Link-Up: Saturdays

Meet The Model: Derya @ 62 Models by Harriet Were for Oyster Magazine

The big news I woke up to this morning was the announcement that Topshop is opening a flagship store on Queen st, financed by Karen Walker + Barkers + some mega rich Christchurch guy. I ranted about it on Twitter. And probably will rant about it here too, so heads up!

I nearly missed my hair appointment this morning because I was too busy dancing in front of my mirror to the finger-snapping good (great!) track 2on by Tinashe and also to 1998 by Chet Faker, which is this week's on-repeat. Everytime I listen to it I wish I could be instantly transplanted to a club where it's playing. Seriously loving the chilled-out house vibes of this song.

I read an article on the forever-excellent-and-very-powerful-in-its-own-right Business of Fashion that explores the power dynamics between fashion magazines and brands that includes this quote by a very well-known, nameless, fashion journalist: “I feel that we are now just garnish for fashion PRs and designers. Few people read what we say; we are not the gatekeepers any more, and none of it matters. So I am feeling bleak and don’t want to talk about it.”.

I also read about why "Problematic" Has Become Problematic, the Self-regulating Homogenization of Style Communities, and why There is No Shame in Being on the Dole: "It was as important as any professional development program or university course I attended during the same time. I worked harder in those four years than I have in my entire life. It was not by choice, it was by circumstance, but every day I felt supported by everyone in this country to take the time needed and never once was I disenfranchised."

I got my haircut at Stephen Marr after a year of growing my fringe out - I wanted Haim hair (hai'm hai'r?) - but I decided I felt more like me with a fringe, so it's back. There may be selfies later - no promises.

The Auckland Writers Festival is on this weekend and I attended my first session this afternoon (omg so many grey hairs!), with Scandanavian Crime Queen Camilla Lackberg. She was great, but the low-key offensive comments from the clueless adjudicator were distracting for me, like the way he introduced her as an "authoress", opened with questions about being a writer with kids, commented on her age and weight and spent too much time on about her divorces and relationship status. He was insulting, and down right condescending at times, but she brushed it off with aplomb. I ranted about that on twitter too.

Ugh, let's not call a female writer an 'authoress'. Let's also not comment on her age or weight or the nanny... #awf14
— Ellen Falconer (@Ellen_F) May 17, 2014

One of my writer-crushes Sarah Nicole Prickett interviewed Nona Willis Aronowitz about her mother Ellen Willis, the pop culture writer, who sounded like a total badass: "She was incredibly ambivalent about religion her entire life. At face value she’d seem like a textbook atheist, and she definitely found the idea of giving your free will over to a larger moral power repugnant, but she knows the power it wields over people, and that made it interesting to her. It all hinged on whether she thought it was authentic or not. I don’t know if she’d go so far to call religion “beautiful,” though, except maybe the acid-trip version she describes in “Next Year in Jerusalem” — like, finally figuring out nature." I am looking forward to getting my hands on the Essential Ellen Willis.

I heard about FuckBoyJihad and wished I had been in the loop/cool enough to go to one of their parties when they were around. Seriously, how did I miss this?! Feelin' v. uncool rn. They're having their last one tonight, in Wellington.