With (intense) Feeling
There are worse ways to start a first blog post - I could have gone the whole “here I am, ready to CaRpE DiEm!” route, laid out a life-changing moment from this tumultuous past year that led me to here, and tied it up with a neat bow screaming “I FOUND MYSELF!” but that’s not really my style.
And style, to be honest, is everything.
Its role is not just confined to the way we dress ourselves - it spills beyond into the way we look at people or peruse a dinner menu. It’s in how we move our bodies, how we think, speak, walk, and be. Even those who trick themselves into proudly believing that they couldn’t care less about being stylish are in fact directed by style in everyday decisions. Give into it, and you’ll be happier. So I believe.
That perspective is really the backbone of this blog. “Fiending Guiltlessly” first began as a Tumblr I created about a decade ago, a manifestation of the very simple idea of tossing aside any guilt or baggage the world will throw at you simply for wanting - wanting more, wanting better, wanting without reserve. To fiend for something involves a deeper, more personal pursuit than chasing the latest trend. Those of us who truly fiend for things are often riding the high to get as close to beauty and art as possible. We are truly one with taste and style in making every move in life, and we know that there is more to retaining beauty throughout life and in its endless layers than just clinging to youth. [Break: please find above a slideshow of some images I had curated on the aforementioned Tumblr.]
In very cliche terms: this blog aims to celebrate that sentiment by ditching bullet point product lists and five-sentence reviews for a bit of storytelling and a larger focus on living with the things we want. Move aside monotonous morning routines and OOTDs directed by fleeting trends, I’m bringing in the big guns.
Now we come to a point where I can offer you a takeaway from this read, a quote from the book Eleanor & Park -
“She never looked nice. She looked like art, and art wasn’t supposed to look nice; it was supposed to make you feel something.”
And here I am, tying this “introduction” up with a luscious, plush, heavy red velvet ribbon. What I’m saying is - it’s fine to aim for nice, but if you let yourself go beyond, you might just make yourself (or someone else) feel something.
I hope that my musings on here will allow you to feel with passion, want with intensity, and crave without having to apologize for your hopes and dreams and fantasies - even if they come in the form of slightly exaggeratedly-priced glass bottles housing banging olfactory experiences as mine tend to.
-S.