinda Childs getting married
(Yes, I'm still stuck in "Einstein
On The Beach" mode) and their
children's last name being some-
thing awful sounding like Chlass
or Glilds.
Though these trendy alterna-
tives may clash against tradition
in the eyes of about 70 percent of
Americans, opinions like "it's kind
of just what happens" in reference
white, sailor stripes, '70s-inspired
- breaking out on campus and edu-
cating the site's visitors on how to
fill their closets, rock the latest bur-
geoning craze or start one of their
own.
"For my personal fashion blog, I
just write about what I like," Wil-
liams said. "My blog today actu-
ally ran about fur trends and how
to wear fur in a classy way. So, a
lot of it is just what I'm seeing as
a trend."
These blogs are a means for Uni-
versity students to exercise their
ingenuity abit and work outside the
oft-rigid guidelines of their own
particular avenues of study, which
include economics, business and
communications.
"This is something that - sur-
prisingly for me, because I didn't
expect this - has become a prior-
ity," Rubinstein said. "I love that
this is a way we can stillbe involved
with fashion and things that are
creative because you don't always
get that opportunity."
College students go through
many ofthe same fashion struggles,
a necessary evil when students are
suddenly faced with the real world.
Blogs like The Chic Classmate and
Her Campus keep fashion and per-
sonal style from becoming another
burden to add to an ever-growing
list.
The goals of these ventures are
to provide a place for University
students - those behind the scenes
and in front of the screens - to find
the time to actually enjoy them-
selves: to share the personal with
the public and to take a moment
from a busy schedule to revel in the
creative.
to women taking the man's sur-
name in marriage feel a smidgen
complacent and unconsidered for
my peace of mind. I have no clue
what the trend of last names will
be a decade from now or what I'm
going to do when and if I get mar-
ried, but an altering of identity
should never bea kind of assumed
notion, nor should anything in life
be. Summer sunbathingcomes and
goes, love comes and goes, trends
come and go - soI say let's listen
to the words of the old scholar and
"question everything."
Smith-Eppsteiner is changing her
last name name to Ochocinco. To
stop her, e-mail julialix@umich.edu.
Like in the salons of 77th
and 78th century France,
this weekly installment
will feature two Daily Arts
writers discussing the finer
points of arts mediums
from at least 70 years ago.
Any defense of a Terrence
Malick film must inevitably
respond to attacks on the direc-
tor's style - many of which are
superfluous. His films - like
Spielberg's, Scorsese's and even
Cameron's - are big, themati-
cally and stylistically. They're
concerned with broad ideas and
painted with broad strokes.
I hear "pretentious," "conde-
scending" and "aimless" all lobbed
at Malick as insults (all of which,
nowadays, seem to ring as compli-
ments), but I can hardly see how his
films, as accessible and univ4l as
they are, could ever be considered
exclusivist. To say the films are
unconcerned with character, nar-
rative and cohesion is to acknowl-
edge their strongest assets. There
are few directors working in the
American commercial mainstream
(aside from maybe David Lynch)
whose work so effortlessly evokes
the cosmic.
In this regard, I value his films
for the same reasons I'm drawn to
dislike them. To watch them with
an open mind is to submit oneself
to a wholesale rejection of irony -
an embrace of fairly traditional,
conventional representations of
-beauty. The poetic presentation of
nature stands as a radical tonic to
pretension. Malick's treatment of
the natural world doesn't seek to
inundate us with crafty juxtapo-
sitions or contrivance. They are
independent of artifice and full of
it. He edits reels and reels of foot-
age into a world merely inhabited
by his actors. His films are babies
of the editing room and yet seem
to live outside the screen as whole
worlds unto themselves.
Malick's action film, "The Thin
Red Line," is (next to "Badlands")
easily his most accessible and
engaging. It deserves merit as few
war films do for valorizing noth-
ing and nobody. It presents visceral
combat in two taut, seismic swells
- climbing the hills of Guadalca-
nal, decimating the landscape and
soldiers both.
It's hard to deny the sensual-
ity of Malick's films - even when
"sex" itself appearstobe something
feared and treasured rather than
enjoyed. We're free to ignore the
spoken overtones barely keeping
the film from collapse. "Line" asks
us to submit to its totality, and if we
allow it, it transports. The whistle
and crash of artillery, sweating
foreheads, stenches of rotting flesh,
sunlight sweeping out from clouds
as soldiers meet their doom - these
are the accoutrements of an utter
compositional marvel.
And of course, Malick's duali-
ties are obvious. Conflicts are laid
out plainly. And when it comes
to Malick's best work, of which
"The Thin Red Line" can safely
be included, that conflict seems to
exist, all too tragically, in the jaded
construction of our own flimsy, aes-
thetic vainglory.
-JOE DIMUZIO
Hollywood is full of would-be
"auteurs" trying to deliver pro-
found messages that end up seem-
ing trite and heavy-handed. None
are more infuriating, however, than
Terrence Malick, Hollywood's res-
ident Mr. "I studied philosophy at
Harvard, so I'm smarter than you."
His recent Oscar-nominated film,
"The Tree of Life," is particularly
infuriating - Sean Penn's adult
character is deeply impacted by
childhood scars inflicted by his
daddy, Brad Pitt, but his mother
was nice and somehow this all
ties into Creation and the Bible. It
features empty, flowerly voiceover
about "the way of nature and the
way of grace," randomly intercut
with what looks like a nature docu-
mentary.
Critics and the Academy alike
rave about how it's ingenious
and different, but it's not. It's
the same vapid, pretentious crap
that Malick has spoon-fed us for
decades. In 1998, for example,
Malick gave us his attempt at a
See THIN RED LINE, Page 7B5
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Arbor boasts an Blind Pig.
There are the usual thrift-store
iy of thrift stores goodies - innumerous self-help
books, neon windbreakers, sweat-
'or any budget shirts from mysterious high-school
sports teams. Jim, a Kiwanis volun-
By KATIE STEEN teer, elaborated on a few particu-
DailyArts Writer larly atypical donations.
"We received a WWI uniform,"
not hard to find cool clothes he said. "Hat, belt, everything. All
Arbor. Minimalist patriots complete, all wool and in immacu-
spend $20 on a tri-blend tee late condition. And last week, we
erican Apparel. Young'uns got abrand new Red Wings jacket."
refer vintage-inspired garb Kiwanis isn't too concerned
ab their favorite crochet about prices because the store
Urban Outfitters. But a sub- isn't profit-driven. It's completely
1 chunk of Ann Arborites run by volunteers, and money
y buy real vintage clothing. from sales goes directly toward
t are lured by the music scholarships and other organiza-
ually blasting outside of tions that service the needy. It's
tintage. Some prefer the not selective and it's not pricey,
iscrete but unapologeti- so while you may have to look a
olorful Getup Vintage. But little harder for something hip
vistas craving a change enough to pass the scrutiny of Ann
nery may want to explore Arbor trendsters, your money goes
f Ann Arbor's lesser-known toward a good cause - and it's
shops. Visiting these stores a heck of a lot cheaper than any-
ntail extreme rummaging thing you'll find at Am Appy.
s, but they can result in If the philanthropic aspect of
nsive, one-of-a-kind suc- Kiwanis sounds appealing but
to wear in class - or maybe Saturday morning beauty sleep
Kt world war. is nonnegotiable, perhaps the St.
first step on the path to Vincent de-Paul Thrift Store is
d bliss is to cancel what- more appropriate. Located next
lans you may have made to Northside Grill on Broadway
urday morning. Whatever Street, St. Vincent is a trek - and
'e, they're probably inferior it's tiny - and it has some fashion-
shopping spree you could able garments.
ence from 9 a.m. to noon But finding wearable clothes at
eanis Thrift Sale, located St. Vincent is almost as difficult
.th First Street next to the as finding the store itself. As Rose
Avtomobile is one of the several thrift stores in Arm Arbor.
Ann Yurko, a volunteer at the store,
explained several times, "We're the
best-kept secret in Ann Arbor!"
Upon first glance, the store
seems understocked and unprom-_
ising, but hidden among the fair
share of unmemorable articles
are some remarkable finds, such
as flashy '80s sweaters, dizzying
arrays of flowery button-ups and
thick-heel pumps in every color.
Since St. Vincent is a charitable
business, it accepts everything
and trashes nothing, resulting in
sometimes freaky commodities.
Gail Hallman, the jewelry counter
volunteer, recalled a giant crucifix
someone donated that was made
out of mystery bones. "We never
found out if they were human bones
or not, but we did end up selling it,"
Hallman said. "It was very creepy."
Thrifters looking for a bone-
free shopping experience may
want to head over to Avtomobile,
a newer store on East Liberty.
Shopping at Avtomobile is kind of
cheating when it comes to buying
used clothes - most of the clothes
are re-creations made from vin-
tage fabrics and materials, and
some items are brand-new and
fresh off the printing press. But
you don't have to worry too much
about originality - there aren't a
ton of duplicates, and all the prints
are the creations of artist Maris
Turner, who owns the store with
Sara Renner.
Avtomobile has a discrete home
in a cozy basement, with exposed
rock walls and a faint smell of burn-
ing firewood that complements the
clothing's outdoorsy "Up North"
theme. The store has an unprece-
dented sense of character, each item
evoking strong Americana pride,
and more specifically, an affinity for
all things Michigan-related. There's
even a section dedicated to authen-
tic vintage University apparel, con-
taining years of Wolverine pride
you won't be able to buy at The M
Den.
But Avtomobile is a well-trav-
eled shop. You can find vintage
tees that come from a variety of
locations such as Houston, Iowa
and - oh dear - East Lansing.
Traveling is a necessity for Turner
and Renner.
"We're closed Monday and Tues-
day," Turner said. "So we'll drive
around and take road trips to some
weird antique stores - sometimes
tourist trap areas and sometimes
even Salvation Armies, but we try
not to go there as much."
"We're very picky with our fab-
rics," Renner added.
Avtomobile's stock is diverse,
including,. jackets with colorful
Native American prints and an
assertively feminine collection of
polka-dotted silky blouses destined
to be worn with a poodle skirt.
Probably the most unforgettable
item at Avtomobile is a small series
of black sweatshirts with nothing
but "DEATH" printed on the front.
Looking ahead to the sum-
mer season, however, Avtomo-
bile plans to roll out less morbid
designs in the future.
"I design whenever I'm
inspired," Turner said. "I try to
be consistent with the seasons -
we'll be doing stuff that's more
spring-related, more happy, more
upbeat. ... But we don't want to
force anything."
All of the prints sold at Avtomobile are designed by co-owner Maris Turner.