Show and Tell - Part 2

This post, at Gawker, communicated important thoughts in a most eloquent way:

Is Size Zero Sizing Falling Out of Fashion?

Vanity Sizing vs. PC Sizing

By Maureen O'Connor - Gawker

Instead of casting size 0-2 runway models this fall, Calvin Klein's using comparatively obese size 2-4's. Is this like the time they shifted sizes down so vain average people would feel skinny, and skinny girls would be nothing at all?

Is size zero finally falling out of vogue? And if it is, are we talking about the actual size, in inches (30-22-32 and 33-25-35 inches, Wikipedia tells me) or just the designation of "zero," which is a relatively new concept, anyway (fashion adjudicator of all things mainstream, the Gap, introduced its 0 in the '90s) and coincides with an upward creep in the numbers on the tags of women's clothes in general. (One fashion industry organization estimates that today's size 10 would have worn a 16 in her grandmother's day.)

Calvin Klein was, of course, at the heart of the invention of size zero, which happened some time after their heroin-chic Kate Moss campaigns taught us that the words "lovely" and "bones" go together. If the company's sizing up this week catches on, Calvin Klein will confirm that it's America's most talented inventor of female body trends. If it doesn't, it will just add to the general anxiety over body size. On an individual level, women worry they are too fat. And lately, on a social and industry-wide level, fashion has been worried that its women are too thin. And we all know the easiest way to soothe the anxieties of others: lying.

Besides, maybe size zeros don't want to be zeros. Maybe size zero ladies will stage a revolution of their own? Points out my colleague Brian Moylan, "I always thought 'size 0' was degrading... like these girls are so skinny, they don't even count." Heidi Klum has a similar stance: "A size zero? I've never heard of that. That didn't exist when I was growing up. When did that start? What does it mean? It means a person is not there, no? It makes no sense." [Fashionologie]

(text by Maureen O'Connor - Gawker)

 

By the way, Bill Cunningham's Eggwear images in the April 18, 2010 issue of the NY Times captured the behind of a woman that would look exactly like mine if I wore a midriff shirt with my low-rise jeans.  Major Muffinage!  

Body Image Ahoy!!

Show and Tell

One of the valuable services that gossip blogs provide is to shine a bright light on how Photoshop has affected girls'/women's body image. Real and retouched images side-by-side (so to speak) like this one and this one provide a chance to have an important discussion with The Girl about what is real and what is NOT.

It took me a while to train my brain to remember that the beautiful bodies I see in fashion magazines (not the prepubescent waifs - they border on kiddie-porn IMHO) are not real.  They are retouched way beyond covering up the pimple that even school picture companies can do for you (for a fee).

The September Issue, a docu-movie about producing Vogue's biggest issue in its history, reveals to us that the cover photo of Sienna Miller is constructed out of the head of one shot + the neck from another shot + the teeth from another shot + body from another shot.

Voila!  Woman through collage.

It's not that art =  life.

Life = art.

A Civilized Response

I can't say anything other than I loved this article about this woman in the NY Times yesterday.

My Big Not So Fat Magnolia Tree

We live in a northern climate, and I was surprised that our house had a magnolia tree in the backyard.  I grew up in this same northern climate and had never seen a magnolia tree until we moved south right before I left for college.  Over the years we have observed our tree to get confused by our weather.  It sprouts buds during weird warm spells in November/December and then doesn't have much energy in the spring/summer to blossom properly.

When it does flower

it's very pretty.

But, inevitably, we have a huge thunderstorm, with hail and this is what happens to our blossoms

which is what happened last night and this is the aftermath.


This tree is being set-up to fail.

V Is For Vitriol

We need a little of this in our water supply.  Some of you have heard me say this when people in my orbit or people that I read about go a little bonkers about an issue.

Unfortunately, the joke's on me because there are drugs in our water supply - just not enough of the right kind to keep us more thoughtful in our discourse.

I am deeply saddened and disgusted that citizens of this planet were spitting on men who risked their lives for the civil rights movement, or are openly gay and serve in the legislature.   I am disgusted by the behavior of these elected officials:

And I couldn't agree more with Maureen Dowd's assessment of Joe Wilson's hateful outburst of "You lie!" (boy) toward President Obama.  A white president would NEVER have had any legislator yell at him.  NEVER.

What the hell is wrong with these people?
Why are they so scared that they use rage to cover their fear?


Why do people scream and shout at libraries and schools to ban books that the screamers have NEVER READ?


Maybe medical marijuana is the answer.

I'm calling the Governator right now.


I'll be back.**

PS.  You know what (you ignorant cowards)?  YOU LIE!


**Extra bonus comment points for knowing that pop culture reference.  I'll even let you scream at me about any issue you're uninformed about.

Unblocking the Blogger's Block

I'm back.
I was unblocked by this.
Now I can't remember what I wanted to say about it.  I do remember wanting to write something about how my local ice cream joint has a Facebook page and I couldn't figure out why....even after looking at the page....I couldn't decide why anyone would really want to visit their page unless there was a coupon/discount code involved.

I am an official Facebook lurker.  I'm on it under an alias thinking that my kids would allow me to link to them without being obviously ID'd as their mom.  The Boy won't have anything to do with me, although I can be a friend to his band's page.  The Girl, 7th grade, cannot be on Face book yet.   It's just another avenue for spineless bullies and the crap texts that she gets periodically from other kids are enough to deal with.  And don't get me started on the 300 (total) students from my high school that are looking for people like me.  I don't want to be found - I'm in touch with the people I care about thank you very much.

Of This and Of That:

 Mrs. O's eyebrows are still bugging me.

And, if you are a RHOC fan, this site is brilliant.  My friend and I were talking about how we'd love to buy a print, but I'm not sure I want to own one forever...but I love the concept and execution.

Crossover

There was a big crossover moment in our family last night.

The Girl, 11, is now a young woman.

It's not what you think it is.

It revolves around this Dress.*

I returned this dress to Target last night, after deciding that all the alterations in the world won't make it work on my body. (The only saving grace was that I was trying to make an L a M+)

The Girl is looking for a dress to wear to a teacher's wedding next week.

We picked over the leftover L and XL sundresses (the S's got the goods early).

We skipped the bursting racks of maxi-dresses (ugh - please make it go away!) and resigned ourselves to looking elsewhere for an inexpensive, going to be worn once, dress.

Then we stumbled on a secondary rack of Tracy Feith for Target.

The Dress was there, in an XS.

The only piece in a ragtag assortment that no one in The Heights is going to wear.

I pulled it out and asked The Girl if she wanted to try it on, assuming she'd say "no."

She said "sure."

She tried it on and she looked beautiful.

She said "I love it!"

It was twice what we had budgeted, but it will work for a cousin's fall wedding too.

We bought it.

In the parking lot she marveled, "Mom, this is a designer dress!"

On the way home we laughed at the serendipity of this dress.



*modeled, as she suppresses gas, by Ally from The Hills.