indi.ca

The last cover, which caused so much controversy

I get a lot of mail, none of it for me. Today I got Otara’s copy of Vogue. Apparently she has the same street number, on a nearby lane. I really must forward it, but I already tore the plastic. Might as well give it a read. All I usually get are the landlord’s bill, or pamphlets the Jehovah’s Witnesses slide under my door; so this is a bit novel. Otara’s mail is much better and she’s something of a local celebrity. As mentioned in Fashism, I’ve read some Glamour and InStyle from McCallum street and concluded that they both suck (like saccharine lollipops). Vogue also sucks, but the writing is way better. I just think the attitude is a bit vapid and materialistic, but that is, perhaps, no great insight into fashion magazines. I suspect that there is a semiotics to fashion beyond ‘her ass looks nice in that’ that I simply do not understand.

My main issue is that I cannot afford anything inside the magazine ($4,000 dresses, $800 Vera Wang tops) and I wonder about the people that do. Jealous wonder, most likely. I suspect that there is an entire class of women whom I simply cannot sleep with, and that bothers me. Luckily – judging by the models – I’m not much attracted to them, them being exceedingly skinny, white and tall. This Vogue had a feature on colored women in fashion, which was hot for about two pages. It was actually very self-critical for a few pages, I guess in response to the (needless) controversy about making Lebron James look like King Kong. The homogeny of fashion does bore me as one who prefers dark meat. It’s interesting that the magazine at least commissioned an article about it.

This magazine exists to inspire women. How do fashion editors get inspired by watching the same procession of anonymous, blandly pretty, very young, very skinny, washed-out blondes with their hair scraped back in show after show?

But then it’s back to 15 year old boys, looking entirely infertile. Giselle looks like a man. I wonder if my other neighbors have something more interesting to read.