A few weeks back, the Guardian had a story on teen bloggers making waves in the blogosphere. Among the young women they covered were a shopping guru named Kristin Prim and a 20-year-old “student confessor” named Angelique. There was also a teen blogger I want to give a grown-up feminist shout-out to: 16-year-old “angry young feminist” Julie Zeilinger and her blog, the F-Bomb (which recently covered one of the axes I love to grind: slutty Hallowe’en outfits).
But the blog that jumped out at me most was 13-year-old Tavi Wiliams’ Style Rookie, which was featured in the New York Times Magazine last year. Tavi blogs with amazing passion and an astonishing breadth of knowledge about fashion–a knowledge that would make even Jeanne Bekker blush. But what jumped out at me most about Tavi’s blog is just how smart it is: she’s a great, funny writer, she offers heartfelt coverage of the fashion shows she attends, and she has pics and videos of herself that exploit her knowledge and experiences of fashion, rather than her body.
Social media tools offers teenage girls today endless opportunities to express themselves and their creativity. Girls who are interested in publishing, writing, photography, making videos, creative audio/radio–and finding an audience for all of this–have so many outlets that old fart Gen Xers like the gals here at Confabulous never had (that’s why we’re making up for lost time!). And that’s what Tavi is doing.
But what’s so great about her is how much she’s doing what she’s doing while still being such a normal little kid! She is a self-confessed “dork,” she has a sensible haircut and her glasses are not unlike the glasses I wore when I was her age. How can you not dig a kid like this?
I can’t embed the video here, but go here to see Tavi talking about what she did with her summer and you’ll see just how irresistibly lovely she is.
How many of us wish we could have been that confident and comfortable with ourselves at that age? By blogging, Tavi will now have a record for the rest of her life of how brave she was/is for not being afraid to be different, for using clothes to express herself and for sharing her passion with the world. She’ll never be able to hide from herself how powerful she is when she’s just being her.
Finally, much propos to Tavi’s dad, the one who chaperones her when she attends fashion shows. I think it takes a certain kind of parental bravery to allow your kid to be herself. It reminds me of a quote I read once by Ellen Page, something to the effect of, “My parents never pushed me and my parents never held me back.” Being able to facilitate your kid’s interests without getting in her way is a freaky achievement of balance, and my hats are off to those who do it. I only hope I can be that kind of parent to my daughter.
Tagged as:
fashion,
Girls
A couple of months ago, we bore witness to a vintage Spanx for men ad and had a good old laugh about it. But don’t be surprised when I tell you that the modern-day equivalent has now arrived. Introducing the Core Precision undershirt, a body-shaping undergarment designed for men. The “man-girdle,” as it has been colloquially referred to, will sell for about $90 to $98 and is designed to create a sleek and slender male form, taking inches off the waistline. Now, if men want to jump on board the body-slimming-garment bandwagon, who am I to stop them? But, really, why the hell would they want to? This is where some handy marketing comes into play.
Strangely (and yet not surprisingly), while the Core Precision undershirt and Spanx (the designed-for-women kind) were created for similar purposes (i.e., to squeeze the body into a smaller size and different shape than it actually is), the two products are marketed quite differently. The male version promises to “improve posture, support core muscles, visibly streamline and slim, control body temperature, and promote circulation.” This description appeals to one’s sense of logic and the desire to improve one’s form in a good-for-your-body kind of way. Improves posture and promotes circulation? Sign me up! On the other hand, women’s Spanx claims to “shape problem areas, accentuate your waistline, minimize your tummy and thighs, lift your rear, and make inches seem to disappear.” The focus here is on aesthetics, implying that women are actually concerned only with appearance and can’t be bothered to contemplate more practical matters such as core muscles.
Of course, women have a long history of wearing undergarments that slim down (and sometimes harm) the body. (Corsets, anyone?) And the fact that these types of products continue to sell well (I’m assuming the Spanx people make a pretty penny), means that the marketing they use must work. However, when a similar shape-adjusting product is created for men, it needs to be advertised as actually improving one’s physical form and health. (And people say sexism is dead. Ha!)
Good for the body or not, the one thing that the Core Precision undershirt and Spanx do have in common is their ability to cause discomfort. However, as a male journalist for the Times Online describes after his one-day test of the Core Precision undershirt, although the garment is rather restrictive, it does still render the wearer capable of breathing. And I’m sure many women who have squeezed themselves into corsets, Spanx, control-top pantyhose, and other body-smooshing undergarments have used the ability to breathe as a basic criterion for wearability.
Hell, if manufacturers of body shapers are looking for an advertising hook, why not go with this one: “Allows you to slim down while still retaining the ability to take shallow breaths.” But I guess this is why I never went into advertising.
Tagged as:
advertising,
fashion,
menfolk,
the body
Blogs are abuzz with news that the Japanese arm of lingerie maker Triumph International has unveiled a new bra with special “features” for women looking to wed.
The Kontaksu (literally meaning “marriage-hunting”) bra features a countdown clock; if an engagement ring is inserted into a slot on the bra, the countdown stops and a Felix Mendelssohn’s “The Wedding March” plays in tinny digital tones.
Triumph spokeswoman Keiko Masuda tells Reuters the bra, which is not for sale, “would suit modern Japanese women who are no longer content to sit and wait for a potential husband to approach them.
“‘Japanese women are becoming more aggressive than men, working actively to make marriage happen, whereas in the past it was men who led women toward marriage,’ she said.”
Er, score one for feminism?
No word on what happens if the date passes without a ring being inserted. Perhaps it plays Joan Jett’s Spinster.
Tagged as:
fashion,
feminism,
marriage
Why not try a loincloth?
Wacoal, a Kyoto-based “unmentionables” vendor is now marketing the loincloth as an emanicipatory undergarment for women. The cost? Around $13 CAD.
Matching bras are also available.
No word yet on how well the loincloth will wear under your jumpsuit.
Tagged as:
fashion
All signs point to the jumpsuit as the “it” item of office-wear and evening apparel. Over the last few months, celebrities have rushed to embrace the jumpsuit, with varying degrees of success. I myself would never sport one, but I admit the jumpsuit’s possibilities are mildly intriguing. Emancipatory garb or harbinger of the apocalypse? Can the jumpsuit work for the everywoman?
The jumpsuit’s appeal and versatility are easy to appreciate - no need to match bottom and top, just slip on in, throw on some pumps, and get on with the revolution. But there’s a potentially dark underside. Gold sequined seventies memories aside, the jumpsuit’s reincarnation – like all clothing trends – could be construed not as a handshake of freedom but as just another temporary novelty served up by a flailing fashion industry to get women to plunk down their hard-earned money on a garment likely to be ridiculously out of style (read: unwearable and in need of immediate replacement) come this time next year. Ah, the annual planned obsolescence of the spring shows.
Given the environmental implications, it can’t be feminist to “invest” in potentially disposable fashion, can it? Or can it? What if wearing said jumpsuit boosts your confidence such that you nail “the big presentation,” thus forwarding your career? But then, can anyone really nail “the big presentation” in a jumpsuit?
Jumpsuit: stylish/convenient feminist utility garment with potential confidence-building properties or ugly piece of retro-crap-capitalist-mistake-purchase doomed to the back of the closet?
Tagged as:
career,
celebrity,
fashion,
jumpsuit
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