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EuropeAsk Hadley: She can ease your fashion pain
Now that Hillary Clinton is back in the public eye, I guess this means we'll get more sarcastic comments about what she wears. Isn't it patronising to talk about what women politicians wear? No one ever talks about what the men wear.Lorraine Caulder, by emailTo reply to your points respectively, Lorraine: yes, no and that's just plain out wrong. And now to reply to them working backwards, I disagree that we don't talk about what male politicians wear. At least in terms of the new US administration, there has certainly been talk of what Barack wears. Ahhhh, Barack: he's so hot right now. Dammit, Donatella Versace designed her entire spring/summer menswear collection in homage to him - that's not patronising, that's a fricking privilege. President schmesident; loads of dudes have earned that title. How many have been lauded by Donatella in a press release as "a relaxed man who doesn't need to flex muscles to show he has power"? That's rhetorical, by the way. Moreover, Obama has spoken ever so freely about fashion, such as his most recent and most righteous pronouncement about low-slung trousers: "Brothers should pull up their pants. You are walking by your mother, your grandmother, your underwear is showing. What's wrong with that? Come on. Some people might not want to see your underwear - I'm one of them." Now all this focus on the man might look like avoidance of your question regarding women, but such scepticism underestimates the deft nature of this page. You see, women only get jumpy if someone mentions what a member of their gender is wearing because of, with all due respect, paranoia and over-sensitivity. In the same way that only someone with doubts about their sexuality gets upset when it is called into question, only someone insecure about their superiority would feel endangered by a harmless comment about a dress. Now, you might well counter that women have good reason to be on their guard against condescension and belittlement in the political arena. I say, the best way to show strength is to show total security in it. This is not to say that we should all make girlish, tinkling laughs when wits shout out to Hillary mid-speech that she should "iron my shirt". But perhaps some of us could calm down and stop making the lazy assumption that thinking about what a woman wears demeans her. Yes, women do think about things other than fashion. And yes, there are other things one could talk about when looking at Hillary. But, dammit, she is wearing clothes (unless she has become a nudist, which is a whole new subject for conversation) and what anyone wears is often an interesting reflection of the person themselves. So, in conclusion, if Barack can talk about teenage boys' boxer shorts, then I can talk about Hillary's trouser suits. Ladies and gentlemen, good night, good health and Godspeed. I am a thirtysomething woman who never wears high heels, never gets her hair blowdried and almost never wears makeup. Am I a failure to my gender?Sandrine Brown, by emailIt's not a question of responsibility to your gender, Sandrine, but of responsibility [insert concerned expression replete with doe eyes and a gentle hand-wring] to yourself. Mistake me not: I'm not making some Hurley-esque argument that wearing stilettos and false eyelashes to the corner shop proves that a woman is proud of her femininity, as opposed to enslaved by her own crippling neuroses. But there is a middle road between the facelift and the frump. Now, if you were happy in your frumpishness that would be dandy. But the way you describe it - "bullish overly self-defensive pride" is the term that comes to mind - and the fact that you have put pen to paper about it, suggesting it is heavily on your mind, insinuates that you are not. Rather, that you cling to it out of, what, insecurity? Anxiety? Fear? How the hell would I know? Do I look like Trinny or Susannah?Look, we women know that our sex is not always the fairer one. Unless one makes tedious monthly sacrifices, one becomes as feral as a squirrel. Hell, left to my own devices, I have the fashion sense of Helena Bonham Carter and the hair of Robert Plant. It is only through careful daily (well, occasional) planning that I emerge from my front door, chrysalis-like, resembling something that won't scare the children (unless I want to). The point is this, Sandrine: stop thinking about what is expected of you and think about what makes you feel better about yourself (which is very different from feeling better because you're doing what you think you have to). Personally, I almost never go heels but always get out the hair straighteners. Know thyself, it says at the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. And straighten that Jewfro.WomenFashionguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Published: Mon, 01 Dec 2008 00:07:00 GMT - Source: Guardian.Co.Uk - Read the articleEuropeAsk Hadley: Hadley Freeman on slaggging off celebrities' outfits and 'credit crunch fashion'
What is the point of all those websites and magazines out there that seem to exist purely to slag off celebrities' outfits? And don't give me that "bringing them down to our level" nonsense.Laurence Driver, by emailLaurence, I wouldn't dream of it. Courtney Cox's daily outfits, anything sported by Rosanna Arquette, well-honed thoughts on Helena Bonham Carter's wardrobe: is this not what journalism was invented for? Certainly, large swathes of the internet - gofugyourself.com, pretty much the entirety of dailymail.co.uk - is dependent on the sturdy bones of celebrity mockery. But this skeleton looks decidedly ridden with osteoporosis if one inspects the reasons for its existence too closely. I have never subscribed to the belief that one talks about celebrity fashion or celebrities in general because it makes anyone feel better or worse: we talk about them because they're there and they are as much a part of popular culture as art, film, music or food. How we talk about them is very much a reflection of the era. When everyone was feeling all mopey and poor in the 30s and 40s, celebrities were treated as the rare bit of glamour in an otherwise depressing existence and therefore venerated and discussed accordingly. However, the irony is that celebrity became so idolised that everyone wanted - and felt they deserved - a piece of that action, regardless of talent. Thus we have somehow gone from Carole Lombard to Kerry Katona. It's not exactly what Darwin would call progress, one suspects. Nonetheless, this quasi-progression is reflected in how we talk about celebrities now which is, in the main, jealously. Oh my God, look at Nicole Kidman's grey hair! Not so hot are you now, Mrs Pensioner? Then there is also the fact that most celebrities nowadays do dress and act like great fools, partly because they earn so much that it would turn anyone a bit Howard Hughes-ish, and partly because anyone who wants to be a celebrity in the first place is obviously a bit of a div. Now, some have levelled the accusation that journalists are having their cake and eating it, too, in this regard: talking about celebrities (thereby attracting the masses' attention) but then sneering at them (thus looking as if they're above such concerns). Fiddlesticks, my friends, fiddlesticks. Celebrities and fashion and, most of all, celebrity fashion (seeing as neither seems able to exist without the other) is just part of life in the western hemisphere these days and it's inevitable that most people talk about it. To affect high-minded ignorance or lack of interest suggests that one doth protest too much.As to why so many websites and magazines criticise celebrity fashion, I'd argue that they are still massively outnumbered by those who slaveringly adore it, spreading the belief that if Reese Witherspoon wears it, It Must Be Good. The sneery ones merely seem so numerous because they are funnier and therefore more memorable - you see? There's no need to be randomly cruel about celebrities, but equally I'm pleased that only the very silly still think that everything they do is great. Plus, I strongly suspect that this is the bridge generation - the one in between the era that adored celebrities and the one that will most certainly not. Some might argue that the constant photos of a clearly ill Amy Winehouse or a "worryingly thin" Madonna are little more than repulsive intrusions. I say that if just two little girls are put off aspiring for fame by one photo of Winehouse, it has served a purpose. And if anyone says this is the immature self-defensive blather of someone who doesn't have a proper job, I say this to you: nyahhhhhh. I keep seeing articles in fashion magazines purporting to discuss "credit crunch fashion". A contradiction in terms, surely?Carolyn Jones, by emailOh, aren't fashion magazines adorable? I love it when they try to come over all current affairs-y, making sweet reference to something they saw on the News at 10. Of course, they are going to have to take the current financial apocalypse into account somehow: even the most blinkered Hoxton magazine editor cannot but see the inherent ridiculousness in bigging up some £17,898 handmade dress by Giles in a month when the London Evening Standard keeps publishing letters from people who claim to be living without heat. It's always interesting to see what these people consider to be sufficiently crunchy. If you work for US Harper's Bazaar, it's a $575 pair of Ralph Lauren gloves; if it's Take a Break, it's something you nicked from your dead nan. Of course, the most crunchy fashion is vintage - your own, that is - which is crunchy in two ways, being both free and probably encrusted with God knows what seeing as you haven't washed it in five years. My goodness, Dove deodorant residue does form a solid shield after a few months, doesn't it? Crunch crunch crunch.? Post questions to Ask Hadley, The Guardian, 119 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3ER. ask.hadley@guardian.co.uk.CelebrityFashionWomenguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Published: Mon, 24 Nov 2008 00:04:08 GMT - Source: Guardian.Co.Uk - Read the articleLiteratureTales of the Unexpected
From UK Vogue, "Tales of the Unexpected," starring Tim Burton, Helena Bonham Carter, assorted models, and various others in a strange, surreal reenactment of some of Roald Dahl's greatest hits, James and the Giant Peach and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory among them. Shot by Tim Walker, the set includes eyeball play, interspecial love, and a crazy lift. (Via NOTCOT.)...
Published: Sun, 09 Nov 2008 19:19:44 GMT - Source: Boingboing.Net - Read the article
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