Back to School, Back to Blogging

Sleeveless dress with Matching Cropped Jacket
Bill Blass for Maurice Rentner, c.1963,
FRC1986.01.01 A+B

I think this dress and jacket ensemble by Bill Blass for Maurice Rentner would be the perfect outfit for me and back to school. The colour is vibrant and the jacket could come off for those warm fall days still to come. Unfortunately, it can never be worn again as a museum artifact, but I love the timeless elegance of early 1960s looks and it makes me smile on what is a dark and rainy day in Toronto.

The scent of fall is in the air. The days are shorter and the nights cooler. I am starting to yearn for the cozy comfort of my cashmere sweaters and wraps.... It must be time to get back to school, back to work.

My summer was busy, with nary a moment of rest or relaxation. I did manage to steal away from work for a few sunny afternoons reading fiction in my backyard, but otherwise I spent many days in the windowless rooms of the Ryerson Fashion Research Collection. Not only did I move the entire collection from the seventh floor of the library, but, among other things, I also supervised two students who photographed about 100 key artifacts in the collection.

It felt like I had no time to write on this blog, especially since I am editor of the Costume Journal, have a bi-weekly column for Worn Through and also have been writing exhibition reviews for Modeconnect, and am supposed to be working on the Fashion Research Collection Blog. Admittedly, I still have some hesitation about writing on this platform after that distressing discovery last fall that much of my content had been copied elsewhere. And yet, it seems that I should be making this blog my priority -- even though many, if not most, of my colleagues in academia dismiss personal blogs as folly. 


This summer I've had two very interesting opportunities present themselves as a result of this blog. One was an invitation to submit a scholarly essay to a book on fashion and art called Fashion +. Some of the other invited scholars include people like Andrew Bolton, Harold Koda, and Ulrich Lehman. I'm not actually sure I deserve to be included in the midst of these intellectual giants, but I was honoured by the invitation, (and for those readers in academia, the opportunities to publish anything are seemingly few and hard to come by). The other opportunity was an invitation to write a proposal for a book on fashion for a UK publisher, who liked my accessible writing style and my approach to fashion. These two opportunities are dreams come true - and both came to me because of this blog. 

Before the "theft" of my posts, I was attracting about 30,000 visitors a month to this site. My following is much, much less now and it is probably a long road back. Although I have a myriad of other commitments, and writing in other forums takes time, but in the end, it seems like FASHION IS MY MUSE is the origin of many of the most exciting opportunities that have come my way. I'm back baby, I'm back!

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All text and images on this blog are the copyright of Ingrid Mida, unless otherwise noted. The copying of posts, images and/or text without proper attribution is violation of copyright and legal action will be pursued.