Totally Tavi Day

Photo: style rookie

For a close to a year now, I have been following the daily blog of a thirteen year old fashion forward thinking girl named Tavi, The Style Rookie. Recently in one of her video posts, she said that she reminds a lot of people of them at her age--the difference (and significant one) being that she has the internet. The internet, and the immediate editorial abilities and possibilities that come with the digital camera. It rang true for me as well--as I spent hours alone in my room cutting up clothes, creating looks and modeling them for myself in the mirror--starting already at age three. The only thing was--no one ever saw these creations--except for me and my audience of stuffed animals. Occasionally someone took a picture (below), but those were quietly hidden in a shoebox under the bed.
Through the word-of-mouth passing about of her blog, Tavi has been picked up by the cognoscenti of the fashion world--and this fashion week--is living her life like it's golden. I found out about her through a good friend who is design director at Calvin Klein--and remember thinking at the time, when Tavi's world seemed more insular--"does this girl know that major influencers are taking notice of her extraordinary creativity? Does she know her name is being passed around by skinny, smoking, fashion geniuses? She was being recognized for her refreshingly creative eye--and her seeming un-self-conscious grasp on what every designer/editor/fashion follower wants to harness--the newest newness. The future.This week I discovered Tavi is on two covers of Pop Magazine, has become a muse for Rodarte over the past few months, sat front row (along with Madonna) at Marc Jacobs, was profiled by the Wall Street Journal and Women's Wear Daily, along with much more that I am sure I missed. A recent video on her blog admits--now that this media attention (and the fact that she just told her teachers about her blog) might bring a few more readers to her site, it's time to present herself in a professional manner. What followed was a whimsically styled interpretive dance to electronic music called, "sophistication." Photo: style rookie
What is so cool about Tavi is that she references things from the past that are actually cool right now, and actually matter in terms of the evolution of fashion right NOW. I was so bored recently when I went to see the September Issue, by the banal references of the Vogue photoshoots. OOOH, twenties. OOOOH Fellini films. WOW, Rococo. Yawn, snore, bore. Grace Coddington might be a creative romantic, but her references seem stale, and Wintour cares about palatability and retail numbers making the references both stale and entirely un-challenging. Lets look, in contrast, at the last 5 or so references on Style Rookie: Harold and Maude, Where the Wild Things Are (coming out soon as a Spike Jonze directed, Maurice Sendak endorsed feature film, btw), Hitchcock’s Vertigo and The Birds, and Diane Keaton in Woody Allen’s Manhattan. In other words: gingham, plaids and tweeds, textures and neutrals, eerie and dramatic sets, and classic NY Fall. So much more interesting, engaging, young, and relevant—and ps—could still be referenced to sell clothing.

Tavi may be the new girl in town, but I have a feeling she will be around for a LONG time to come.

Jessica Ralli
Director, Soft