Unlikely Style Icon - Teenage Fashion Blogger - Tavi Gevinson

Tavi Gevinson, otherwise known as 'Style Rookie', made the cover of fashion bible Pop mag in August and Love in September, where she was also interviewed by Pixie Geldolf.

Her fashion blog attracts half a million hits a month and she is taken so seriously by the industry that she earned front row seats at all the biggest shows during New York Fashion Week, where editors and celebrities could be seen respectfully watching over her shoulder.

Given the fascination with this unique and engaging fashion writer, it's rather surprising to discover that Tavi is a 13-year-old blogger from suburban Chicago.

The 'Style Rookie' blog was created in 2008 when Tavi was just 11, and her writing illustrates such an understanding of her favoured subject that it was initially assumed to be a fake created by fashion insiders. It has a professional feel and features analysis of magazines and photographs of her quirky daily outfits.

Kate and Laura Mulleavy, the sisters behind the award-winning fashion label Rodarte, contacted Tavi after coming across her blog just eight months after she began it, and she has since become their muse, helping to present their line.

"Tavi makes you think about things differently," said Kate Mulleavy, "She makes you see things differently."
Indeed, Tavi Gevinson appears to be quite a phenomenon.

Her first experience of paid journalism was for Pop's website, giving her thoughts on New York Fashion Week. "For one week I was in a utopia full of people who can recognise that my jacket is Luella and appreciate that I stuck an upside-down doll in its chest pocket," she wrote.

"Tavi's amazing," says Charlie Porter, deputy editor of the style journal Fantastic Man. "She's so inquisitive, with such a sharp, curious eye,"

While a sense of fashion and style is a matter of opinion, this extract from 'the new girl in town's Bat Mitzvah speech is a good example of why people hope that we continue to hear more from the teenager who won over the fashion industry.

"As I said earlier, the Nazarites wore just enough to keep them warm, believing that that was the wish of God. Over this past year I have become increasingly interested in clothing, and have developed a clearer understanding of the idea that clothing can be art... Rei Kawakubo, who many regard as the first conceptual designer and whose clothes can often inspire uncomfortable thoughts or feelings in people, is my favourite designer in the world... Using fashion as self-expression can go beyond wearing a shirt with a slogan, as clothing has the ability to evoke an entire feel, or atmosphere, or emotion, or world."

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