Fashion blogger Lorelei Vashti, pictured in a photo from her Dress, Memory series. Picture: Lee Sandwith Source: news.com.au
LORELEI Vashti is comfortable being vulnerable in front of complete strangers. Or at least, she's trying to be.
For the past 10 weeks, Vashti has been connecting the dots between her favourite outfits and some of the most intimate moments of her life on the Dress, Memory blog.
Each post includes a studio portrait ? taken by Melbourne photographer Lee Sandwith ? of Vashti wearing a particular dress along with a short story about the feelings or memories it stirs.
Like 52 Suburbs before it, Dress, Memory has become a not-so-small weekly pleasure for fans of great blogging.
On a Skype video call with news.com.au from Paris, Vashti speaks with her entire body, waving her hands about to mimic the movement of the dresses she mentions.
"The first time I went overseas on a big trip (and) moved to Melbourne from Brisbane, I was 22 or something, and I was like 'I've got to get rid of some of these clothes, I've got to give a bunch of them away'," says the freelance writer and editor.
"I've never stopped thinking about them or regretting them."
Gripping a pencil in her left hand, it's clear Vashti is still trying to work out her own feelings as we talk.
"Sometimes I see a friend ? and this is going to sound base and vile ? I mean, this is why I'm so fascinated by my feelings toward this," she says, head in hands.
"I would see some of my friends sometimes, maybe in a dress that used to be mine, and I would just want to grab it and go ? 'No, that's mine, not yours!'
"I realised I'm a bit weird about this, I need to work this out."
Behind the scenes at the photo shoot with Lee Sandwith in Melbourne. Picture: Ruby Murray
As Vashti explains on her blog, she first began collecting dresses as a way to fight off panic attacks in her early twenties. They were such a successful remedy she ended up with six wardrobes full of them in two different states.
When she speaks about a particular outfit, Vashti grins to herself and goes red.
"There's one in particular dress I can't get out of my head ? this psychedelic sixties thing I wore to so many festivals when I grew up in Queensland," she says.
"It was the most summery, beautiful, halternecky, flippy, amazing, really short mini-dress kind of thing.
"It's totally ripped now. If I wore it I would be jailed for indecency or something ? you can't wear that. But I put it on at home or I look at it in my wardrobe, it's sort of like a crepe or something, it's this incredible fabric."
While Dress, Memory has been therapeutic for Vashti, she also hopes the blog will inspire fashion enthusiasts to reconsider the way they think about clothes.
"I'm pretty sure everyone starts with a secret blog and doesn't tell anyone about it."
"I think fashion has become so amputated from real life in many senses," she says.
"Lots of people think of fashion in this high-fashion way, and I love that stuff and I'm a big fan, but on a day-to-day level fashion affects us as well.
"It's this women's magazine kind of thing that's so disconnected from real life ? and that's fantastic and that's a legitimate industry in its own right ? but this is something else we're talking about.
"We're talking about feelings. We're talking about fashion as emotion rather than as industry. I think it affects everyone."
Vashti's stories about her dresses are deeply personal. The topics range from former lovers, to the ethics of wearing fur and the death of a relative in an infamous New Zealand train crash.
"That's a really personal story about my aunt who died in a train crash," she says.
"She was like the only Australian in this train crash, this very famous Tangiwai disaster on Christmas Eve. It's always sort of haunted my family.
"I think about my mum, who's about the same age as my great aunt was when she died, and how every Christmas must have been tainted."
Vashti's eyes well with tears as she speaks.
"Her mother had lost her sister on this day, and every year that my mum has been alive pretty much, this spectre of this awful disaster has been on them. I just can't even imagine that."
Though Vashti is clearly flustered, there's a boldness to her conversational style, like she's unafraid to feel uncomfortable. In fact, that's part of the challenge ? to be as exposed as possible, precisely the opposite of the sort of online anonymity usually associated with blogging.
"I don't know about everyone, but I'm pretty sure everyone starts with a secret blog and doesn't tell anyone about it for ages," she says.
"With this project, I mean, it's so obviously me. It's me in the photo. There's no disguising me. It's almost a bravery thing. It's an art, it's a challenge to expose yourself that much.
"It's the most honest thing I could think of doing. If I'm writing about myself, I need to own it, you know? And that's how I felt with that idea of having photos of me on the internet.
"Of course, I didn't feel comfortable with that at all and I still wonder if it was a good idea."
"I found a flouncy flamb�, a blush crush..." Picture: Lee Sandwith
So far Vashti has posted 10 instalments out of her first 24-dress "volume", but says there may be more to come.
"Depending on how it goes, maybe I'll do another volume. I've got 24 in this lot, but there are so many dresses," she says.
"The ones we picked (for the photo shoot) we picked quickly out of convenience. So many of them were in Queensland at the time, and I couldn't get them, so some of the ones I feel so strongly about are not even featured in this one.
"I've been travelling for nearly four months, and I'll be back at the start of September in Melbourne, so I'm just going to see what happens, I think."
"We're talking about fashion as emotion rather than as industry."
Vashti says one of the best things about Dress, Memory so far has been hearing about other people bringing their memories out of the wardrobe.
"I've had a wonderful response, but my favourite ones are just from readers who also are sharing their stories of dresses on the Facebook page and on Twitter and stuff," she says.
"They write to me and say 'that one reminds me of this one I've got and this time and this thing that happened to me'.
"Part of being a writer is trying to connect with other people, and I think yeah, as much as I'm talking about myself... it's so gratifying to connect with people."
Vashti says it has also been a pleasure to be on the other side of the screen ? having gone from reading blogs for an escape during work hours to writing one.
"I used to work in an office for years, and when I was working in an office I was just craving that five minute morning tea break or whatever," she says.
"Just some escape from the work I was trying to do at my desk, so yeah I really relate to just wanting something more.
"It's lovely to know that dream has worked ? that five minutes on a Friday. That's what I wanted. Five minutes on a Friday of people's time. It's really amazing that they give that to me.
"I'm very grateful."
With Andrew Ramadge
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