Two years ago I discovered Rumi Neely‘s blog and pronounced that I hated her. Tonight, I must heed the wisdom of Rumi the sufi poet, who said:
Quit acting like a wolf, and feel
the shepherd’s love filling you.
I am filled with love for Rumi the blogger because she’s a beautiful girl who has never been mean, pretentious, or self-aggrandizing. She likes what she likes and she shares this with her readers, who still have the option of leaving comments.
Having looked at hundreds of style blogs, I now realize that Rumi is the prototype for nearly every girl who’s slim enough to mimic her style. Every other girl is aiming for some approximation of the Rumi look. It might make us sick but it’s not Rumi’s fault that she’s seized the imagination of so many girls around the world. It’s a relatively simple look but it’s one that she developed naturally, an obvious extension of her personality and her lifestyle.
The hair, the hats, the shorts and loose sweaters, the clumpy shoes, it’s all Rumi. She carries herself so casually that it invites imitation. Not many girls try emulating Susie Bubble or Jane Aldridge, because their respective looks are too complicated or too pricey. Rumi’s style is more egalitarian.
But nobody comes close to her. Accept no substitutions! The original Rumi has an ineffable sweetness that tempers her sexiest pose. She is seductive but endearingly awkward. She doesn’t look like she’s practiced in front of a mirror all day.
I mistook her bubbly So Cal speech pattern for a lack of intelligence but in fact she has a quick wit and a great sense of the ridiculous. She would be the perfect friend for a sleepover. I like to think she’d be up for some prank calls and a midnight drive to get ice cream. She’s be fun to shop with and she wouldn’t pretend you look good in jeans that make your butt flat.
It’s Rumi’s world, at least for now. I love knowing that she’s not a bitch because god knows I’ve tested her, and all I got was openhearted kindness.
Lets congratulate Rumi for winning two Bloglovin Awards! If it weren’t for her existence, we might be inundated instead by man repellers or egomaniacal girls teaching Radical Self Love!
Her misuse of the word “infamous” irks me to no end. I think that word should be added to the list of words bloggers should never attempt to use as they’ve all proven to lack the ability to use it correctly.
Let’s be honest – what’s really happening here is that what was once the worst visible expression of everything wrong with fashion and youth and the internet has now been outdone by even more horrible copies. In perspective, Rumi seems not so bad. We feel nostalgia for a mere two years ago, when we had no idea how bad it could get. Now Rumi seems almost lovable and quaint. I think we’ve lost our blogosphere innocence.
I can’t agree. There’s just something that rubs me the wrong way about her. She is pretty (can’t stand her posing face though, eek) and most likely smarter than she seems at first glance, I’ll give her that; but everything else just doesn’t do it for me. I’m not trying to diss, just saying how I feel. Dunno … maybe she’s better in person, however what I see on her blog fails to impress me.
you are all idiots
i heart rumi.
p.s..does peta have a blog?
Where can I find all the Bloglovin winners without watching the stream? I’m at work and all…
Sure she wears clothes I wouldn’t and uses the word ‘rad’ a lot ,but then that’s the point of it being personal style and she is from California after all.
I’m glad you revised your opinion of her, Sister. I could never understand why you disliked her so much until I found the first post about her here with a Refinery29 link- Refinery29 ends up making everyone sound like an idiot. I honestly wonder whether you’d have had the same opinion about her if you’d found her blog via another, less-moronic source.
I remember Rumi once saying that she went to see a designer’s HQ and they said ‘oh, she’s the mood board girl!’. That was a while ago now, and she’s clearly become the mood board girl for a lot more people since then. Good on her. I like a slightly-scruffy bit-hippyish girl who doesn’t take herself too seriously. And I like that you’re not stubborn SW, I like that you say what you think, even when you’ve changed your mind.
Rumi is skinnier, more stylish and more successful than I’ll ever be, so she also shows that it’s not jealousy that makes me dislike Sea’s blog.
I’m proud to be an idiot.
Carry on.
I can’t quite agree on your Rumi-love, Sister Wolf, but it’s refreshing to hear someone admit that they took a step back and changed their perspective.
I like she ‘got you’ and was as you say embracing. This does make for a different perspective and I think what elle says has a resonance to it. I didn’t and still don’t identify with her nor Jane, whilst Susie is more my cup of tea and I think that is a cultural thing.
But you are fab for being honest and straightforward – that is cool
Don’t know what the bloglovin awards are, but congratulations and welcome to the coven Rumi!
If Sea gets a pardon, I’m withdrawing my membership.
I like Rumi, I hate her style, she’s a bit cheap, and she definitely overuses the word rad. But I like her for the simple reason that at times 70% of her comments were calling her anorexic, or worse, that she was some sort of racist that hidding her ethnicity, and she never felt the need to erase them, answer them or to create one of those post were you put everyone straight and declare from now on the comments are going to be moderated. She understand she puts herself out there and she has the guts to take it has it comes. That’s very rare.
I can never really dislike Jane, how could I, she’s been away with the fairies for long time.
I cannot bear the thought of anyone taking photos of themselves, choosing the right ones and posting them on the internet in the vain hope that others are looking at them just as adoringly as they look at themselves – anyone who is ‘aware’ of their own attractiveness is immediately very unattractive.
well i don’t know her or her blog, as i come from camp clueless. but it is nice of you to embrace her after first dismissing her. i find i hate a lot of stuff (blogs, music, art, actors, PEOPLE IN GENERAL, etc.) at first, and then SOMETIMES i warm up to it or to them. sometimes. humph.
That Radical Self Love bullshitter, Gala Darling, is wayyyy worse than bloggers like Rumi. People may not like Rumi’s clothes or whatever but at least she doesn’t fraud them out and pretend to be some guru curator businesswoman when it’s lies.
whatever- but I do think she’s beautiful
Have to agree with Sam. Whatever about her sweet personality, cannot get away from the fact that she is somebody who posts endless inane pictures of herself pouting and posing. Some of these blogger girls, Rumi was the first, make me think of girls I knew in school whose lifelong goal was ‘to be a model’ – only problem was that they weren’t tall or pretty enough. Now with the internet and your own camera it doesn’t matter! Fake it ’til you make it.
I don’t think she has much of a style to mimic. To me, it’s just basic and relatively unimaginative. Can understand the mass appeal of that though.
I guess I prefer Susie Bubble’s inimitable ways, and Man Repeller’s piss-taking. Jane Aldridge – I am actually sad for her that she didn’t go to college – she seems smarter than just fashion blogging.
She certainly has been successful! It’s interesting to consider what makes one blogger successful & another to remain completely unknown. I’ve come across other style blogs that I think are AMAZING & they seem to get very little recognition. It’s a mystery to me.
I’m not very interested in her. I feel that she is imitating Fiona Apple videos fromthe 90’s. Also what you may be saying is that she actually influenced oother young women to participate in teh photographic vapidity that is now rampant, not a good thing. I also agree about the Man Repller. Seems almost funny at first and then like she is winking too hard at you while laughing at her own jokes.
I do like Susie B tho. She writes well and is relatable and has cool and different things to show.
Rumi’s cute and her blog’s a nice, escapist non-read. You shouldn’t kiss her tiny tush so. We miss the mean! (But agreed, there’s really nothing to slag off on about her any more, so may as well admit she’s a genius compared to the competition).
That’s nice that she’s nice, but for some reason I can’t get “Roomy likes Jizz” out of my mind. Why the hell I remember things like this, but will forget important stuff?!
Nyet, nein, NOPE!
Fashiontoast doesn’t exactly spring to mind when I think of blogs with intelligence, discrimination or wit. And Rumi may be a sweet enough girl, but paragraphs 3 through 7 read like the worst kind of PR tripe, so bad I had to squint for a possible telltale mark from the stiletto of satire.
With all due respect to Rumi the mystic, I feel in this case the words of Bertrand Russell the logician are more apt: “It’s good to have an open mind, but not so open that one’s brains fall out.”
I used to really dislike Rumi, but this weekend I looked at her early posts and found I like her rather a lot. Her utter lack of pretence, and the sort of natural awkwardness she has that desexifies her outfits – I find those things very compelling and refreshing. I still don’t like her style, but I’ve been able to understand her aesthetic enough to appreciate the way that she carries it out.
Is it just me though, or has the content of her writing changed? It seems there was more of her inspiration, her interaction with her surroundings before. Now it seems emotionless, just a recounting of events.
Cricket9 – Yeah, that one is definitely hard to forget. But, you know, I feel I owe it to her, after being so mean, to express my change of heart. She has been nice to me, and I admire her for not taking her hype seriously.
Pretentiousness is the worst sin in my book, (after hurting an underdog and excessive self-love) so I just have to give the girl props.
I will NEVER understand how the minds of fashion bloggers work. Flaunting one’s wealth and good looks is a concept so alien to the way I was brought up that I (and I suspect, many others) just can’t get my head around it. Now having said that, I will say that I do occasionally enjoy some of the blogs with good photography and awesome clothes (which are not many). Susie, Rumi, Jane etc all seem like nice girls and offer aesthetically pleasing entertainment. I don’t know them personally and will therefore stop at that.
As for the other 2930384575 out there, I’m tired of their crappy blogs with no real content and unattractive pictures. Gala Darling is just the cherry on top for these. I have no problem with people using their own space for their own stuff. I am no one to decide what is trash and what is not, but taking advantage of your impressionable audience is just too much. Seriously, I would NOT allow my kids to read that shit. Shit is a compliment.
Rant over.
SW are you still getting trolls? My comments always appear as waiting for moderation. I hope you aren’t. <3
Hortense- The Mean isn’t over. I am filled to bursting-point with hatred. Just trying to organize it into bitesize pieces. Don’t give up on me just yet.
Congratulations Rumi. SW, I find your friendship quite sweet.
very cool sisterwolf
though I’ve always found her somewhat repetitive, never hated her at all
who I hate is that fucking gala darling, I wish someone would take down her website
Tartantreacly – Upon rereading, I agree it is kind of simpering. I was a little “on my meds” when I wrote it. But I stand by my own shit,; what good would I be if I didn’t?
this is very sweet and adult SW.
(shouldn’t be an insult ;))
I think Rumi does an excellent job of diffusing anything negative about her. If she doesn’t have a PR person coaching her than even more props to her.
She replies with jokes and acts like she is in on the whole thing when people are leaving her negative comments-her crawling around on the floor, taking excessive pictures, and appearing like an egomaniac, etc.
She managed to wrap Amy O’Dell from The Cut around her finger and she worked the same magic on Sister Wolf.
The most entertaining part of the Bloglovin award video is towards the end when she is posing with the Manrepeller and The Blonde Salad. They all remain stationary looking at the camera the same way in every flash while Rumi wiggles and turns her head back and forth the whole time trying to look good for the camera. It is a good tip-if someone takes your picture, pretend like you are at a photo shoot. Ensures a good picture!
Although I actually don’t enjoy Rumi’s blog or look at it often, I do agree with some of the points SW is making here…especially about the eyeball fatigue we all have after looking at a million imitators perhaps reflecting back onto FashionToast unfairly. (?)
I’m more interested here in the honesty. Part of what I like about Godammit is the tangible evidence of intelligent, critical thinking skills on display. To me, that reflex is what I see operating here: SW’s ability to actually change her mind about an opinion she held pretty damn strongly in the past, rather than just painting wildly with a wide brush and never re-visiting a subject again.
Rumi…eh, who cares anyway? I’m sure she’s a nice enough gal…
sometimes, I really can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic or not
I really only know Rumi from reading what you write about her. It’s a weird kind of thing.
I don’t read any of the other fashion blogs you often talk about here (for reasons sam articulated way better than I could) so have no opinion on Rumi.
But it’s awesome you said this. I initially started reading this blog for “the mean” Hortense mentioned, but I stayed because the whole person (or however much you choose to reveal of yourself here) is even better.
I love her blog I will admit. She is extremely photogenic, her writing is good and I do like her clothes. When I first came across her blog there weren’t many and Susie Bubble and Queen Michelle were great but less accessible in terms of style.
What she has done with her blog is amazing and a lot of work goes in to it so good for her. But I disagree that her awkwardness makes her more appealing by approachable because it doesn’t. If for any reason she is awkward it is due to her lanky body. She is pretty and boy does she know it. Anyone who poses and takes excessive pictures of themself…well…there is something very not humble about them. I know I never could and a lot of people would agree.
I just want to say as well that Rumi is nowhere near as bad as Jane who is beyond vain and unhumble her blog actually makes me sick…and Lulu really needs to get over herself.
I used to hate Rumi too, and I still dont love her style (her look is quite better now than at the beginning) but now I like her. She is nice, does her stuff in her way and never criticizes the others. But maybe I´m not 100% agree with you when you say she is not pretentious, look from the min 2.20 of this video:
http://www.fashionsquad.com/the-bloglovin-awards-live/
The way she poses seems a bit pretentious to me, but at the same time there is something lovely in her, like a normal girl who dreams about being a celebrity or a model.
“…and Lulu really needs to get over herself.”
Oh GOD, seconded. No one makes me rage more than Luluandyourmom. The chick has some serious delusions of grandeur.
Nah sorry am still not sold on her. Her blog is tired, boring and bland. All hail Susie Bubble! She is literally the only fashion blog I follow now.
There´s something very plastic in that girl… Her face, her poses, her expressions… she´s not genuine. No matter how much I like her clothes, she makes me wanna puke. I hate duckface people and she is one of them…
No.
http://www.sanfranmag.com/story/what-would-lulu-say
^ I wanted to strangle a ferret when I read that feature about Lulu.
“Lulu ” etc – WOW. Upsetting.
SW how about a post about Lulu? this grandeur must be why she and Rumi had a falling out.
I am torn. I would like fashiontoast but the fact that she is “bff’s” w/ bryanboy (???) really puts me off. Also, isn’t it just a rich girl playing dress up? Where’s the inspiration? Just the rich getting richer.
met her at fashion week in new york last year and we talked for a while at party. she is completely and utterly modest and very very sweet. she kept talking about how grateful she was for her life and she was so affectionate and kind!