Stylish with Substance

Is Target Quality in Decline? Photo of William Rast Jean Unraveling Thread

Ella M — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 03:27:58 EST

Is Target quality declining (as is the case for at least some other companies in this recession) or is the instance of a "coming apart" clothing item possibly a result of crazy Christmas shoppers?

This photo was taken during the time of Christmas rush, true, but I've never seen such a thing even with years-old mall-brand denim. Jeans have always been known for their ruggedness and holes are usually worn into the knee long before any seams come undone. Denim is like Louis Vuitton bags in item lifespan! Usually, that is the case, but here with this "more premium", William Rast, line at Target, I found this disturbing scene.

It's also true that stitching is not the famously durable portion of denim products. So is this kind of lower quality par for the course with "marts" or, as I suspect, is this a cost-saving measure reserved only to pad profits for the bigger-name brands?

I think I will shop Target with more caution now, even though I enjoy the chain (my small Mulberry bag is great!). I'll likely buy my denim with more tried-and-true (or at least in my own experience) stores, or perhaps solely shop for the original: Levi's. Still, we must all remember to be cautious consumers especiallly during - even after - a recession, whether in "greedy" America or while dealing with any large corporate products. These are tough modern times with far lower business morals, but at least Levi's as a company would fall apart of its denim did!

I suppose after this, I must wholly endorse Levi's products for all!

(Yes, that includes petites, like these 27.5" or 29" inseam skinnies. Need! Restock please!) (We do not receive any funding from clicks or purchases of this link or levis.com, currently, or with this post.)

Video/Commentary: Woman Charged More for Being "Overweight", Then Told, "Take Your Business Elsewhere"

Ella M — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 12:45:45 EDT

Michelle Fonville, a salon patron seen in the video and preview still, here describes how she felt when was charged $5 extra at a nail salon due to her weight. Reportedly the salon’s pedicure chairs should not hold more than 200 pounds.

If that's true, what is the salon’s policy on male customers, who are often quite thin if under 200 lbs? And if this ill-equipped chair is the norm, how do male-friendly salons stay in business? Perhaps the salon might be faulted for buying incompetent chairs to rightfully conduct a full business.

Fonville was refunded her $5, but then told to take her business elsewhere. Is that justice, we ask?

The manager is seen in the video trying, in struggling English, to defend the business's “policy”, a policy that is not posted for customers to read before choosing whether or not to patronize the establishment (fact taken from video).

What gives us the most outrage, which thank goodness as bloggers we can show, is the reporter's lack of care regarding a quote he had to deliver.

"The manager tells me ... if she had been here when Fonville first arrived, she would have taken one look at her, and told her that she could not be serviced here."

I respect that journalists must be impartial, however as you can hear in the video, the way this one pronounced, "taken one look at her" implied approval of the salon manager's despicable comment, as if it were not simply an extra insult. Perhaps that was just a momentary accident, but we argue the sentence begged another take.

What do you think of this issue in general, or of any specific here?

As Michelle Fonville requested, “the word has to get out there”. We hope we’re helping that!

The RIGHT to Bare Legs - Campaign for Accurate Depictions of the Healthy Female Form

Ella M — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 17:43:14 EDT

*Update* This piece was long and I was so upset ("my feewings wuh huwt") that I just wanted it posted, so I later made revisions to improve its readability, just improve the article's quality. (We should all simmer on huge entries!) Enjoy!

This outrageous (literally) GAP ad is the buzzing news, destined for infamy:

"Put some pants on!"
Small Text: "Because we can't all look good in shorts."

Photo: Huffington Post & Stephanie Marcus

Ex-squeeze my love handles, er I mean, sexy hips?

How insulting!!! As someone of the cellulited-gender - yes, entire gender (heck even a man I know *hushnottelling* has some on his rear end), and past the stickly teen years, I'm horrified. I fear further for the eyes of the larger-sized than I.

Ugh. I call for a boycott/protest of GAP. Quick, someone start a Facebook campaign for that one! Check! Done! Look below to "like" the page! (Related in the buzzosphere, Target boycott, read all about it, if you haven't yet.)

Seriously (although I'm dead serious about the boycott, too!) though, cellulite is normal. What's abnormal is airbrushing and photoshopping. What's wrong is hiding normal, yes even healthy, bodies from public eye.

And what I learned recently, a while before this ad, is that "public eye" does not just mean magazines and TV. It means beautiful, healthy, slightly less healthy, etc., women of small, medium, large sizes - great legs or not - are afraid to bare those legs. But we have a right to bare legs! Because we feel our legs are "less worthy" than those in fashion ads (please!), we might opt only for bermuda shorts. Even when those shorten us (our legs), and therefore, widen (our entire frames). Short-shorts lengthen like a great pair of heels. So yes, they even thin us out, if a pear-shape is our problem.

Asking the question, "should some people not wear shorts?" (the Frisky) due to this ad is understandable coming from a shocked viewpoint. But asking that question is also akin to asking,

"Should female human beings not wear shorts?"

It's ridiculous. Sure, not all women have cellulite - but they should merely wait a few years. Even thin, toned middle-aged women get cellulite ... as low down the leg as the back of the knee. Still, we can't ban shorts for women over 35, can we? What about those with beautiful curves and cellulite at 19? When will it end?

The slippery slope argument can be made, and made well I believe, in the shorts debate.

I've already written my plea to women of today in a draft for a future post about staying cool & stylish in the summer heat, but I will steal from it.

Don't be afraid to bare your cellulite. If you don't feel hot enough to stay cool in the epitome of summer fashion -shorts, you might just be wrong. Curves and cellulite are absolutely normal, and we need more images of these things, of real women, in the world. ... I won't be ashamed of something that's absolutely average.

Maybe I hate other parts, but I can live with even the least thin parts of my legs, and the rest of the world should too.

What about you? Please make some sort of pledge. Comment, Twitter, Facebook, Blog.

And please like the "cause" on this Facebook page that I did just create.

The code is below. But it's hard to read.

I talk about periods. Why do I seem to be the only one?

Ella M — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 22:18:30 EDT

Do periods gross you out? Sure, they do. Are you a woman and you still find them intolerable? Duh. They're even worse for women than for those wimpy men! But as young adult females, we must endure them.

But do we not talk about them, even as we all go through them? Why does it seem to me that women opt out of the therepeutic benefits of commisserating over our monthly curses?

If a lady's husband brings home flowers and she posts this as her status on Facebook, there's rejoice over his sweet sentiment through likes and comments. Then there's the man who does the wonderful thing of bringing home the Midol (it happend for me, swoon) ... crickets (I bet*). At least if my hypothosis is correct, this will continue to prove the case. Crickets, including rhetorical silence (it is through type) from women.

*I waited for myself to be proved wrong, and okay, I have a wonderfully close family and I can often count on them for support through likes and comments. Whew! I do feel loved after all. Buy why is there continuing to be less comparitive support over something every single woman can relate to? Less support than for Facebook game chit-chat, sport cheers, whatever.

I still get the sense that most people, including women, just sort of ignore the big P in another "P"; public.

And then there I am. On Twitter even. Many cycles, I find myself making it clear, like clockwork, that, well, I'm a raging hormone of PMS.

And that's OK. I know I'm better writing for a female audience.

Though I wonder, am I alienating, or including? Do please prove my fears wrong!

I invite a change in attitude. Just like you want your boyfriend to buy tampons (I've heard tale it happening!) and not freak out like a whiny child over, dun dun dun, blood (as long as it's not in the theatre, of course), I want to b!tch about menstrual cycles. All because I'm not currently cintrubing to overpopulation. Sheesh! What gratitude, mother nature. You ladies read me?!

Bonus: Guess what I blogged about one month ago? Yup. Chocolate.

Twilight Apparel a la Nordstrom More Teenybopper than Vampire

Ella M — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 17:33:30 EDT

@ First Look: The Twilight inspired line coming to Nordstrom would fit in more at Delia's than with the store's mid-range/upscale image. Sadly, it's also too alone suited to the megahit's wild youthful fan base than anything more in tune with vampires or older admirers of the film and genre.

"Team" Tees Preview:

Right before and after the original film debuted, "Twilight" was also what a vamp-y trend-merely-film-inspired was called amongst the do-it-themselves fashion creators. Etsy.com was filled with Victorian-era inspired beauties like frilly wrist cuffs and luxe oldschool gothic jewelry (Read: no Hot Topic).

Example products from Fall 2008 by Little Sparrow Nest and Talula. Click images to view their respective shops.

But just like that keyword was thrown about, Sparkly Vampire mania has hit, and punched, and bitten - extremely hard. Now the "underground" beings inspire further "Tra L.A. L.A. Land" carefree attitudes with this oh-so Junior's style.

The "glitter" from Hollywood glitz is spreading. Aside from the Nordstrom Junior's Department styles, the most recent evolution of this living trend has surfaced online from former-or-semistill-undergrounds, the indies...

Example Etsy.com clothing "Twilight" search

Another sad(ish) truth of today is that the movie-fangirlishness has brought graphic tees to Etsy as well, not that that's entirely bad and the items & slogans are not bad - or, beauty being in the eye of the beholder, at least they're not of popular-teenshop aesthetic. Fortunately, a lot of the designs are pretty dark - a stark contrast to this mass market promotion-in-sheep's-cotton-clothing at the department store.

At least we can help show fans that they have choices.

If your fashion style has a sweet tooth for notebook-doodles over Edward Cullen, by all means, shop mainstream.

If you crave something just a little more juicy or bittersweet, then do check out Etsy or other indie venues/shops. You can probably even do some hunting and find some "vamp" items, still.

Chanel, or Karl Largerfeld, Cleaned Up Lily Allen

Ella M — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 14:34:55 EDT

Karl can put Chanel on Lily Allen, but can we really put Lily Allen in Chanel, if you know what I mean? What I mean is, could this makeover stick on the girl who refuses to not sunbathe topless what-seems daily in her classless crusade nearing as bad as Amy Winehouse?

That is why Lily Allen as a model for Chanel surprises me. Yes, Lily is a huge Chanel fan, uh--so are witless teenagers. The difference is this recording artist has money, and those teens aren't truly carrying Chanel with their pink cambon totes.

So what I mean is anyone can be a fan, but that doesn't mean The Man will "fan" back. The singer makes a cute model of some sort---Allen is quite beautiful and a great writer with a great mind, but ... girl needs work.

Or - usually. One couldn't tell from these amazing photographs.

Here Allen advertises and sports Chanel's upcoming handbag collection, "Coco Cocoon" due this October 10th (2009).

Stay tuned for a gallery devoted to the bags next week!

Photography by Karl Lagerfeld, Chanel's designer, himself.

Credit: Collective of the Interwebs & I-D Magazine

Sarah Palin insults Journalists: Claims 'Some' Lie

Ella M — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 07:05:27 EDT

Here is a partial video and transcript of Sarah Palin's resignation speech. Read the full transcript at the IB Times for info on more than we've shown. Partially an ode to Alaska, republicans, the US military, and hunting ... and partially anti-Hollywood. Obviously anti-democrats, but also - in only one of the strange, awkward and shocking statements (the other main one was bashing anti-hunting as if caring for living things were unconstutional) - also Palin took a seriously salacious jab at professional journalists.

"And first, some straight talk for some, just some in the media because another right protected for all of us is freedom of the press, and you all have such important jobs reporting facts and informing the electorate, and exerting power to influence. You represent what could and should be a respected honest profession that could and should be the cornerstone of our democracy. Democracy depends on you, and that is why, that's why our troops are willing to die for you. So, how 'bout in honor of the American soldier, ya quite makin' things up."

What do you think of this? In a time soon after a late night talk show guest insulted and degraded all bloggers as equally plagiarizing, non-writers. I feel both a resentment toward their respect mixed with our lack, mixed with intrigue over even this Rep-tart's comments, but I do also feel shock and anger at her accusations. Where is Mrs. Palin's own fact-checking proof? How dare she cover up a self-defense with such an attack on others? She does know journalists are supposed to report impartially - no opinion or slant, let alone fabricate details. I fear journalism of old is slipping from the former - although I've never envied the position of keeping impartial - yet I'm not so convinced, aside from things like assumptions of a public figure's apparent haircut - a triviality - that reporters fail to be factual. I know traditional print is faltering, and our modern times are swinging away from certain old "honors" but I hope the practice will bounce back in full effort - even if reading copies on trees becomes "uber" passé and they simply switch to another realm. Hey, I rather like the Internet, and I welcome all.

Michelle Obama's Do was a Didn't ...OR... _ALL_ Media Can Make Fact-Check Fails These Days

Ella M — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 10:34:05 EDT

"Do" or a Don't, It Might Matter Less. Michelle's Short Style is TEMPORARY...

Bloggers get a lot of flack for posting unfactual information, but at least we have the excuse of lacking resources and contacts. In a Google News search, I'm unsure how to weed blogs from newspapers, but if you try, you will find actual news/big media publishing commentary (hmm journalistic commentary? Oxymoron? I guess we're all just bloggers these days, some just have the luck of more respect!) on the First Lady's "cut" - no questions asked.

No interviews done.

That is, not at first. Mrs. O's stylist, Johnny Wright, has spoken "up" now, about his style-to-the-stars temporary up-do: The "Tuck Up". We don't quite understand it, but we're researching more, and will have a How-To-'Do coming up next!

The interview was given to, and news broken by, Us Weekly. Whom Best Week Ever wants to give a journalism award (yep, to a near-tabloid, chuckle). The BWE post's comedic writer basically claims he's traumatized for life by Hair Gate! Seriously amusing!

Hey, humans are human, no matter the job. So I fault none (not really) for publishing opinion and alerts on this beauty matter. But I also know even style & political icons are people as well. I actually am kind of frustrated with the ease in which we judge. That hair was cute!

Of course we still remember Barack's "Dad" Jeans ... quickly followed by Michelle's "Mom" Cut (and again, they're mature parents/professionals, not rockstars). Why so harsh on the first family when it comes to style? What - no scandals? I guess this is a blessing.

Size Up Fail: A C Cup Alone makes a Full Figure in the Fashion World?

Ella M — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 15:09:52 EDT

Lara Stone is busty (left, for Prada) but in the 2nd photo
more stick than full figured with jutting hip bones.

I'm about to depart a bit from my usual "Ella" demure professionalism today in this rant. (Warning: it bad language will show up further down the page.) Still somehow when I'm sick with upset, surprisingly, eloquence conquers more through lyrical prose. So you'll now receive oddly & seemingly-schemed poetic flow with the partial drawback of - well, a hissy fit? At least you can not see the temper tantrum I feel inside me wanting to break out. But it is not masterminded; it is a gift (in my opinion, as I like my style). Perhaps I am blessed in my strangeness, but I digress too much.

I'm weary, bleary, hungry and rife with personal strife currently. It'll be OK soon, don't worry - life happens. OK I'm still a lady, yes, I didn't cuss. But later on, I know the bitch me will surface - and Ella even refers to that as a chienne or female dog instead of the B word! (Oh my.) But it is a part of me. I won't deny it as a woman it is in me. Hear me roar. And that's not anti-feminist. (Men can be worse - or just plain bitches themselves. Maybe that's un-PC. Maybe it's human.)

On to the "story"... So model and it-girl hype ... I never follow it. You might know that. I don't care if you care not for it. But of course I do try to keep up with a lot of fashion article reading whenever I can. I'm not mad when bloggers follow business-as-usual whereas it's my nemesis - so the source of this news does not matter. Oh it does as a link source, of course, I happily oblige - I mean just that I mean no offense. Who does not chatter - amongst the trendy writers - of trends, news, current... That's fine, as "fine" is defined.

But back on topic, this happens to mean, yes-I've heard buzz of Lara Stone and her status in the modeling world. Whatever.

But her very popularity (or is it sheer f...abbing presence on top catwalks?) is marked as exceptional to the modeling biz. Why? Because she's a size 4. Yes, 4, or 6 on bloated days. But models are "supposed to be" a 0 or 2. So she's heralded as "curvier" or worse "fuller figured".

View our Gallery from W Magazine's August issue declaring Stone Fashion's IT Girl. Our Ttitle: Beauty or the Beast?

The real thing, true visual difference, between Lara and her runway colleagues (not all models, mostly just runway) is that her breasts are 2 1/2 sizes more grown than her nearly A peers. Her bust is reportedly a C cup.

Quel shock! Alert the press! She's got it gets juicy from here...

Documentary Teaches Never Let Our Daughters Model

Ella M — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:01:22 EDT

I just read about Picture Me, a new documentary exposing the secret darknesses of the modeling and photography world. A lowlight of the film's revelations,

"'We had to go in one by one. The photographer said he wanted to see me without my shirt on. Then he told me that it was still hard to imagine me for the story so could I take my trousers off. I was standing there in a pair of Mickey Mouse knickers and a sports bra. I didn't even have breasts yet. 'We might need to see you without your bra,' he told me. It was like he was a shark circling me, walking around and around, looking me up and down without saying anything. I did what he told me to. I was just eager to be liked and get the job. I didn't know any better.'"

I knew I had to help spread the news of reported abuse, but I'm saddened by the lack of what was said in The Gaurdian article (you must read) - the fact that I must say it because of this lack, and it's something so obvious to me, to mothers, to you - most likely. And most heinous.

Possibly never have I uttered or written these words in earnest:

Think of the children!

Even in this article about the exposé, and in words by the filmmaker and model, herself - there is a harsh sickening detail left out. It's not the worst part that it is omitted in these sources trying to help a *new* or to-be cause, but it is perhaps the sickest part of these facts: these are not women, not just girls, not just teenagers. They are children. Looked at sexually, molested, by pedophiles - who could argue? But those words are not mentioned. Not just nothing about pedophilia - which no one can deny any criminality when a 14 year old child does not even have breasts yet, there is no blurry woman-like view there - model body or no. Not even that this is not mentioned, but neither is the word, "child". Not once. Not. a. once. If you have the Google Toolbar, with the article open in your browser/tab and type "child" into the search bar, but then click on it in the "find" feature - you do hear that *not found* alert.

This may sound odd, but it was chilling for me, in that moment, to hear that bumpy Windows noise.

I may only be a dreamer now but if I am ever a big designer, I wouldn't ever let an ad (or any) photoshoot go on without my presence, now that I know of this. I feel like many would jadedly think one would flake on any idealic promise when facing business reality, but I know you readers are normal and good like I am. And wouldn't you do the same? Care the same? I know it. Like the star who is still down-to-earth, we have to believe we remain human even if absorbed into the successes and pull-pressures of an industry so firm in its tradition, even the bad (especially?). Trends change, but capitolism remains, sleeze is our animal. Many, though never enough on the inside, vow to change dress size norms or less-average-size chic-levels or prevalence, but when faced with true crimes, against children or not, we've gotta believe we would do our part to fight.

For most of us, all we can do is vow not to let our daughters, or any child of anyone we know, start or even dream of modeling - or at least teach and try to prevent with those familes we cannot control. Not only is this the best fight most of us have, but we should all do at least this.

Photo: Teenaged model from YenMag.net