I think secretly and not so secretly, a lot of people want to do a blog like Third Best.

The fact that they centre this around that dirty fuckin' alley around St Jeromes really speaks volumes.

Oh, and declare war. This kinda shit upsets me.

Great post. It also begs the question how much street fashion shots can one city sustain? There are about 3 maybe 4 of these sites out there at the moment - all doing pretty much the same thing looking up to the Sartorialist or Facehunter and falling short because they never get out of their own social circle. Sure it can be a great way of documenting our 'street' culture but is no one else getting a bit bored with it all? Yawn.

Well, exactly, CB (he who already does it much better, and has been doing so for some time). In fact I tried to express very similar sentiments in a comment to the blog on The Age - basically saying that there are a lot of similar blogs out there, and most of them do it better than this - and the moderator canned my damn comment. Censored. Anyways, I agree with ya...

<insert battle cry here>

I agree as well.

There are so many other blogs that do this better. Even if I like what the people are wearing their comments are so inane it detracts from the worth of documenting the people in the first place.

It isn't enought to copy a blog idea, you have to reinvent the ideas to some extent.

Or at least write funnier comments.

what's that saying...

it's better to say nothing and be thought of as stupid, then to speak and remove all doubt.

I am not proposing this (see link) is a solution but it's a interesting aside from the 'blog war' theme...

PS - this code might not work.

it didn't.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6499095.stm

Your html is no good here.

Also the term hipster is actual too good for them. Being a hipster implies your are culturally aware, which they have failed to prove.

No I think a hipster is all surface no depth. They follow trends faster than... well, something really fast... and that way there is no time to actually stop and critically analyse something. Just on to the next new thing - the new look, the new music, the new bar, etc etc.

I'd be interested to know what Mel/Rosie has to say on the issue...

OKAY THROWDOWN!

I've been wanting to talk about this blog for a long time. I'm gonna do it this afternoon!

Y'all is simply jealous cos Fairfax hasn't offered to buy out Opulent yet!

Or maybe your just too lazy to start your own DO's & DON'Ts section?!

Haha. Getthefuckouttahere. Don't even come with the 'jealousy' bullshit.

hahahahaha..

so jealous. I personally wish I could write like a moron.

SWEEEEEEEEET

Cheers for the plug guys. We've noticed our blog is not only doing wonders for us, but also for you too! (we're referring to the number of views and comments this post has received already compared to your other spine tingling and horrifically exciting posts)

Anyway, let’s just get a few things straight. We are NOT social commentators and we do not owe anyone a fuckin explanation of where a certain trend started or what was going through someone’s head when they put their outfit on… to tell you the truth we don’t really give a shit. What is funny to us is that we write some bullshit comments that mean absolutely nothing, yet suddenly we’ve got E grade sites such as this giving us shit for not being able to write or choosing crap outfits to document. Yes, we’ve heard it all before, that we’re trash journalists and that we should be booted off the age site. IT’S GETTING REALLY FUCKIN OLD NOW!!!!!! STOP WASTING YOUR ENERGY, WE AIN’T GOING AWAY! The fact that we are even being referred to as journalist (though trashy ones) is funny in itself.

What is not funny however, and this breaks our little hearts, is that our fashion knowledge is questioned because apparently we bagged out one Schwipe dude and praised another. COME ON PEOPLE SCHWIPE IS NOT FASHION, ITS CALLED PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT, and although you probably wouldn’t know it… there IS a difference. One thing we ARE certain of is that if anything, we know fashion. Please remember that this blog is a hobby to us, we study and work, and read, and develop, and create… the list goes on.

We didn’t start this blog with any intentions. All we wanted to do was document for ourselves all this crazy shit that people were wearing, and share it with people we knew. They’re our photos and if you choose to look at them, they also come with the choice of reading or not reading our crappy commentary. They go hand in hand. Sorry. That’s the way it’s going to be. If you don’t want to look at it, no one’s got a gun to head telling you that you have to.

Hi Nadia and Adele I am so glad you replied because this is what I think blogs excell at - opening up space for dialogue.

So you think our blog is E grade and you don't think Schwipe is fashion, well that's no surprise.

Just as a side note here, yes this post has a lot of comments but I think that's because of the genuine discussion and debate raised in this post, something people enjoy participating in. Other posts receive plenty of views, I think the record is at around 120, which is not bad for a blog run with no financial backing, and yes, by people, who work study, read, develop, create and basically bust our guts to do this. So we know what it is like. Right now I should be working on my PhD. Such is life.

But back to my point. It is not surprising that we have different views on what counts as fashion or interesting comment.

What might surprise you is that I DO think your photos are interesting and I do think - god, I can tell by reading what you write - that you do know a lot about fashion. From what I know you studied fashion at RMIT, and no one gets out of that without a head full of fashion history and knowledge.

So where we differ is culturally. We here at Opulent love the game of analysis, criticism and questioning. We love - like you - finding something new. But we like to contextualise this sort of information. Looking at the people the social conditions, the history, that have given birth to these things.

In our case these are often things like crunk, baile funk, hyphy, and a whole world of streetwear (won't call it fashion!) labels and genre.

So that's where we differ.

It's ok. You can leave the social commentary to us. And I guess that's what we were doing when we wrote this post about your blog. We're just taking pleasure in observing the fashion-blog boom that's enveloping Melbourne, Australia, and the world, and talking about what we think works, and what doesn't. It's our opinion and that's all we ever claimed it to be.

So. White flag. Truce. Yes?

ps. i would be interested to know more about what you think about schwipe and similar brands anyways... i get the feeling you like what they do but don't consider it real fashion - why? not in an antagonistic way, but generally curious, as we all know the gold chain trackies are off the chain.

and pps. why are we E grade? in a way i can't believe I am defending this blog to you when that attack was way below the belt, but this is an online incarnation of a successful print street press publication that has a successful online store, selling releases that can't be bought anywhere else in australia, touring international djs that attract thousands of people and monthly parties that bring 100s. our blog is updated a number of times daily and gets a very respectable number of hits (and we know, we've compared it to other "big" local online publications). recently the midnight juggernauts sat down with a bunch of ed banger people at a bar in paris and the french boys got talking about their homies at Opulent. true story. Mention Opulent to Spank Rock or Diplo (if those names mean anything to you), and they know who we are. so i'm wearing my heart on my sleeve here but I think Opulent serves a niche market, but it does what it does with passion and commitment. of course, if we were circulated by the age we'd have a LOT more readers. but the mainstream age reader doesn't want to know about hyphy hitz so we're not and we don't. thems the breaks. and thems the wonders of the internet. small communities flourish. The End (again).

Truce for sure.

And just so it is known to you, we were getting up to 488 (our record) hits a day looking at every post when we were on blogspot (just like your blog it was run with no financial backing) not that we have made a cent from our blog yet anyway. That just goes to show that if your content is interesting, people will look at it, keep coming back to look at it, and tell their friends about it. So good luck with your blog!

Believe it or not it is damn hard to find something interesting on the streets of Melbourne and its time consuming also. To then go and research where the trends emerged is completely unnecessary. University should be taking up most of my time right now. Quite frankly I can’t be fucked pinning down where trends emerged so people can then go and bag me about how much I apparently don’t know about fashion. What we’ve learnt is no matter what we say or photograph, we’re going to cop shit from people. What’s the point in me wasting my time? I’m never going to keep anyone happy anyway.

The point of our pictures is that they speak a thousand words. You might have analysis, but we focus on the imagery. We have been taught trend forecasting, and you know what people should note? – documenting STREET FASHION is one of the most powerful forms of trend forecasting. It is an old trick in the fashion world, lets look back to Marc Jacobs circa early 90s. He took what was initially ridiculed on the streets (the grunge movement) and marketed as a catwalk look. Again, what I am trying to say is that an analysis is not always needed.

Peace.

You don't have to defend yourselves. It's not like we're A grade or anything.Obviously we're not welcomed by a lot of people on the age either, but we never really wanted to be there in the first place, it's just kind of how it worked out.

Believe it or not it is damn hard to find something interesting on the streets of Melbourne and its time consuming also.
...
So you gave up and decided to spend all your time at St Jeromes?

ok. you'r both on the door for saturday...

E-Grader seriously stop with the Jeromes bullshit. It just so happens to be that its near where we work and study. Remember its not about the location it's about the outfit ;)

Ps. We have a total of something like 6 pictures on our new blog that were taken at Jeromes, if you could be bothered to look.

Will.. on the door saturday?

Yes Nadia and Adele should totally come to Favela Rock on saturday. Ladies, prepare to get drunk get crunk get loose get low.

This is getting warm and fuzzy and as much as I'd like to talk about web site stats all day I am slightly more pre-occupied about the fact that you say that "it's not about the location it's about the outfit" but your slug line is still Melbourne Street Fashion...? I think Saint Jerome's (new blog aside) is an easy answer to your inability to find something interesting on the streets of Melbourne. If you looked a little harder, I'm sure you could find something, you might even stumble upon a fresh way of 'documenting' said street culture. A picture would be worth a thousand words (if you were original rather than biting other sites) but to be honest your site is nothing more than badly sung karaoke, your friends will laugh but everyone else will just leave.

If the location is in Melbourne, it's still Melbourne street fashion. Those people don't just appear at Jeromes you know... they come from all over Melbourne. Doesn't matter if we snapped them in greensy or in the city.

Again, the pictures are not ALL from Jeromes, we take photos whereever we happen to be. We're not fucking robots set out to live our lives wondering every singlet suburb and street in Melbourne 'LOOKING HARD' for outfits to photograph. Give us a break buddy! We do have our lives to live and a million and one other things to do.

And for the record, it's not just our friends laughing anymore.. more people than you imagine look at our 'badly sung karaoke'.

good response time... was just testing how often you were refreshing the page. pretty often by the looks of things.

What's beef?

Beef is when you make your enemies start your Jeep,
Beef is when you roll no less than thirty deep,
Beef is when I see you,
Guaranteed to be an ICU

I'm quite impressed with your response time also! 1 minute faster than mine.. and the subject of the post isn't even about your site! Good work champ

And ps im not going to try and hide my interest in what people are saying about our blog. It's amazing

And ps I totally love that it is going down on Opulent. Winners all round. Ok it's home time now. See all you feisty peeps in the morning... x

Third best is a school of dumb dumb name... PS opizzile for life PPS white fashion is soooooo boring now lets talk jay selling rocawear for $204 million in cold hard CASH...PPSS if i have to explain who jigga is to the st jeromes girls i will cry

PS 122 i am on there site...i hate my life

skatebored c when you start speaking proper english then talk to us. who are you? we will gladly remove you off our site.

umm never was talking to you, don't know you babe.
Don't knock the hustle in it's homeroom.

PS my outfit is dope in photo.

PPSS like mary j say "no more drama' we just like to talk about rap and shit.

march 20th is clearly the end of the world

"Ps. We have a total of something like 6 pictures on our new blog that were taken at Jeromes, if you could be bothered to look."

Yeah, lucky for those fashion shows - got you out of St Jeromes for a bit! I guess now that it's over it'll be back to old tricks.

And for the record I did bother to look, and because you pulled me up, I even did a count! 10 shots from Jeromes in the 2 most recent posts alone... and that's just the shots I can recognise!

Don't even get me started on your old blog!

PS. Side note - I noticed a lot of recycled material made it's way across from the blogspot to the age - gotta fill that quota eh?

nadia & adele fock off. this is not your blog, so don't half step to its peeps.
i didn't know RMIT fashion students majored in wak photography and social commentary anyway.
.....and whats with the e-grade ? you must be must be dropping some with what your on.

x

Nadia and Adele, you have to expect criticism in whatever you do.

Especially if you come here and call this an E-grade blog.

Proabably not a good way to engage with your critics.

when you're confident about your product, you tend not to defend until the end.

Opulent, I give you an A!

yo yo,

c'mon give my e-grade site some traffic too ;-) !!!

check - http://nownow.com.au/words/?p=319 - it's a post about a new site that looks like it's gonna put us all to shame.

it's been real.

E-grade is the new A-grade.

Thanks for posting this Opulent. I too have been nonplussed by the quality of thirdbest (both the photos and words), which causes me to get re-acquainted with my eyesockets every time I check it out and see another St Jeromes rockstar with 'ironic' Eighties hair and denim, high tops, or Rocco's winklepickers (nothing against Rocco's - great great stuff!) To me it's just boring, cause I feel like I saw it all at least 6 years ago in Vice and the like..

To be fair, I get the impression that the girls are very young and have been educated about fashion in a narrow, rigid way, with few facets. It is rather precious to read their naive proclamations: "We have been taught trend forecasting, and you know what people should note? – documenting STREET FASHION is one of the most powerful forms of trend forecasting." --The dears!! They obviously paid close attention in that lecture on trends, citing the ubiquitous example of Marc Jacobs/grunge era. Good on them for their genuine enthusiasm and commitment to their project, but for stimulating viewing I need only look around me when walking the streets of Melbourne, or check on some of the world's street fashion blogs that have sharp, original and inspiring aesthetics.

Margiela, I like this sentiment - "Good on them for their genuine enthusiasm and commitment to their project..."

And despite all my criticism of their blog, which still stand, I would have to agree simply because I wouldn't want anyone to stop having ideas and creating. (Ummm, I just wish they were NEW ideas, but that's subjective).

But all this raises the question, (insert Carrie Bradhshaw-esque voice-over here), "is Opulent just old and jaded?"

I know this post is dying but I like what Mel had to say here - http://footpathzeitgeist.blogspot.com/2007/03/turf-wars.html#comments
No more, I swear.

Guys.. On behalf of all of you.. jeromes wil be filled to the brim with the free publicity and also.. negativity, positivity - keep it coming... FREE PUBLICITY! THATS ALL IT IS, whether you like it or hate it and frankly all you "way too cool for schoolers and I am so culturally aware and so above it" seem to always hate everything anyway but who cares..

keep talking about these girls.. how about support for something australian , something homegrown for once in your F#$xking lives..
All they did was start something they loved...

they may not have much to comment about.. but they look and they are observers, they capture something you may just walk past and forget. They may not go anywhere political, deep, or challenged but do you really have to?? Why all the deep shit all the time??? Come off it, and stop calling them narrow minded..

You are narrow minded for not appreciating their ambitions and their observations of something they love and are truely interested in.

The reason fashion is truely shit here is because all you people with actual amazing talent that could really change something or impact somewhere, just stay boxed up in your little worlds that you want no one even slightly mainstream to be apart of!
Because you are all above it.. so deep and knowledgable. almighty ones you are, and we, who no nothing about "spank rock" or "Diplo" are so narrow minded and mainstream.

Well guess what, I am so glad the age snatched these beauties up because not only does the age have a prestige to it it also appeals to EVERYONE!
There is so much talent here! SO SO MUCH! And all these girls are doing is trying to void the notions of australian fashion being created with "Simplicity Patterns".
There are too many duplicates out there and not enough individuality and if it has to start anywhere as "shallow as fashion" -I am sure you would all like to put it you nasty people.. THEN SO BE IT! At least they are aspiring to something different and themselves and not paris hilton or sienna god damn miller.

Let go a little.

xox

Honey! We are totally mainstream! Check out the flix from Favela Rock on saturday night. It was a cheesey dancey grind fest. The people love it. Diplo sold out the espy to a pretty hideous JJJ crowd, you can't get any more mainstream than that! I think our problem is we don't take ourselves seriously enough - maybe then we'd actually make some money, boom cha. If you knew us you'd realise we are a bunch of goofballs.

And as for using our talent - we're doing our best, making magazines, setting up websites, designing, starting online stores, writing, making music, you name it. Rather than taking myself seriously, I let go, a long time ago, and I'm really enjoying it. Peace.

Ha. You guys are hilarious!
You also have way too much time on your hands.

Let me tell you, as an enraged postscript, I have put so many comments on their retarded blog and they have scrapped every single one. Face up to the showdown ladeez. Take, as Johnny Cash would say your guns to town, because otherwise you are pussies.

Also, shall we all take bets how long it's gonna take them to figure out the Sister Bella has opened up the road and all the high quality hipsters have moved there? I'm sure they'll realise this when Sister Bella gets write up in General Pants magazine. I'll start the wagering at 5 months...

Good call Kate.

I say 3 months.

Dressing 70s and 80s is like sooooo progressive! So new! Sooo different!

You look stupid. That's why there are blogs like this, and that's why people find them funny or offensive. Because working-class people look at you and think, "What the fuck? How do lazy latte-sucking cunts have all the time to dress like 80s fags when I have to work so hard and I can't even afford - or pronounce - latte?"

Working class cunts used to dress like fags in the 80s, there were called punks.

NICE POST, LOLA!! LOLZ