Most of the time when you think of beauty pageant winners, a certain stereotype walks ready-made into your head. I know that when I think of a typical Miss Alaska, for example, I immediately imagine a pretty, but rather dim young lady complete with pre-written answers to various questions that they can regurgitate whenever they are being interviewed – an idea no doubt helped along by various TV shows and other stereotypical depictions in the media. But Debbe Ebben, the current Miss Alaska has proved that this stereotype, like many others, doesn’t always hold water. The twenty-three year old has recently shaved her head to raise money for children’s cancer research, and to show solidarity with cancer sufferers. For a beauty queen to undertake such a dramatic action surely shows that she is more than just a looker.
Denim Jackets and Masculinity
I find that there is something rather masculine about denim jackets, which is not really apparent in normal denim jeans. For some reason, whenever I see a male celebrity wearing a denim jacket – especially if it is ripped and distressed – they usually appear to be much more intimidating than when I see them wearing other styles of clothing. For example, I saw some pictures of Jay-Z wearing such a jacket and he looked more macho than usual. When I see a female celebrity wearing a denim jacket, on the other hand, they usually look a lot more ‘tom-boyish’. I’m not really sure why these images instantly come to me when I see these styles of clothing, it’s probably due to some kind of historical context that my brain has helpfully stored away for me at some point over the years. Regardless, it’s associations like this which make the world of fashion more interesting for me!
Rihanna and Armani
R&B superstar Rihanna is one of the biggest musicians in the world right now. She has the looks and the voice to become even bigger. She also has a great sense of style, and has become something of a fashion icon as well as an R&B star. Presumably her high status as a connoisseur of high fashion and great style is why Armani thought her suitable to star in a new advertisement for their jeans products. However, as many people have pointed out, in the advert the jeans themselves are not actually featured particularly prominently – the cameraman seemed to be far more interested in Rihanna’s semi-naked body writhing around on a bed. And to be honest, I don’t think that we can blame him very harshly. I suppose the idea of the commercial is similar to that of a famous deodorant brand – if you see a beautiful woman semi-naked on a bed and associate it with Armani’s jeans, I guess you will be more likely to buy them.
Too Much of a Good Thing?
So it’s Paris Fashion Week once again. Is it just me or do these fashion weeks take place on a rather too regular time-frame? Don’t get me wrong, I love any kind of fashion festival, and it’s awesome to be able to see the new things that designers have been coming up with, but it really seems like there’s a fashion week happening every couple of weeks in one or another of the big fashion capitals of the world. There’s only a certain number of times you can see the latest boxer shorts or high heel designs. There’s a part of me that thinks that the over-abundance and regularity of these festivals almost degrades the value of them a little bit. I find myself thinking “oh, another fashion week? Of course…”, when I really should be excited and counting down the days until the next one. Things are usually better in moderation – even fashion weeks!
Paid to Attend
Fashion shows are extremely important for fashion designers, since they really represent the ‘face’ of the company – it’s where the public and the fashion press are usually going to be most exposed to what the designer has been working on and what the new ‘style’ of the company is going to be. It is therefore very important that these fashion shows are a success, since they can affect the popularity of the designer quite substantially. This means that it is quite easy to believe that designers will go to any lengths to guarantee a successful event. A show is always going to be more popular if high-profile celebrities are photographed in attendance, and this is probably why, according to one designer, Nicole Farhi, celebrities are quite often paid to attend these events. Of course, it should be noted that she doesn’t accuse every designer of this, and designers largely deny any such payment, but if it’s true it does give a certain air of dishonesty to these fashion shows.
Classic Hollywood Style Icons
Today, Hollywood as an entity is the thing that most influences our fashion choices. Whenever a famous actor or actress is photographed styling a new, interesting look, you can bet your bottom dollar that it will appear the next day in all of the fashion magazines, all of the newspapers and, dare I say it, all of the fashion blogs – and pretty shortly everybody will be adopting the style. The same is also true of other celebrities, but for some reason, the stars of the film industry usually seem to be the leaders of the pack. Hollywood has a strong history of this influence – the classic stars of Hollywood have always set more fashion and style trends than other celebrities. Just think about Vivien Leigh, Katharine Hepburn, Ingrid Bergman, Grace Kelly and of course Marilyn Monroe and you can see why Hollywood has managed to become the situation for setting fashion trends.
Sacha Baren Cohen’s Dictator
So the Oscars have just taken place in California once again, with the stars of Hollywood in attendance. Most of the fashions and styles being exhibited by these stars was pretty typical for this sort of event; the women wearing their expensive designer gowns and high heels, and the men mostly opting for the traditional evening black tie wear. Mostly. Because there was a certain gentleman who turned up to the ceremony in something rather different. I am talking about controversy superstar Sacha Baren Cohen, creator of comedy personas Ali G, Borat and Bruno. And now it seems like he has added another character to the list. Cohen turned up to the red carpet as the “Dictator” – the titular character from his upcoming movie of the same name. Wearing a white military-style uniform and a huge false beard, Cohen caused a substantial amount od disruption, but nothing too extreme.
Aimee Mullins
Aimee Mullins is a tremendously talented woman. As an athlete, she has competed at the highest levels with success. As an actress, she has appeared in successful movies and TV shows. And as a fashion model, she has also had great success, modelling for Alexander McQueen in 1999. But what makes her really extraordinary, and sets her apart from most other people, is that she has achieved all of this success in spite of having no legs. A medical condition which she was born with meant that her legs had to be amputated at a very early age. I suspect that most people, if they had this disadvantage, would not have the drive necessary to achieve all of her accomplishments. But in a strange and quite unpredictable way, her condition has actually given her certain advantages as a fashion model. In order for her to do this job, she uses prosthetic legs, and she is therefore able to change her height by changing her legs – a very useful thing for a fashion model since she can model a larger range of clothes than other models. Whether modelling sportswear running, or acting, she seems to be able to do it all.
Nicki Minaj
Trinidadian-born singing sensation Nicki Minaj is one of the hottest new acts on the popular music scene today. As well as her tremendous talent, this is no doubt aided by her somewhat unusual and funky sense of fashion and style. She has been seen wearing many quite crazy outfits, and this reflects her somewhat chaotic personality – she has a number of alter-egos, which often make appearances on her records. One of these has been compared to rapper Eminem’s alter ego Slim-shady. In the latest issue of Vogue magazine, she has once again made something of a bold fashion statement – if you can even call it fashion in the truest sense of the word. She appears on the cover with her skin painted completely blue, looking something like an alien from classic American Sci-fi TV series Star Trek. I think it’s clear that she knows that publicity is everything in pop music, and she will certainly gain attention for this bold move.
Liv Tyler
Liv Tyler is not only very well known for being an extremely beautiful woman and a fantastic actress, with movie credits including Stealing Beauty, Jersey Girl and Armageddon – she is also well known for being the daughter of famous rocker Steve Tyler, the singer from the band Aerosmith. Given this connection, you would think that she would surely let her father know if she was going to be doing any public singing. But when Liv recently demonstrated her vocal talents in a new commercial for Givenchy’s perfume Very Irresistible Givenchy Electric Rose, she apparently did not even tell her family or her dad about her work on this project. I hope that her father was pleased about it once he did actually get to see it, and I am sure he was very impressed with the result.