British Vogue Editor's Lame PR Coup: No More Skinny Bitches!
The ground zero of Size Zero is here. Alexandra Shulman, the editor of British Vogue, called out a bunch of prominent fashion designers for encouraging Size Zero models. In a strongly-worded letter to several prominent fashion designers, she wrote: "We have now reached the point where many of the sample sizes don't comfortably fit the established star models." She also noted the trends of "jutting bones and no breasts or hips" and the pressure for these things that stem from the "minuscule" pieces of clothing frequently given to the waif-like (wafer-thin?) women at the photo shoots peppering Shulman's magazine, be it on the editorial or advertising sides. The one wonderful part about all of this is when she notes that Vogue has recently been re-touching models to make them bigger. Nice! But really: bullshit. Or it is without at least some form of a mea culpa. Granted, Shulman's been progressive in calling out this - fashion's frightening Thinner problem - as well as cosmetic surgery, among other body-conscious stances the fashion community and the rest of the world have (long before her) been buzzing about at large. But it's not like she's the first one to tell people: (A) you're too thin and (B) you shouldn't rearrange your face, it might not turn out well. And while she never openly encouraged the practice, her tenure at Vogue will probably always be most well known for the rise of Kate Moss and 'Heroin Chic,' the (again, never explicit) idea being that the models are so thin they look like they're on heroin. Fashion simply couldn't have gotten to the place it has without Shulman's knowing participation. Not being a fashion guy myself, but isn't that the name of the game? Calling out that which came before as utterly passe - especially if you're in control of it - in lieu of "reinventing" or whatever the hell fashion people do? It's a smart move on her part, and the public opinion shaping around it, if internet comments are to be taken as "public opinion," is sadly taking Shulman's backpeddling at face value. A Times Online reader chimes in: This is a remarkable stand against size 0 by the most remarkable lady. What doubles my respect for Alexandra Shulman in the fashion industry is that she is speaking out against lucrative advertisers in Vogue in a time of great recession. What a wonderful stand from a true fashion icon for the UK! So now she's calling out designers, and there's a decent list of them: "Karl Lagerfeld, John Galliano and fellow designers at Prada, Versace, Yves Saint Laurent, Balenciaga and other top fashion houses," notes the The Times. Supermodel Erin O'Connor: "The fact that Alexandra Shulman with her enormous influence has opened this conversation means that it will have a huge impact," she said. "It has . . . made it compulsorily relevant that we address this now." The designers Shulman's lambasting aren't too amused, though the Guardian did manage to round up a few opinions on the matter, many of whom are probably too... MORE >>
The Boston Globe BBQ: 23% Less Hot Dog, 23% More Idiocy
What do you do when your media overlords cut your salary by 23% in order to keep your job alive? Do as the Boston Globe staffers are doing and throw a rainy-weekend BBQ to "celebrate" it, naturally. MediaBistro's Hunter Walker files this weekend, noting that "if you were looking for a single anecdote to illustrate the sad collapse of print media, this is it." At first I read this as hyperbole, and then slowly realized he was right. In an effort to drum up publicity for their cause, members at the Boston Globe newspaper guild are having some kind of sad barbecue they've cheekily titled the "Farewell to Fair Wages" party, when the paycut goes into effect tomorrow afternoon. They'll have a bluegrass band and hot dogs, which, as previously mentioned, they'll be trimming by 23%. Per their release: On the day The Boston Globe plans to impose a 23 percent pay cut on nearly 700 reporters, editors and other employees — and the day before the New York Times Company and the Boston Newspaper Guild return to the negotiating table — union members and their families will gather in a reporter's backyard for a barbecue in the name of camaraderie and solidarity. There will be pot luck fare, a kiddie pool, a keg of beer, bluegrass music, and hot dogs — trimmed by 23 percent. Globe union members will be available to talk about the pay cut's effect on their lives. They will also discuss their hope that both sides can reach an agreement Monday that doesn't harm families so deeply — and that allows everyone to concentrate on producing the agenda-setting journalism that makes the Globe so vital to Boston and New England." Walker also noted that the above release came from the PR/lobbying firm the guild hired for "strategic messaging," O'Neill and Associates. Sure, it's great to get the word out there, but wouldn't the Guild's cash be better spent on, say, subsidizing some of the more in-need members, or hiring lawyers to sort the entire thing out? Apparently not. Instead, you've got newspaper people trying to drum up support amongst themselves after the first serious hit has already been taken. As opposed to, you know, getting with the times (pun unintended). Or creating some kind of strategy that would make their jobs less a relic of the past and more a profitable, necessary enterprise. Or at least a manageable one. They've already taken the Boston Globe's owners, the New York Times Company, to task with the National Labor Relations Board for supposedly bargaining in bad faith. I'm almost willing to believe the Times' side, though, because maybe they're not paying attention to what's going on in New York, but their bosses' crystals balls don't exactly hold fiscal solvency in them. The fact is: labor unions are great and important until they drive up the value of labor in dying industries unable to adapt to, well, the present. These are companies that can't afford to have anything overvalued because they spent the last five years ignoring the... MORE >>
Iran Going Apeshit After Fraud Election Produces Fraud Results
Not entirely unexpected: Iran's general election was held today, and guess what? Landslide in Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's favor! The result, called a "divine assessment" by Iran's Ayatollah, is clearly bullshit. Iranians are now taking to the streets (and Twitter) in protest. [Note: I'll be updating this post as reports come in. Whatever you've got, send it my way.] Iranians are taking to the streets, and whoever can access the Internet (a population being seemingly marginalized by the minute) is uploading footage to YouTube. Tehran Beaureu's reporting Ahmadinejad having already shut down land access to Facebook, and AP reports indicate that all social networking sites, major non-government consumer cell phone networks, and opposition sites - like that of Ahmadinejad's main opponent, Mir Hossein Mousavi - are getting shut down as well. Assuming this is true, people have found ways around it to get some information up and out into the ether. As you can see from the photo above, and the video below, things aren't looking good there. The Lede's reporting that a Reuters reporter in Iran has already become a victim of the regime's violence, as he got the piss beaten out of him by some Iranian riot cops. Also, some Old School Bloggery: this Blogspotter's keeping a great running feed of whatever images and video she can cull as it comes in. As The Atlantic's Andrew Sullivan - who's also done an amazing job covering the beat today - points out, Iran's active government barely even tried to hide the fact that the entire thing was a farce, as the numbers in Ahmadinejad's favor increased exponentially as they came in, a telltale sign that they either (A) panicked or (B) just got numbers-happy and went with it. Sullivan also pointed out that opposition candidates have taken to Twitter in an attempt to organize and protect retaliation protests. Some of the collected Tweets from "reformer" candidate Mehdi Karroubi: "Karoubi's camp believes that if there is no resistance this time, people's help can never be expected again." "Making any decision is very difficult and we are in a very difficult situation, any protest must very carefully calculated." "Karbaschi asks people to follow the news through satellite, facebook and internet and ignore rumors." "Karoubi will never be silent. He is present in the scene and never left it. Solutions are being considered." Also interesting: typically, the election results are supposed to be given three days before Iran's Ayatollah certifies them. Today, they were certified immediately. Both White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have issued reports that they're "closely watching" the Iranian elections, with Gibbs noting that they're keeping an eye out for any irregularities. Oh, and this one's nice: Ahmadinejad just accused the foriegn media of unfavorable coverage, via an AP report: "The heaviest pressure and psychological warfare was organized against the people of Iran. A large... MORE >>
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