Fashion in the twit-o-sphere
For class this week, we’re doing a unit on Twitter, and have been assigned to find and follow 10 twitter users related to our blog beat. Although I’ve been on twitter for quite some time, I realized in beginning this assignment that I don’t follow very many people or organizations that are fashion related.
In searching Listorious for “fashion” and “boston fashion” I stumbled across a list of Boston Fashion Bloggers put together by twitter user DameVintage. Lists on twitter are simple – they allow users to organize the people they follow into categories. For example, I have a “news” list, a “northeastern” list and now, a newly created “fashion” list.
I’ve chosen to follow a variety of fashion-related twitters.
I found Sarah McManus, aka BostonStylista, who was once assistant fashion editor for Boston Magazine and has since opened her own style consultation business. McManus tweets about a variety of things – she promotes her anyweargirl.com blog posts, tweets with other stylistas, including RobertVerdi, about their favorite spring trends, and retweets other interesting blog posts she comes across.
I discovered Kara thebostonista, who writes the fashion blog thebostonista.com. Kara is great to follow – her twitter is much more personal, and she makes comments and asks questions in addition to plugging her blog posts.
I’ve also chosen to follow cutblog, the fashion blog for New York Magazine. While cutblog mostly tweets about blog posts on their own site, they also engage in some conversation and will occasionally retweet. My favorite is the retweet of this great twitpic, posted originally twitter user fashionrat, of gingerbread men wearing outfits from Lady Gaga’s Telephone music video. The image later made it into a Huffington Post update!
I also found Forever21, fashionboston, shopsecret, and nytimesstyle.
After writing my post about oohilove, I’ve been following them on twitter. I had also been following GlobeFashion and nytimesfashion, but both simply post links to articles on their sites instead of engaging in any conversation, which isn’t very exciting.
Bostonians respond to Haiti
With news about the aftermath of Haiti’s devastating earthquake looming on the front page of every newspaper in the country, it’s no secret that the worlds eyes are focused more on Haiti now than they ever have.
Boston bloggers have certainly taken this story to heart as well, and have been reporting on how locals have been responding to this horrific natural disaster.
President & CEO of Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center keeps a blog in which he writes about how to run a hospital. One of his recent posts describes the hospital’s reaction to the earthquake. He includes a hospital memo, which reports that two of the hospital’s staff have volunteered through Partners in Health to provide medical assistance to those in need. The letter also explains that BIDMC is working with PIH directly to ensure aid and supplies get through to the Haitian people in need.
Marjorie Arons-Barron, another Boston blogger, wrote a very interesting post about the Haitian earthquake.
I keep thinking about what Boston, Lowell, Minneapolis or New York would look like after a 7.0 earthquake, the crumbling buildings, bodies pinned beneath, the unavailability of food, water and electricity, the difficulty of getting medical care. The anguish is unimaginable. But the reality is now in the poorest country in our hemisphere. One wonders if Haiti will ever be able to make economic and social progress.
What Barrons writes is a tragic truth. Can you imagine Boston, New York City or even your home town in such shambles? Although we have been plastered with thousands of pictures of the quake and the tragedy that has unfolded, it’s hard to truly imagine what the destruction and devastation look like. On top of this, knowing that Haiti was in such dire need prior to this disaster makes those aware of the situation wonder: can Haiti move forward from this?
It’s estimated that the celebrity telethon this past weekend raised almost $57 million dollars, and that’s just a single fundraiser. Hundreds of organizations, including cell phone companies, are raising money for the Haitian cause. My worry is that the money and aid we are donating won’t make it to Haiti. There are reports of roads being blocked and airplanes carrying aid forced to sit on runways because they cannot distribute their food and water. Other articles report that although food is making it to some places, not every survivor is being reached.
Jatropha is considered to be a vodou flower in Haiti, but Dr. Jean-Charles believes it can be turned into bio-fuel for Haiti
Barron offers a spark of hope in her post. She refers to a doctor by the name of Roger Jean-Charles who works at Boston Medical Center & is currently focusing on Haiti. Barron reports that generating electricity has always been a problem for Haiti. Jean-Charles believes that Jatropha, a flower native to the area, can provide bio-fuel for the area and links to this Miami Herald article. However far fetched the idea may seem, it’s at least nice to know that there is some hope on the horizon.
Other bloggers are simply getting out the word about how they are helping. Anali, who writes a local Boston blog about her sweet tooth, has posted information about the online bake sale she is participating in to raise money for Haiti. HubArts, a blog run by Joel Brown about Boston news, art & culture, has written a post about a Jazz for Haiti event that Bostonians can attend on January 31st.
passion for fashion 