>> Say what you want about the bloggers vs. journalists scrap heap that doesn't want to die even though it effectively killed itself off when journalists became bloggers and vice versa and thus turned into a giant grey area. Instead of of the versus symbol, I'd like to think it's a -> / <- situation instead. Keyboard symbol translation? That bloggers have much to learn from journalists and vice versa and I learnt a little how from my short trip to Milan yesterday.
I was lucky enough to be privy to Anna "needs-no-intro" Dello Russo's personal scrapbook that she keeps and found a paper-based notation system that was utterly inspiring. "I can't get inspired in front of the computer," she says and so Dello Russo formulates her ideas for blog posts by jotting down lists, drafting up posts and collaging imagery into her Hermes leather bound notebook, ensuring there's enough highlighter pink and orange and biro outlined lettering to hammer in her points. If you thought that Dello Russo had a team of minions banging out her posts, you can banish that though with a glimpse at her notebook. Dello Russo may have embraced everything that the internet and blogging has to offer but her experience having worked in print for twenty years or so, shows in her dedication to the physical written word. Her handwriting is neat, her lines are straight and her colouring in of her bold lettering doesn't stray beyond the outline. That's quite a plateful for any handwriting analyst.
Likewise with her imagery, she doesn't simply tear out pages and tack them into a book but instead carefully cuts things out, as though she were about to do a bit of precise decoupaging. I found myself absolutely mesmerised by her book, cowering in the fact that I've never really thought to plan my posts out by paper. Even my own personal editorial-tearing and scrapbooking of physical imagery has diminished when Tumblr and my organised folders of JPGs came into place. Her desire to start her own blog in the first place came about because she wanted to ensure the fashion credits of her outfits were listed out properly, another reason why her print-to-blog methodology works for her. I never would have thought that Dello Russo would be a fashion media benchmark but her simultaenous rooted dedication to print and positive embracing of the internet as the vehicle of her self-image and her brand definitely marks her out as someone in the industry, who really knows how to get the best out of both worlds.
English isn't her first language, so she has noted down some useful adverbs.
Want to know which outfits she scrapped for her Met Ball ensemble last year? Here it is. She went for choice number 2, the Alexander McQueen tuxedo.
When I used to scrapbook things I loved from a magazine, I'd stick it in a book and forget about it. Dello Russo simply sticks it in and then sets her heart on getting it as evidenced by this Bvlgari snake watch.
