Citizen's Choice BEST Blogs 2010: Clothes, Cameras, & Coffee

Citizen's Choice: Best Blogs 2010
Personal favorite: Clothes, Cameras and Coffee
This is Roz. 

And this is her blog: clothescamerasandcoffee.blogspot.com

Meet Roz Jana. Beautiful wunderkind from rural England, and possibly the best thing blooming in the blogosphere since, well, anything. 

Now 15 years old (she was under 14 when she started her blog) Roz has the poise and perspective of an old soul, however, a VERY stylish old soul. Her love of vintage permeates Clothes, Camera and Coffee, and her various collaborations features a precocious sophistication that appeals to her readers of all ages.  

She lives with her parents and brother in rural England, the Midlands to be exact, which plays gorgeous backdrop in many of her photo shoots; her parents take turns behind the camera, but the style of Clothes, Cameras and Coffee is all Roz. Roz shows a remarkable lack of self-consciousness, nor does she display any sign of typical teen-aged self-obsessiveness. Instead her focus is on friends, fashion history, music, and poetry.  Her muse is the world around her, and her blog posts come off as a conversation she carries on with her creativity.

One of my favorite posts was the one she did as an homage to a vintage '60's cover of Harper's Bazaar. 

Roz Jana reflects on art, fashion and life. Her blog is Clothes, Cameras and Coffee.

This past year, Roz created a D.I.Y. viral experiment: the  Mummy Scissors Project. After contacting a handful of fellow bloggers, she designed the project to promote ideas over the act of selling a product.  She posted an open invitation for others to participate by creating their own version of the "Mummy Scissors," an D.I.Y. project that involves transforming a pair a sewing snips into a necklace. People from all over the world responded, prompted  by London-based blogger Jill Carin Adams of the street style blog, Streetstyle: Pics by Polka Dot, who is also a friend to Roz. Jill posted her version of the project as a way of cheering Roz, who was, at the time, convalescing at a hospital in London. The project is on-going and people are invited to post their contribution on her page. You can learn more about the Mummy Scissors Project by clicking here.

(photo credit: Inspiration Partout)

In October of 2010, Roz announced to her readers that she was to be undergoing surgery. She had been diagnosed with scoliosis. and was to undergo a painful operation to straighten her spine. In typical Roz fashion, she used the event to create an outfit post as an homage to Alexander McQueen, and his innovative spine prints. She designed a dress, fashioning silk scraps on its back, to emulate her crooked spinal column. The operation was a success, and Roz returned to the blogosphere, back on track and better than ever.

Art imitating Life: Roz Jana uses her scoliosis as inspiration for a dress.

In Roz's own words: "I am inspired by vintage films, favourite photographers (Tim Walker, Richard Avedon etc), old photos, the outdoors, books and the moodboards I make. These subsequently inspire my blog & outfits. For my blog posts, as well as a general description of outfit components and location, I tend to write about things I've been thinking or issues I feel strongly about - for example, I recently talked about the rise in University fees for students in the UK. I always seem to end up saying something about the weather too!"

Timeless beauty and timeless style are the hallmarks of Clothes, Cameras and Coffee.

On blogs: "I have really been enjoying reading Style Bubble ever since I found her blog back in spring (I know - a late jump onto the band wagon). She is a truly innovative woman, both in her writing and style.I feel honoured to have met Jill (of Street Style: Pics by Polka Dot) as she has a huge amount of warmth and compassion. Plus, she does great street style photos!"

Her top 3 picks for Best Blogs 2010:

• Karl Largerfeld's guide to life (http://www.fakekarl.com/) never fails to amuse - a friend and I can quote back parts of favourite posts!

• Barbro Anderson (http://barkatt-barbro.blogspot.com/) was a favourite new find of 2010. She has a very unique and memorable approach to style. 

• Hope Adela from Pink Champagne (http://pinkchampagnefashion.blogspot.com/) recently started blogging again, and I'm very glad she did! Her 'Alice in Urban land' shoot is a particular highlight.

On her future: "My immediate plans involve featuring some creative projects planned for my blog, as well as lots of behind the camera photographic shoots once I'm sufficiently recovered to be energetically out and about. I'm very excited about all the possibilities brought about by blogging, and would like to experiment more with these options.  In the future I would like to study English Literature at either Oxford or UCL, then work freelance as a photographer or writer. However, I'm already toying with different creative self employment ideas now, to try and raise some funds for University."

Clothes, Cameras and Coffee is a work-of-art-in-progress. It is a personal style blog that transcends mere trends in fashion, but represents the style exploration of youthful beauty and old soul Roz Jana, who, with the loving support of her friends and family, has a very beautiful and very bright future ahead of her.