Pop Cultchah: What I Have Learned From... The Moomin Family.

It's been a while since I've issued a teaching of the covert "School of Style".

My last grain of inspiration was about the Mayans- since then my school and I have been hiding out in a hidden fortress of the Alps, training for the greatest fashion show-down of all time. Of course, I can say no more about that at this time.

All I can do is impart another inspiration- I have, by a long and intricate process, managed to extract a means of wireless internet connection that will last maybe eight minutes. I have to be quick.

You may be wondering- who exactly is this Moomin family that I have learned so much from? The sad thing is, you should already know. Because the Moomins were and are and amazing fictional species in an amazing fictional land in a series of amazing fictional stories. For a fuller background click here.

The Moomin stories are very dream-like, albeit really cohesive and awesome. At first the stories may seem confusing, even weird, but before long you're hooked.

The fashion idea that these Moomins have instilled in me is the idea of minimalism.

The characters, in appearance, are so simplistic, yet so powerful. Look at Moomintroll up there, with only a top-hat and a cane. He bespeaks an elegant minimalism that is just entrancing. He doesn't need polka-dots or stripes to be a children's icon all over the world- he's just... a white, round-ish figure.

Bland, however, he is not. He is interesting because he is so simple. It gives him a foreign, exotic quality. A little something we just can't put our finger on. That "it" quality.

And that's what the minimalist pieces of this fall are all about. They all have a twist. And that twist really only stands out because it is set against a startling simplicity. In a way, these subtle items will be the most interesting clothes you ever wear.

So, in a hurried fashion, I will put the items I have found that fit this mold below, before my pirated internet connection fails and my school is once again thrown into hidden obscurity. Goodbye, my students, goodbye.