Coco said, “A woman who doesn’t wear perfume has no future.” Mademoiselle Chanel knew what she was doing by creating scents that would linger long after you had left the room. Personally, I am a Chanel perfume addict. If you look on my perfume shelf, there are mainly Chanel scents. I think that Allure is a scent that is very mature while being young at heart. I love the scent and I had given it to my mother and she had loved it as well. So every year, on Mother’s Day, it’s predictable that I will give her a bottle of Allure. I know there is no surprise in that, but what woman doesn’t want her favorite perfume on her vanity to put on and feel glamorous on a daily basis?
In honor of the Olympics and the blustery weather here on the East Coast, I am thinking that we should discuss lips today! Some women are lipstick ladies and some are balmy beauties. I switch between both.
Foremost, I always have balm in my bag, Smith’s Minted Rose balm to be exact! It is in a beautiful vintage tin canister, fits into your bag and gives a super sexy pout. Find it at Sephora.com for $7.
Lipgloss can be tricky, so I stick to Revlon Super Lustrous Lipgloss in Pearl Plum. That is my go to lip color at Walgreens for $6.99. It sparkles and shimmers and turns my chapped lips into soft velvet.
Since I am a Francophile, and a coveter of all things Chanel, I wanted to share a secret with you. Chanel is putting out their new lipstick collection on February 25, 2010 inspired by Coco herself. You can find all the details at Chanel.com. In the meantime, you can browse their beautiful line of lipsticks for $30 each. I am a fan of the Rouge Allure in Provocative.
The women over at Jezebel take the words right out of my mouth (and say them in a much more eloquent manner). I have brought up this question before but it always baffles my mind. Why do magazines always shoot plus sized models naked? My theory is that editors and stylists just don’t want to put in the work to find flattering, beautiful clothes to fit their curvier bodies. Also, why would KARL Lagerfeld (of all people!!) want shoot Chanel on a nearly naked plus sized woman? It feels like a joke. I feel like he is saying – “See, I told you no one wants to look at larger bodies!” GRR!! Please, take a look at the article, and images, below an let me know what you think.
Miss Dirty Martini’s day job more than explains the use of pasties here, but this is as good a time as any to address the fact that a large number of plus-size shoots feature nudity. Of course, so do many fashion shoots with straight-size models: but because as a culture we associate larger women’s bodies with different meanings than smaller women’s bodies, photographing a plus-size model naked can have very different connotations. Eroticizing a plus-size model is a pretty easy, and in some ways predictable, choice. Do the images rely on the old trope of the voluptuous woman as sexually salacious? Is it just that the stylist couldn’t (or couldn’t be bothered) to pull clothes in the right sizes? Are we sick of seeing plus-size shoots with lots of sexy, kittenish posing? (On that last score, well, yes — a little.)
To be fair, there are also fashion shoots with plus models that don’t flaunt the women’s sexuality. V’s first story from the spring issue, which we admittedly didn’t love, was one such shoot. Glamour’s several recent editorial spreads, including its latest with Crystal Renn, are some other examples, even though the picture that kick-started the magazine’s decision was of model Lizzie Miller in nothing but a g-string. Vogue Paris, which has in the past — though not in the last year or so — done occasional fashion stories with plus-size models like Renn and Kate Dillon for no reason other than that they are beautiful and wear superlatively clothing well, has hit other notes than just sex with its photography.
If these kinds of shoots continue, and break out beyond token “size” issues, as we have reason to expect that they will, booking a plus-size model might finally become just another editorial choice for fashion magazines to make, without the disingenuous “Love Your Body” annual-size-issue self-congratulatory fanfare. Some measure of body diversity might finally be achieved in that particular realm of the media; maybe Ford + head Gary Dakin will get his wish, and the “plus” nomenclature will even fall away.
And I don’t think it takes anything away from these wonderfully in-your-face shots of Miss Dirty Martini, or the lovely Sølve Sundsbø shoot from this same issue of V, to say that it would nonetheless be a shame if plus-size models were to start being included more often in fashion, but always on the proviso that they are sexualized. Like the Guerilla Girls might have said, do plus-size women have to be naked to get into fashion magazines?
There were some beautiful jackets in this month’s Harper’s Bazaar that I just had to share with you. I really love these classic, Chanel inspired collarless jackets, they look right on trend for spring but are an utterly timeless style.
Grab Steve Fabrikant’s stunning plus size version before spring starts and they are all gone!
Fuzzy Braid Jacket from Steve Fabrikant
Tory Burch
If anyone wants to buy me this Derek Lam I will love you forever!
Also, update on the baby front. I had my first ultrasound today and am due Aug. 3rd!! My blob has a heartbeat
As of late, it has seemed as though the fashion industry has been growing more accepting of the “real woman”s body, and has been moving away from the stick-thin models that have been been ubiquitous within the industry for decades now.
First, designer Mark Fastopted to integrate “regular” sized women in his London runway show. Next, leading German fashion magazine, Brigitte, announced that it would no longer use professional models, opting instead to cover “women who have their own identity, whether it be the 18-year-old A-level student, the company chairwoman, the musician, or the footballer,” according to editor-in-chief Andreas Lebert.
While we think this is great, apparently Karl Lagerfeld thinks otherwise. The prolific designer recently said, “Fat mummies sit there in front of the television with their chip packets and say skinny models are ugly.” He went on to add that the world of fashion is about “dreams and illusions,” and that “no one wants to see curvy women,” in that world.
We have to disagree! We think the models that Mark Fast used in his show were pretty damn gorgeous!
Brigitte’s decision to move in real direction came, in part, because Lebert was “fed up,” with having to retouch bony women to make them look healthy. German designer John Ribbe refutes this, saying that “ninety per cent [of the models] are totally normal, well-proportioned girls – with less fat and more muscles, who also eat pizza and burgers.”
If the models are telling you they eat pizza and burgers, they’re lying!
That aside, we don’t really care what John Ribbe thinks. We’re sad to hear this negativity coming from Unkle K, but we can’t say we’re surprised. But, changes are being made whether Karl likes it or not, so he should probably learn to love it!
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