September 18, 2009

Once again fashion magazines are entering my mail box. We now subscribe to three, Harper's Bazaar, Elle, Marie Claire and soon Cosmopolitan will join the list. New college graduates (like my daughter) attract all kinds of cheap subscription rates. We even get the Economist. Her Dad and I like that.

Remembering when I was in my 20's and addicted to magazines I thought it would be a nice gesture to sign up. After all the offer was $12 for 2 years. Be nice to look at the latest clothes and makeup styles again , I thought. Wrong! Boring, boring, boring. In three different magazines there wasn't one item of clothing, one gorgeous outfit that I could lust after. Am I jaded, have I just seen it all? Worse yet are the shoes. They seem to be designed as instruments of repression. Not only are the heels getting higher, they are getting thinner or disappearing altogether. So the model is balanced on a 4 inch platform sole with no heel to balance on. OK, so the latter is in a Tim Burton spread and you could argue its art and not everyday wear. I would counter with Japanese foot binding . Equally artful, but imposed on many women and hideously painful and debilitating. It just seems to me that designers are deliberately crippling women. I've watched the career women crossing the street in downtown DC in there career suits and high heels and I can tell you their feet hurt and their lower back will punish them at the end of the day.