Debate gathers weight
Forget the pitchfork; a Prada tote is the accessory du jour for any self-respecting embodiment of evil. Or is it? The fashion establishment has been scathing about recent movie release The Devil Wears Prada -- apparently they would have preferred a doco to this fictional romp through the corridors of Runway magazine, headed up by chilly editor Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep). The movie's chief crime, they say, was to dress its characters in Valentino, Gucci and Chanel rather than more current labels like Chloe, Lanvin and Marni. Far be it from me to comment, but TDWP did get me thinking about dreams, desire, fashion and fiction, and how easy it is to muddle them all together. Exiting the movie I found myself composing a note to self along the lines of "demand Publisher increase clothing allowance..." I later revised this to "plead with Publisher for clothing allowance", before scribbling it out and replacing it with "steal more biros from stationery cupboard to compensate for absence of clothing allowance or palatial fashion closet from where I can "Dear Jim, please Fix It for me..." I'd like -- just once -- to be able to flounce into Runway slam my designer bag onto my assistant's desk and stride into a swishly accoutred office to sip on temperature controlled coffee. Until then, I must console myself with the knowledge that Runway is no more than an enticing fiction, while my biro collection is real and thriving.
Back on earth the furore over skinny models is becoming stranger than fiction. The Paris fashion shows launched in defiant mood with organisers claiming they would not ban skinny models from the runways as others have recently done. Jean Paul Gaultier - not known for shunning controversy - threw his own explosive penny's worth in by hiring a 132-kilogram model Velvet D'Amour -- wearing a satin corset and negligee -- to open his parade. After the show D'Amour was sanguine. "If you tell me somebody's too thin, if you tell me somebody's too fat, you're still being prejudiced. The point is diversity," she said. Can't really argue with that. My only quibble is that 132-kilograms of common sense threatens to snuff out a weighty debate before it's even started. Diversity's one thing; anorexia's another, no?