The Style Rookie

The Style Rookie is only 15 years old, and has already garnered numerous acclaims in the fashion world. Even though she just started high school, she is casually missing a few weeks for Fashion Week activities. I wish I had started a blog when I was 15. But sadly, I do not have the same wit, pop culture references, or wealth of opinions that seem to flow freely from the wild mind of Tavi Gevinson.
In case you would like to sum up Tavi in a short paragraph, she has already done it for you:

“Wears batman capes and oversized hats. Scatters black petals on Rei Kawakubo's doorsteps and serenades her in rap. I wish I was Daria but I get too excited about things like candy to be deadpan all the time.”

She writes about fashion collections, Britney Spears, Terry Richardson, her life experiences, what she wears, her favorite movies, and extremely random brain rants, like “Justin Bieber Catbutt vs. Frumpy Troll”.

That being said, Tavi has the strongest voice of any fashion blogs I have read and in my countless hours perusing the Internet following a trail of blogs from site to site I have read a lot. I find myself checking in on her site every few days not for her fashion knowledge, and definitely not for her outfit choices, but for her humorous outlook on the industry and all things pop culture related. Tavi is like an encyclopedia for pop culture references, as her blog is littered with throwbacks to shows like Daria and other 90s genre topics that I only faintly recall. Where did she get the time to learn about all of these things?

Her mood boards, a common feature on most fashion blogs, are what I would categorize as ‘different’. In her post, “mood”, Tavi puts images from her journal collages. The juxtaposition of sweet 50s looking dresses in one image and a man covered in bees in another is the status quo on the style rookie.

“Salvador Dali in Balenciaga Fall 2010. That astronomy photo is from a 70's issue of National Geographic, the Dali photo is from the Fall 2008 issue of T (have you seen the new issue? ISN'T IT SO GOOD?) and the pants and shoes are Balenciaga. The glitter is from a birthday party I went to at Club Libby Lu in 4th grade. You heard right. And no, I don't know why I still have it.”

Tavi gravitates towards the unusual in the fashion industry, with an appreciation for cult brands like the above mentioned Balenciaga. Tavi is constantly being watched by the industry because of the oddball things she does with the collections, like adding Balenciaga clothes to a picture of Salvador Dali. But once again, she reminds you of her age with a link to Wikipedia explaining what Club Libby Lu is. Tavi constantly links out from her blog to explain her references giving a little more authority to what she writes about.
Her maturity is one of the most astounding things about her blog. Apart from just being majorly successful at blogging, Tavi carries a sense of self-awareness, and is constantly assuring readers “I swear I don’t talk like that in real life”. Her rants to lead her to odd places, and most end in a very keen- what was I just talking about type of conclusion.
In Tavi’s most recent post “you probably don’t even know my middle name”, she chronicles her trip to Antwerp with her father. Her funny side pops out immediately:

“It's such hard work! You have to sit there and move the fork from the plate to your mouth. I took a photo in order to capture the Hard Work, hoping I could show it to my P.E. teacher and get gym credits for doing Hard Work outside class.”

I would totally think eating Belgian waffles was hard work too, if I had to skip class to go to Antwerp to go to an art exhibition. Tavi may not be the most scholarly writer, considering her age and lack of grammatical instruction, but her voice shines through in her witty one-liners and constant use of italics, capitalizations, and all caps writing.
Although, now that I am looking closely into Tavi’s writing, I can see a slight air of arrogance. Maybe that’s my jealousy speaking. But, right when I think I have the real Tavi figured out, I read this in her post titled “Things I learned in High School: Day One”:

“And I have reached the age in which I am too often under the incorrect impression that I am wise enough to make that kind of observation”

Tavi’s self-deprecation and awareness to her own nativity is simply astounding. What teenager is so self-assured? At 15, I was just trying to survive high school. But not Tavi- high school seems like a side project to her busy schedule.
Even though the fashion world seems to be enamored with Tavi, apparently school isn’t such a breeze. You see, Tavi just started high school. And because her blog is whatever she wants it to be at the moment, Tavi talks about school experiences often and reminds her readers that she is not the know-all end- all to fashion insights.

“If you, as a short person, want to get anywhere in the halls, you must push and shove. PUSH AND SHOVE.”

This is a prime example of Tavi’s voice. Can’t you just hear a short girl in glasses and a semi-bowl cut telling you with such exasperation in her voice that getting though the halls in high school requires effort? “PUSH AND SHOVE”, I can just hear her yelling it at me.

Sometimes I wonder if I like Tavis’s writing so much because of her lack of experience writing literary essays and critical pieces. She just rants about what she wants to, and calls it a day.