what do you guys think of this 13 year old fashion prodigy?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Her name’s Tavi and she’s a fashion wunderkind. She’s the latest guru of the fashion world, due to her clever and tasteful insights on fashion trends, displayed on her blog. She’s been profiled in many fashion and non-fashion publications, including an 8 page profile in the New Yorker. She’s been invited to front row seats at the most prestigious fashion shows in the world, landed a monthly chronicle in Harper’s Bazaar, made the covers of magazines like Pop or Love or became the muse of the awarded fashion designers Kate e Laura Mulleavy.

Her blog is genuinely compelling. It’s the eptiome of je ne sais quois because we’re not sure what it is exactly that Tavi has, but it’s a VOICE. It’s different. It’s new. It’s fresh. Sometimes it’s even a little cheeky. But in an intelligent way.

Her self-portraits are incredibly edgy and artistic, her knowledge and fresh perspective on fashion rivals Vogue editors, and her bio is deliciously Sedaris-ish.

her on the cover of Pop magazine :

with Karl Lagerfeld and John Galiano :

she also recently launched an online magazine which promises to be a smart, hip take on teenage life ala Sassy. most of you guys are probably too old to know what Sassy was. It had a short lifespan, but let me tell you, it was pretty much perfect as far as teen-girl-magazines go. In addition to having really cool articles about really cool bands, each issue included an article on some feminist issue but from a personal perspective. It celebrated real girls. And, they had a DIY fashion section.

the magazine will feature a regular cast of contributors (some young bloggers like her and other experienced media types), as well as guest contributions from celebs (planned ones include Joss Whedon, Winnie Holzman, Patton Oswalt, Zooey Deschanel, Shannon Woodward, Anna Faris, Kid Sister, Supercute!, Paul Feig, Dan Savage, JD Samson, Jack Black, Alia Shawkat, Fred Armisen, and Miranda July)

Ira Glass of This American Life will act as a sort of mentor and his wife is on staff as the features editor

recent featurette about her on the NYTimes : http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/04/magazine/how-sassy-is-tavi-gevinson.html

She’s cowriting a book with Marisa Meltzer, author of "How Sassy Changed My Life: A Love Letter to the Greatest Teen Magazine of All Time”

2

She’s actually 15, not 13. Already old and passe, IMO.

3

I feel terrible that my generation has somehow infected that poor girl with our pretentious, precious “post-modern Americana” fashion bullshit. She’s listening to our music, reading our literature, wearing and deconstructing our fashions, and writing like she’s read too many fashionable Tumblr blogs. She’s expressing our Weltschmerz and our longing for the fictitious simplicity of '50s American society, and she has no real idea, none at all, about what any of it means or implies, or whatever.

And it’s no wonder why the New Yorker and Harper’s Bazaar have enfolded her into their loving, genteel bosom. She’s validation that their way of thinking, their philosophies, their fixations and obsessions with modern life, aren’t solely the preoccupations of their generation. They found a young woman that walks and talks and affects the same holier-than-thou, upper middle class, whitebread American hipster garbage that they do!

I can’t even talk about it anymore. Jesus, how depressing!

4

I saw a profile on her on FT a few years ago. I didn’t get the appeal then and I don’t now. But I’m not her target audience.

5

She lives in my town. I know some of her neighbors and a few people who are friends of the family. From what I hear she’s a perfectly nice young lady.

No idea about the fashion sense, that’s not my thing.

6

She doesn’t have a “voice”, she doesn’t have anything. There is absolutely nothing “fresh” about any of this crap. She is a hack.

7

I love her blog, and I think she has a real talent, both for fashion and for writing. She has great insight into a lot of things in our culture, but (because of her youth?) sees it from a different perspective. I think “fresh” is a great term for her. She has an amazing head on her shoulders as well, I think she is going to do great things.

I think it’s a shame the previous posters don’t like what she’s doing, but I doubt they read much of her stuff. I’m pretty unsurprised really; this is a very dull crowd.

8

Wake me up when she’s a hipster.

9

I think she’s adorable. Good for her.

10

When I saw “fashion prodigy” I thought “oh cool, a kid that’s designing clothes.”

I’m sure she’s a very nice girl, but I’m not impressed. I’d rather see her write about something worthwhile.

11

I spotted her when she was 11.

12

Describing yourself repeatedly as quirky is not a good thing.

13

Back when she had real talent!

14

I think: “so?”

15

How many fashion blogs do you read?

16

She died her hair gray? Christ, she looks like a little old lady in that second photo.

17

I think she’s adorable and smart, and clearly having a lot of fun. Good for her! I accidentally found her blogspot blog about two years ago by clicking random and sent it to all my girlfriends. I was surprised when I started to see her in magazines.

The only thing that annoys me is reading in an interview that she wants her online magazine to be like Sassy. It seems like a weird, coached thing to say. Notwithstanding that she wasn’t even alive during the Sassy heyday there was a zeitgeist to Sassy that I’m not sure translates to a modern audience. Not that one couldn’t make a Sassy for 2011, just that a 15 year old isn’t going to know what that looks like. A 15 year old reading back issues of Sassy from 1994 isn’t going to feel the same as 15 year old me reading it in 1994.

18

I like her. I think her blog is interesting, and I’m glad that there is a 15 year old (or 13 or 11 or whatever) who can go out and not give a damn about the massive heaps of criticism she’ll get for doing what she does. For the people who wish she’d focus her precociousness on “more important things”, I have to say, so what. She digs fashion, she has a knack for it, if she wrote about anything else it would be forced and contrived, but this is what she loves. Not everybody’s calling is to be a journo in the trenches in Chechnya or devising ways to make cheap malaria vaccines. She’s changing the way a very judgmental industry sees people her age, and I think that’s great.

19

This is what I was going to say, albeit without the word hack. She’s not bringing anything original to the table at all.

And it doesn’t matter how many magazines I’ve read. Being a voice implies that there’s something new about what she’s saying. There’s not. None of it is stuff my sister didn’t tell me. And almost all I see her do is talk about things she sees that she likes–in other words, fashion that already exists.

20

How is anything she’s doing fresh? I went through the first few posts on her blog, and all she’s saying is that she likes what other people are dressed as. And dying your hair to look old? Hipsters have been doing that already. Maybe it’s new in the fashion world for people to actually listen to a kid, but I don’t see any of her fashion being different enough to be noted.

It has nothing to do with being dull.