Rebel rebel you've torn your dress

I've decided I'd rather be a hot tramp and be wrong than compromise in anyway. Make Do Style was a blog born of my attempts to stop people wasting needless money on clothes they couldn't afford and make them think about the why.

It has never been a tirade against the fashion industry, because I love it but not unconditionally. I'll criticise things if they need to be examined and highlighted. Whilst everyone fawns over Burberry I still continue to remind all and sundry of the decimation of communities caused by the closing of the last of their manufacturing bases in the UK, most notably in Treorchy in South Wales where 300 hundred jobs went in an already high unemployment area. This was done to create bigger profits. I don't shop there nor take clients there. That is my choice and I don't expect anyone else to concur.

I don't wear fur nor do I want to but I'm not going to lose sleep over it or tell someone else not to. I couldn't live with myself if I did because I think the breeding of animals for fur and the way they are caged and killed is revolting. But I still love Anna Wintour and she's one heck of a fur lover.

My point is, seeing as I'm meandering towards it, is that I'm staying firmly on the outside. This blog is not for turning! I've cancelled my ad by my-wardrobe because whilst I love their offerings I truly want and need to stay a free blogger. Free in every sense of the word.

On Monday I was incensed by a throwaway sentence in a Oscar fashion resume and wrote a post based around one sentence in the piece. Well, you'd have think I called the Queen a nasty name or spoken up for Robert Mugabe given the reaction. I'm not particularly concerned with the comments but what does concern me is the fact blogging is losing it's point. The point of a blog is primarily to be someone outside of the mainstream creating discourse, community and forging new paths. It is a publishing tool that allows a voice where there wouldn't have been one and essentially is not policed - you can't be told what to write. You can be good, bad and indifferent. You can choose to post or not to post. You can have a readership of none or few or many.

However, of course in the nature of these things there are blogs which have been public successes on different levels and for different reasons. Some people blog as a job either making it their work or as part of their work. I don't. My blog is done for the joy of it. I do it because I want to and I enjoy reading other blogs and peeking into people's lives. Some blogs I discovered by chance others through recommendations or an interview. It is all a free for all and everyone can do as they please.

Except there is a need for some of us to say 'no conforming here'. I have to say it so everyone understands I will do and say as I please within reason. I'm not going to call anyone a c*** that is trademarked by Sister Wolf. It's not my style but it is hers and it's jolly good. I am always going to be free to say what I want, it is after all it is my blog. I don't care how many people read it or like it. I'll probably stop at some point, for instance if I got a job as opposed to being freelance. I don't think I could remain free and a maverick whilst having to be responsible to an employer.

Just in case there is any further need to clarify, I don't write this blog as a job, I'm not looking for a book deal, nor fame, status whatever. I have no issue with anyone who is a mainstream blogger and earns a living through it etc. Just don't tell me what to do or how to be.