Noun:

"the act of causing to become beautiful or handsome "

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Typical Fashion//Edited Images






If one writes one’s update at school, but posts it at home, is it still updating from school? Who knows? Not I, not I. Today, I’m going to tackle the subject of the typical girl in my school, and how she dresses, which generally consists of (correct me if I’m wrong, friends from school) Uggs with jeans tucked in, some sort of tank top or tee, with a Northface jacket or a hoodie from Aeropostale or American Eagle, and some pressures of society through fashion.
Also known as, they dress… Exactly alike. I’m all for following trends and whatnot, but following a trend to the point where you all look like little clones of one another defeats another purpose of fashion, which is to be an outward expression of self. Well, this might not be a specific purpose of it, but it is what happens. According to these people at school with me, they all think the same, are built the same, look the same, feel the same – about everything!
I’m not saying dressing like someone you admire is bad, but when you look like nearly every single one of your peers, it’s less about dressing like people you admire or want to emulate and more like you just want, desperately, to fit in.
Why else would someone wear Uggs? They’re glorified slippers, bear feet, and true to their name, they’re hideous. I’m not even sure why they’re fashionable. Maybe it’s because they’re comfortable or something, because they’re not attractive. These girls look sort of ridiculous. They have these fluffy Northface jackets, with tight, TIGHT jeans underneath, and then these huge fluffy boots, which give them the appearance of having a big torso, spindly legs, and huge feet, a bit like a cartoon character, or a caricature of the true human form.
There’s a girl in one of my classes who dresses like this almost every day. I recall one day when she didn’t wear a loose jacket or vest over her shirt, and being shocked to see that she has THE hourglass figure. Her waist is tiny, and she’s built basically perfectly. There’s a reason the hourglass was ideal for so many years, and that’s because it was attractive. Designers and celebrities, why are you making these poor girls want to hide their fantastic figures?
Skinny jeans, although I love them, I have a bit of a beef with. For the aforementioned teenage girls, they’re perfect for stuffing into boots, because you don’t have to try and fold them over neatly. But they are “skinny” jeans, although the name comes from the leg shape, not from the type of figure you have to have to wear them. The problem is that it’s just one more reminder to women who are normal sized that to be “in” you have to be tiny. This isn’t true at ALL.
Here she is, guys. Twiggy. The woman who started it all, who was criticized for being too thin and detracting from the reality of women’s bodies.
And now we have the scandal surrounding that model who was edited to be so thin, SO thin, and it was found out about. It’s so sick. The majority of us will never be as thin as the models we see every day, all around us. We’re just not built that way. But you know what? We’re beautiful anyways. Designers need to stop designing for these tiny women and start designing for real people. Until girls can be shown that they’re beautiful whether they wear their Uggs and their Northface jackets, or whether they wear a pair of Tripp pants and dress to suit their figures, and until girls can be taught that they should keep themselves healthy – not necessarily thin, then we will still have girls fighting this horror that is eating disorders because they desperately want to be thin and, by association, beautiful.
Everywhere around us, we’re bombarded by message: You are worthless unless you are thin.
You are worthless, unless you are thin.
Unless you are thin.
What’s thin? Is it poor Filippa Hamilton? Who wasn’t thin enough on her own?
Just look at that.
On the left you have Filippa Hamilton as she usually appears – healthy, gorgeous, and human. On the right, you have Ralph Lauren’s edited advertisement. Her body is unnaturally thin, freakishly so. As another blogger, Xeni, put it, “Dude, her head is bigger than her pelvis”.
Now Filippa Hamilton is claiming that she was fired for being too fat. As if that gorgeous woman on the right who looks like – oh, the horror – a real woman, is too fat. Hamilton is 5’10” and 120 pounds. There’s nothing normal in that second image, nothing even possible, really. And now girls will look at that image and the probable dozens like it and think that that’s beautiful and that’s what they should look like.
Quite frankly, I think Whitney Thomson, “plus size” winner of America’s Next Top Model, is infinitely more attractive than Hamilton. Honestly, I’d rather look like her any day. But even calling Ms. Thomson “plus size” is ridiculous. She’s hardly any heavier than me, and if that’s plus size, then I’m a happy plus size. I’d rather look like her any day, which is good, because she and I are built the same way anyways.
-- <3>

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Alternative Fashion Pt. 1

I have no problem with alternative style, in most cases (so don't get me started on What Not To Wear. Heavens). So I thought I'd do a short series of posts about some various fashion scenes. Today, I'm going to focus on this picture my friend from Finland sent me today to show how he usually looks.
I'm really unsure of what I think of goth fashion. I own a pair of Tripp pants with chains and stuff all over them, but I don't generally wear them unless I feel like lounging around the house. I had a phase in middle school where I hated everything, and I generally dressed with all black wearing too much makeup. I think that if you've got the guts to dress like this in public, more power to you. I personally don't. I dislike the image that gets put out by this - the violence, anger, and hate. By dressing like this, people are giving themselves the image of, well, a hooligan. I know plenty of nice kids who dress in a lot of black, in black makeup all the time, and even some who do wear the corpse paint and stuff, but there's an image surrounding this look, and people are scared of it because of what it's associated with.
People who dress like this can't complain when security watches them in stores, or something, because they do have the look of a troublemaker about them. People are judgmental things, and when we see people who display symbols of hate and darkness (the inverted cross) or violence (the red paint - blood), it's generally going to be a given that people are going to see you as someone who is hateful and angry and violent; that's the image you're projecting.

Having said all of that, I like some goth fashion a lot. Goth women's clothing can be astoundingly pretty, and you can find some really awesome stuff (like some of the stuff at The Kinky Angel, pardon the questionable name). It depends on how and where you wear it, really. I'm cool with people dressing like this for weekends and going out and stuff, but in a situation like school, you're just making yourself a target and every time something like a bomb threat happens, you will be the first one who is talked to about it.

-- Spoon <3

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Two in a row, whoops.

So, now it's shout-out time.
There's a blogger whom I read on a regular basis. She's pretty much awesome, and she's the whole reason I was inspired to start having a real blog for real, so here's to Punky of PunkyStyle, and her fantastic fashionable ways!

Punky, dressed fashionably as ever, with the Haberdash, her mobile vintage store.

One reason I love how she dresses is how seamlessly she blends modern fashion with a vintage look and a bit of rock and roll and a bit of strangeness (there are some animal masks I don't quite get) to create a look that's pretty fantastic. Her exploits are well worth the read.

So def def go check out her site. She's gotten all sorts of mentions, been on TV for her fantasticalness, and whatnot.

Tata once more. It's most definItely time to be done for the night.

-- Spoon <3

It's best to start out with a bang?


Ugh. Scarlett. What. Were. You. Thinking?
There is so much wrong with this getup that I'm not ENTIRELY certain where to start.
Let's start at the top and work downwards, eh?

The hair is actually lovely. I really think it's got this wonderful, soft feminine look about it that really suits her face. She's so gorgeous anyways and she's got all this fantastic hair.
In general, I like the red lipstick look, but right here it's a little questionable. I think it's the shade of red, or maybe it's just a bad photo. They make her lips look a bit GIGANTIC in her face. Questionable, much?
The shirt: no. See-through with a white bra? Tacky! What's that white pattern between her breasts? It looks like she's got some sort of claw or something. Not really a fan of this part. At... all...
The jeans? I'm generally pretty apathetic on high-waisted jeans. I mean, they look really good on some people and really bad on others. the fact that the jeans are lighter than her top gives the visual effect of widening her already wide hips. She's got a gorgeous figure that this just doesn't flatter at all! Combined with her black shirt, they really makes her look significantly more bottom heavy than she is. The pants also look a little short to me. Maybe that's a matter of personal taste, but I personally wear my pants long, which brings me to...
The shoes. Is it just me or does she have like a petal coming out of her foot? What is this nonsense, Scarlett?

AND SMOKING IS BAD DON'T DO IT.


-- A Spoon
<3