I held off reviewing Stylist as I was hoping it would build on a promising start and really begin to offer something after a couple of issues. Annoyingly, this doesn't seem to be the case. When the ladies from Bitchbuzz tweeted that they thought it was the worst issue yet and screamed, "WE WANT TO LIKE YOU", I knew my lunch time would be spent working out why. It didn't take the full hour, I can tell you.
My annoyance started when I read the vastly overused phrase "bang on trend" describing a £995 jacket on page 6. However, when a full-page in the Scoop section is given to a bland photo of designer Anya Hindmarch accompanying a piece saying David Cameron is merely considering temporary peerage titles for 'celebrities', whilst the oppostie page has a tiny mention for the prestigious annual Photographic Portrait Prize (misleadingly entitled "Unknown photographers showcase their snaps"), I knew things were looking bleak. Over the page, "Want to be successful? Paint your home blue" made me realise it was time to move on to the main body of the magazine, where the real articles usually are. Thankfully this week's Work Life page proves to be a bit more interesting than last week's, with fewer mentions of what make-up and clothing the woman in question has chosen and at least something vaguely interesting about her life and working day. However, I'm sorry to say that Dawn Porter's opinion page really hasn't got any better. In "what do you get a man for his birthday? You!", she reveals the startling truth that straight men might quite like women in sexy underwear and, far from being an opinion piece as the page heading suggests, the article simply reads like a blog. Sorry Dawn, but I subscribe to many entertaining blogs - I need something a little different.
The first big article I get to is entitled "the new enemies of ageing" and begins with a double-page photo of a young model with taught skin. So far so same-as-most-other-women's-magazines. However, when I turned the page I discovered that it wasn't actually an article after all, but simply a list of anti-ageing products that the team have tested. Come on people, I need content! The article on eating habits was actually rather interesting but I was disappointed at the use of the word 'diet' in its title. After all, when most magazines talk about a woman's diet they mean calorie counting, so it was a little misleading (if only because of my own preconceptions). An article on the following page about the differences in communication styles between genders suffered a similar fate, being given the terrible title "how to make men listen". Is that really what you think we're all like? Oh yes, it really is... the technology page is laid out to resemble a dating/relationship advice page. How funny! Because women can't relate to smart phones unless you liken them to boyfriends, obvioulsy.
I'm not the least bit interested in Claudia Winkleman but for the sake of this review, thought I ought to read their leading piece. What do the Stylist gang ask this reasonably well-known British television presenter, radio personality and journalist? They ask about her family, her shoes, her make-up and her husband. Just a quick glance at her Wikipedia page suggests a whole host of questions to me, not one of which is as lame as "how easy is it to be fashionable with young children?".
I hate to say it but this magazine just doesn't appeal to me. It avoids the celebrity nit-picking that makes the likes of Heat so awful, but manages to fall into the trap of being like just about every other women's magazine out there. I like fashion, but I love intelligent well-written articles even more and I'm sure I can't be the only one. I shall continue to pick up a copy of Stylist every week, but only because I feel I'd be letting down the poor guy at Goodge Street tube station if I said no. You never know, one day it may even get as good as Shortlist.
Make do and mend
There are many garments I wish I'd kept over the years, but I never thought one of them would be the polyester dress that I once had as part of my 'business dress' (aka uniform) while working for a John Lewis department store in the late 1990s. It was a great dress to wear as the fabric dried almost instantly after washing, never required ironing, and always held its shape perfectly. The only reason I gave it back - I paid for the thing so assume I could have kept it - was that is wasn't even remotely fashionable. Until now. Vivien of Holloway have started to produce a tea dress that bears a remarkable resemblance to the aforementioned uniform. If only I'd packed it away somewhere when I moved on to my first office job - there wouldn't be a crease in it!
I also wish I'd kept my lovely WHSmith skirt from the mid-1990s. Beige wool, fitted over the hips with two box pleats from the knee at the front and two at the back, it would look great with a black blouse and a wide belt. I wonder what other shop uniforms would fit perfectly with the 1940s/50s vintage look?
I also wish I'd kept my lovely WHSmith skirt from the mid-1990s. Beige wool, fitted over the hips with two box pleats from the knee at the front and two at the back, it would look great with a black blouse and a wide belt. I wonder what other shop uniforms would fit perfectly with the 1940s/50s vintage look?
BNP - not racist?
I've been reading an awful lot about the BNP in the lead up to the party's leader, Nick Griffin, appearing on Question Time tonight. One article that particularly caught my eye was on the BBC News website as the corporation continues to stir up interest in tonight's show. Dominic Casciani interviews several people, including the BNP group leader on Barking Council, Bob Bailey:
"They can be civically British, with a passport, but they're not ethnically British. Let's face it, it's the look-test," he says.Well, Bob, lots of people ask me if I'm Irish... does that mean I fail the 'look test' and should go home to, er, Buckinghamshire?
Happy Monday
Yesterday, I bought a pair of Vivienne Westwood trousers for £3. How did I manage it? Two words - clothing exchange. I've been popping to Bang Bang on Goodge Street in my lunch times for a while now, and finally got round to sorting out some of my unworn items to see if they'd like to buy them off me. You get more for your garments if you accept store credit so I started an account because I figured that one day, a woman the same size as me with a fab designer and/or vinatge wardrobe would drop some stuff off that I'd like. The chances of me getting to it before anyone else are slim, but the thrill of the rummage is good so I held out hope. After handing over a velvet Monsoon jacket that I bought in the sale and wore twice, a gorgeous Topshop wrap dress that I've had for years but suited the blonde-me better, and a vintage leather bag and gloves that I bought years ago but never used, I'd managed to rack up £47 on my card so thought it was time for a quick look round.
I'd been looking at some Tara Starlet trousers and wishing they made them in a size 14, so imagine my surprise when I found some high-waist wide-legged trews with sailor-style buttons on the hips nestling on one of the racks in Bang Bang. Having been a fan of Vivienne Westwood since my early teens, I was thrilled that these charcoal grey wool trousers had her signature orb buttons. As someone who hardly ever finds trousers that fit (too tight on the hips, too baggy on the waist, too long in the leg), I could hardly contain my excitement when I discovered that this item was labelled size 14s! Not only were they a perfect fit but the price was less than the Tara Starlet trousers, and a mere £3 over the value of my credit. WIN!
I know that fashion isn't the be-all and end-all of everything, but a find like that certainly does perk up a dull grey Monday. Well, that and a spot of yarn shopping after work with pixeldiva. Just wait until you see what she's knitting for me this time...
I'd been looking at some Tara Starlet trousers and wishing they made them in a size 14, so imagine my surprise when I found some high-waist wide-legged trews with sailor-style buttons on the hips nestling on one of the racks in Bang Bang. Having been a fan of Vivienne Westwood since my early teens, I was thrilled that these charcoal grey wool trousers had her signature orb buttons. As someone who hardly ever finds trousers that fit (too tight on the hips, too baggy on the waist, too long in the leg), I could hardly contain my excitement when I discovered that this item was labelled size 14s! Not only were they a perfect fit but the price was less than the Tara Starlet trousers, and a mere £3 over the value of my credit. WIN!
I know that fashion isn't the be-all and end-all of everything, but a find like that certainly does perk up a dull grey Monday. Well, that and a spot of yarn shopping after work with pixeldiva. Just wait until you see what she's knitting for me this time...
The week that was
As addictive and timewasting as it can be, sometimes spending time on Twitter really does feel like it's a good thing. Last week, I was swept up in several waves of Twitter do-gooding and it felt good. Really good. Like I was an activist or something.
On October 13th, Twitter was awash with people commenting on the Carter-Ruck super-injunction that attempted to stop The Guardian reporting a question on the Trafigura affair in Parliament. It wasn't long before links to the information Carter-Ruck didn't want us to see were being passed around on Twitter like notes in a classroom and, subsequently, The Guardian was 'released from restrictions forthwith'. I re-tweeted the happy news, as discovered from the newspaper's editor, at around the same time as someone from Newsnight was getting screen shots of all the Trafigura noise on Twitter, ready for that night's show. Therefore, by complete fluke, I sort-of appeared on television talking about current affairs. How very grown-up of me.
A few days later, Twitter was up in arms again, this time over two things - some tube worker being rather rude to a customer at Holborn station (he has since been suspended pending investigation, due to a link to a video of the incident being passed to Boris Johnson), and some journalist being rather rude about the recently deceased Stephen Gately in, quel surprise, The Daily Fail.
The original headline to Jan Moir's article was "Why there was nothing 'natural' about Stephen Gately's death" but, by 2.30pm, over 500 (mostly negative) comments on the article meant that the paper had to do something, so a change was made. This followed an awful lot of messages from Twitter and Facebook users to advertisers, asking them if they wanted to be associated with such views. As you can see from Charlie Brooker's screen shot in the previous link, no ads were visible by the afternoon. Even when she defended her article, Jan Moir still got it wrong. Stephen Fry tweeted about her ignorance of social networking and we all tutted and sighed that she couldn't just apologise. Today I discovered that it wasn't just me who complained.
Hopefully this new found 'voice' will be used for good and not just witch-hunting or name-calling. However, most days, it'll probably still be used to simply tell people what we had for lunch.
On October 13th, Twitter was awash with people commenting on the Carter-Ruck super-injunction that attempted to stop The Guardian reporting a question on the Trafigura affair in Parliament. It wasn't long before links to the information Carter-Ruck didn't want us to see were being passed around on Twitter like notes in a classroom and, subsequently, The Guardian was 'released from restrictions forthwith'. I re-tweeted the happy news, as discovered from the newspaper's editor, at around the same time as someone from Newsnight was getting screen shots of all the Trafigura noise on Twitter, ready for that night's show. Therefore, by complete fluke, I sort-of appeared on television talking about current affairs. How very grown-up of me.
A few days later, Twitter was up in arms again, this time over two things - some tube worker being rather rude to a customer at Holborn station (he has since been suspended pending investigation, due to a link to a video of the incident being passed to Boris Johnson), and some journalist being rather rude about the recently deceased Stephen Gately in, quel surprise, The Daily Fail.
The original headline to Jan Moir's article was "Why there was nothing 'natural' about Stephen Gately's death" but, by 2.30pm, over 500 (mostly negative) comments on the article meant that the paper had to do something, so a change was made. This followed an awful lot of messages from Twitter and Facebook users to advertisers, asking them if they wanted to be associated with such views. As you can see from Charlie Brooker's screen shot in the previous link, no ads were visible by the afternoon. Even when she defended her article, Jan Moir still got it wrong. Stephen Fry tweeted about her ignorance of social networking and we all tutted and sighed that she couldn't just apologise. Today I discovered that it wasn't just me who complained.
Hopefully this new found 'voice' will be used for good and not just witch-hunting or name-calling. However, most days, it'll probably still be used to simply tell people what we had for lunch.
Adventures in burlesque
I love learning new things. It's been quite a hobby of mine, actually. Since I left full-time education I have taken a rather mixed-bag of courses and workshops in subjects like garden design, darkroom techniques, corset making and burlesque, plus have obtained two A-levels in business studies and photography. One of the many good things about evening/weekend classes is the people you meet on them and, if they're like-minded and fun, this can often spur you on to keep up the good work. My friend Cicci and I signed up for intermediate burlesque classes with Burlesque Baby earlier in the year and got chatting to a few of the other girls towards the end of the course. A small group of us arranged to meet up for a drink and ended up planning a burlesque photoshoot... which somehow lead to the forming and naming of a troupe, and us organising our first show!
We arranged it as a private party so that for our first time on a real stage we could have our nerves soothed by friends and, in some cases, family. The venue was the basement of an Art Deco bar and the place was absolutely packed out. Our fabulous compere introduced the troupe and warmed up our crowd before the girls each gave an individual performance, and then we ended the evening with a wonderfully comical burlesque adaptation of Cinderella (for which we have the endlessly inventive Cicci to thank!) that was met with an extremely warm reception. I played the Fairy Godmother and never before have I received such a cheer for doing so little. Poor Cinders must have looked very sad indeed.
Once the initial nerves wore off it was a fantastically fun evening, so I am very much looking forward to our next performance. So far it's only for a bit of fun though and will help boost my confidence with strangers, at least when I'm in character - just an excuse to dress up and be the centre of attention for a few minutes really. I wonder what that says about me?
We arranged it as a private party so that for our first time on a real stage we could have our nerves soothed by friends and, in some cases, family. The venue was the basement of an Art Deco bar and the place was absolutely packed out. Our fabulous compere introduced the troupe and warmed up our crowd before the girls each gave an individual performance, and then we ended the evening with a wonderfully comical burlesque adaptation of Cinderella (for which we have the endlessly inventive Cicci to thank!) that was met with an extremely warm reception. I played the Fairy Godmother and never before have I received such a cheer for doing so little. Poor Cinders must have looked very sad indeed.
Once the initial nerves wore off it was a fantastically fun evening, so I am very much looking forward to our next performance. So far it's only for a bit of fun though and will help boost my confidence with strangers, at least when I'm in character - just an excuse to dress up and be the centre of attention for a few minutes really. I wonder what that says about me?
People are strange
Why pay good money for a concert ticket, to see a band I assume you really quite like, and then spend most of the gig going to and from the bar? Can't spend an hour or so without beer? Tossers.
Cold and grey, like the weather
It feels like winter has finally arrived today, with the dark morning, grey sky and damp weather. Just what you want for a Monday, right? And something else has been bothering me too...
Something that's making me feel awful but I can't quite put it into words...
*sigh*
Don't you just hate it when other people are inconsiderate, thoughtless and don't realise just how hurtful words can be? I know the world would be a pretty dull place if we were all the same, but a world where it's easier to avoid idiots when you don't feel strong enough to cope with them would be a good start.
Something that's making me feel awful but I can't quite put it into words...
*sigh*
Don't you just hate it when other people are inconsiderate, thoughtless and don't realise just how hurtful words can be? I know the world would be a pretty dull place if we were all the same, but a world where it's easier to avoid idiots when you don't feel strong enough to cope with them would be a good start.
