Just A Minute In… December

Listening… The Beatles, Johnny Cash
Reading… Mysterious Skin by Scott Heim and The House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewski
Watching… New Moon: The Twilight Saga, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Gossip Girl
Buying… Christmas presents for my baby brother
Wanting…More space in my apartment
Trying…To re-master the perfect cats-eye liquid eyeliner application (I used to be so good at doing this grrr)
Loving… drawings of anatomical hearts, glitter, sleep, Bad Romance by Lady GaGa, OTT Christmas lights decorating houses, this editorial of Abby Lee Kershaw
Planning… February’s Roadtrip to the Gold Coast via Byron Bay
Making… A mess
Writing… Articles for Primped and The Scavenger
Cooking… Tacos
Inspired by… Cassi from Skins, kittens, floral head wreaths, messy braids, vintage silk scarves, love

xxx

Happy New Years Everyone!

Happy Holidays!

When I was living in the USA, I loved the fact that at this time of year people said ‘Happy holidays!” as opposed to the generic “Merry Christmas.” Because not everyone celebrates Christmas.

I am Jewish. I grew up in a very Jewish area of Sydney and not having Christmas was just normal. I went to a Jewish school till I was 12, and even though my high school was technically Anglican, about ½ our grade were Jews anyways. So it never bothered me.

This year I’ll be celebrating my second Christmas ever. And I’m excited! My first Christmas, courtesy of my step mum, was freakin awesome. I flew over to visit her and my father in LA, as a surprise present for my dad. There were presents and stockings and a pretty tree and good wine and lots of laughing and the whole works.

Growing up, sometimes I’d spend Christmas day with my mums side of the family, which basically meant fresh prawns, a pool, boiling hot temperatures and too many adults. It was boring.

This time of year is boring, especially for those who don’t have new goodies to unwrap. Everyone is family-bound and everything is shut. In the USA you guys get what, 5 days off work or something? Here it’s more like 2 weeks. Life kinda pauses. No drycleaning, no corner stores, no accountant or lawyer or real estate agent should you need them. Nothing. Just heat and food and sunburn.

And Christmas isn’t even a real event, anyways. Well, sorta. The bible makes no mention of Jesus’ actual birth date. Scholars actually have this theory that he was born in March. Apparently, whoever the head of Christianity was at the time figured it would be easier to convert people if they celebrated his birth in December, since there already was a pagan festival on. You know, it would feel more familiar or what not.

Santa himself, though he was based on Saint Nicholas who gave gifts and was often cloaked in red robes, became the jolly fat bearded man thanks to the marketing team of Coca Cola. Which, when you think about it, makes sense being all red and white.

Then there’s the rampant consumerism, the wastefulness of all that wrapping paper, the tragedy of idiot people who think a puppy would make an awesome present for their kids and then realize it’s to much work and simply dump the poor thing like it’s a piece of meat.

Don’t get me wrong. I may be a cynic, but I’m not a total sour bitch who cannot stand all the festivities. I enjoy this time of year. Everyone is nicer to each other. Houses get dressed up in pretty lights. You get to give the people you love presents. You get to spend time with the people you love and eat yummy food and drink yummy wine. I just think that people need to be a little more aware of those who for whatever reasons, religious or not, cannot spend time with their loved ones. And that there are more important things in life than presents. And that as a holiday, it has a pretty dodgy beginning.

Happy holidays everyone!

xxx

The Cove

Imagine a place where dolphins frolic around in the water and they are so close you could almost reach out and touch them. Imagine then, a few hours later, all those dolphins are gone and all that is left water that has been stained red with their blood? Literally.

This happens every year during September in the city of Taiji, in Southern Japan. Fishermen lure thousands of wild dolphins into a small cove so that they can be slaughtered for meat or captured to be sent off to amusement parks around the globe.

23 000 dolphins are killed annually by being speared or stabbed to death. Using a technique called drive fishing, hunters in motorized boats create a ‘wall of sound’ between the dolphins and the ocean by banging on specifically designed poles to amplify the sound. Dolphins, who rely on sonar, are immediately disorientated and terrified and will swim frantically up to shore to escape. They are then trapped overnight by nets, herded together in fear. Come sunrise, they are stabbed to death with hooks, spears, harpoons or knives. The water literally turns red with their blood. Fisherman drag the still-alive dolphins onto boats with hooks and harpoons or simply tie them to the boats by their tail, forcing the air holes underwater so they suffocate. Some animals simply die from exhaustion and fear.

The Japanese argue that it is part of their culture. And yet for the majority of Japanese people, they have no idea that this is even happening. If the consumption of dolphin meat is such a huge deal, why not breed them in captivity? The same goes for the capture and sale of wild animals for theme parks and aquariums.

The documentary, The Cove, has been a work in progress over many years for many dedicated activists and has helped shed light on this barbaric tradition. This year, due to the media surrounding the once secretive butchering, Taji has suspended it’s dolphin hunt. In addition, Broome in WA, suspended it’s sister city relationship with Taiji in response. But you know what? They have now restored their status. And considering the movie was released in July/August, people are moving on…

Please don’t forget about the dolphins! Pressure on the Japanese government needs to continue so the practice can be banned forever. Sign the petition here. And this one too.  Even better, email the Broome Council and tell them that they suck. shire@broome.wa.gov.au

Educate yourself more on the dolphin culling in Taiji.  See the movie. Spread the word. Save the dolphins.

xxx

Jess Hart

Remember how I blabbed on last week about Australian Style? Well, I think that my idea of a quintessential Aussie girl would look like model Jess Hart. And she’d probably have a similar wardrobe. Blonde hair, green eyes, tanned skin, long limbs and the cheekiest, most gorgeous smile ever.

Obviously not really a ‘celebrity’ despite having been in the Victoria Secrets catalogue (and imho would have made a better angel in this years runway show than Elysee Taylor but whatevs), her style is simply AMAZING. Mainly bc it reminds me of me. Only she wears it better. As models do.

Battered black boots, leggings, vintage band tees, scruffy hair, leather, oversized blazers and worn denim. Heart. She has her own blog where she takes snaps of some of her daily outfits and I die.

And when she gets all dolled up, she tends to stick to my absolute favourite item in the world: little black dresses. Some say boring, some say classic, I say hot. She nails it every time. And when she does stray away into other colours, she pairs them with chunky black footwear. Love love love it.

She is launching her own label, Neon Hart, to be sold in General Pants stores and percentages of the proceeds goes to the children’s charity Destiny Rescue. Gorgeous, stylish and generous. Total dream come true.

xxx

Things I Love Thursday

Apologies for the lack of posting lately. I’ve been so busy it feels like I’ve barely had a moment to myself and every moment I get seems to be filled with things like shopping for Christmas presents or cleaning the house or sleeping off the stress that both these two things seem to fill me with. Blah. Enough already! A list of my favourite things of late:

• Christmas lights! For some reason there seem to be more houses lit up with Christmas lights and decorations this year. Or maybe I’m just noticing it more since I’m actually looking forward to it all this year
• Sydney-sider? You know the S mag you get on Sundays in the paper? This is an awesome review of it.
• Template to make your own anatomical heart card. Wee!
• Tarina Tarantino, the awesome designer who made my favourite line of jewellery with her Alice in Wonderland collaborations is releasing a collection of makeup exclusively to Sephora. I want!
• And speaking of jewelery and Alice in Wonderland… Tom Binns has created six pieces inspired by Alice and Wonderland to tie in with the Tim Burton flick and we see the first piece here.  Fuck me do I love it. Can’t wait to see his range for Disney Couture as it will be actually affordable!
• The world’s smallest snowman is one fifth of the width of the average human hair 
• Top ten magazine covers of 2009. Love the 5^th one
• Body architecture by Lucy McRae is damn awesome.
• Agent provecatuer always has steamy campaigns. I know this ad is old, but it’s amazingly hot. And cheeky! Don’t watch if you’re having a fat/ugly day, Rosie Huntington Worthy has the face & body of a goddess.
• Ps I MadeThis is easily one of the coolest tumblrs out there. I want to make practically everything. The filled jar, rope earrings, patch necklace and the chain necklace are all on my ‘to do’ list when January rolls around.
• Peter Alexander and the RSPCA have joined up to create a gorgeous 2010 calander with 100% of profits benefiting the RSPCA. Perfect Chrissy present for the hard-to-buy and I-don’t-really-know-you-that-well-anyways folk in your life! Buy it here.

xxx

ps. I promise I’ll reply to everyone’s comments tommorrow. I love hearing what you guys have to say, I love getting comments, seriously. You’re all awesome.

Beware The Beauty Trap

I remember writing briefly about the politics of the magazine industry in this post, but I thought I’d go a little further and let everyone in on the issues that are related to the beauty side of the media.

The beauty industry, or the beauty industry within the media, is seen as frivolous but it is actually a multi-billion dollar industry and one that only ever grows. Following the Great Depression, cosmetic sales increased. After September 11, lipstick sales doubled.

Beauty editors do not have free reign over what they want to write. Or even recommend. It all ties in with advertisers. Open any magazine and there’s the inevitable ads for Revlon and Maybelline and Chanel. These brands pay a lot of money to have there ads in these magazines and it’s an unwritten agreement that they want something in return. They want the beauty writer’s to talk glowingly about their products.

But the truth is, sometimes, beauty editors hate the products. They wouldn’t even use the products if they were given to them for free. Which, actually, they are. And they don’t.

I recently wrote a little article about mineral makeup, but I had to avoid pin-pointing any brands for being ‘less than’ what they claimed they were. So I’ll say it here, if anyone out there is currently interested in mineral makeup. The cheaper brands suck. Yes, that’s the Covergirl, Revlon, Maybelline, Max Factor etc Why? Because they aren’t really mineral. Sure, they have the mineral ingredients but they also have a shit load of other chemicals. Which kinda contradicts the whole point of mineral makeup. There are no rules or laws against labelling products as ‘natural’ or ‘organic’ or ‘mineral’. The cheaper brands will chuck in other stuff to cut costs and there you have it. You do get what you pay for.

I’m currently writing an article about different chemicals that are used in cosmetics, harsher ones that you wouldn’t expect to be in your lipgloss. I already know that I cannot pitch the story to any mainstream woman’s magazine because of the clash in politics, which is a shame really, because their readers are the audience I’d really like to educate.

You will never read “L’Oreal still tests some of the ingredients it uses in cosmetics on animals” because L’Oreal pays mags such high advertising fees and too loose such a lucrative client would be disastrous. This is all common sense really, but it’s something you never really sit down and think about.

More sneaky little tips that the beauty department has to resort to in order to keep cosmetic clients happy? You know how sometimes they will list the products used on the model or celebrity on the cover or in a photo shoot? Mostly lies. They pick products that look similar. Mostly bc they honestly have no clue what was used, but also to keep clients happy. This is especially true of most Aussie mags who just use a photo that was taken overseas or already used in their overseas versions.

Same thing applies whenever they will list some recommendations. It’s usually just guess work. An article on the moisturizing properties of jojoba that lists products to try? All just random guesses.

Another one? Beauty editors all use the expensive shit. Don’t care what they write but I will guarantee you that their favourite foundations/moisturisers/shampoos etc are not bought in Priceline stores.

The best thing you can do is just be aware. Don’t believe everything you read. Pay attention to reader recommendations and members on forums as they don’t have any forced bias against certain products and brands.

Did that help anyone?

xxx

What Is ‘Australian Style’?

I’ve often wondered how other countries see Australians. And then I wonder how we fare internationally, in terms of fashion. According to the government, Australians “are comfortable in T-shirts and foot thongs (flip-flops) one minute and appreciative of innovative high fashion the next”.

Which is kinda true. In a way. At least in the major cities. Or parts of them. In my own head, no matter how hard I try to ignore it, when people from overseas are asked about Australian style, I assume they immediately think of the type of ‘fashion’ I hate which can be summed up in the following cluster of words: Supre, tanned, peroxide blonde, too tight, too short, thongs (flip flops), bright and The Gold Coast.

Aussie fashion mags seem to be trying to merge the idea of high fashion with the typical Aussie beach bum at the moment. Haarpers Baazar put Jennifer Hawkins on the cover wearing a swimsuit on the beach with the thousand plus dollars Balmain shoulder jacket as a cover up. Vogue had an editorial where the model was balancing on the rocks at Bondi dressed head to toe in the current Prada season. And I don’t know if it works. It just looks, well, awkward.

Scott Schuman is in Australia this week. He is otherwise known as The Satorialist, where he takes photos of people’s outfits, uploads them to his blog and receives thousands of hits per minute. If you’ve never heard of him then you either don’t give a flying fuck about fashion (in which case I wonder what the hell your doing reading this post) or have lived under a rock the past year or so and have missed out on the phenomenon of street style which is like totally changing the fashion world. For serious.

He is here to do book signings in both Sydney and Melbourne. And despite the fact you can see his work for free online, it hasn’t stopped people from lining around the block to get their copy signed. And while he is here, he is obviously snapping away photos of people for his blog. The last time he was here, in April, he was here for fashion week. It was colder. It’s easier to dress stylish when it’s not 40 degrees outside and as humid as a mo fo.

Anyways, I digress. In an interview with Australian Marie Claire, he says ” I think you play against the perception of it being so beach driven. Look at the girls here,” he adds gesturing around the room. “They’ve all got the shoes, the bags, the jackets. This is like Paris in the summer time.”

Not to be a traitor to my country, or my area of Sydney or anything (I live about a 10min walk to where his signing was at the Sass & Bid flagship store in Paddington) but I don’t think a handful of well dressed, cashed up fashionista’s really sum up Australian style.

So what does? I’m not even sure if it can be properly described as a collective style. Our population is so spread out and so diverse in culture that every city, damn pretty much every suburb, has a unique fashion flavour.

The Aussies who are interested in fashion all tend to be fairly trend-driven and it all turns out looking like some sort of uniform. I think. France has it’s chic sophistication, England has it’s eccentricity, New York has it’s somber tailoring and we have? Bogans in havianas.

What are your thoughts on the subject? I’m honestly interested! Share and comment away

xxx

Why Do We Love/Hate Celebrities?

You know what I find odd? The fact that women are so good at absorbing information about celebrities. Obviously, some of us are better than others. I don’t read weekly tabloids often and I don’t really follow any gossip websites, but for some reason I seem to know a lot of trivial crap about certain celebrities. Like who Giselle married or what Nicole Richie called her children. It just seeps into my brain by osmosis or something.

But what is really bizarre, from the view of ‘how our celebrity obsessed culture has infiltrated the media and thus altered our own psychological make up’ is how women will either LOVE or HATE a female celebrity.

Lets take a little look, shall we?

Megan Fox is everywhere at the moment, mouthing off weird quotes and posing seductively with her boobs popping out and her body all oiled up. I cannot stand her, despite the fact I think she is attractive and I know I am not alone in this.

Then there is Jennifer Aniston. I cannot stand her either. I don’t like her acting, I don’t like how the tabloids paint her as some unlucky in love starlet, and she just bores me to tears.

I don’t know either of these women, so how can I judge them? I can’t. But what I can do is form an opinion based on photographs and interviews they have given. Miss Aniston has never said anything that has made me think, never done anything that has made me respect her and never worn anything amazing for me to at least admire her stylist. Megan Fox tries to hard to be glamorous, to be witty, to be something other than a poster girl for sex without actually playing down the sex symbol status. Plus, every time I see her Marilyn Munroe tattoo a little part of me dies inside.

So what makes us LIKE a celebrity? I think it’s a combination of things. Their songs/movies for sure but that’s only a part of it. For those interested in fashion, it’s what they wear. How they spend their time- are they standing up for environmental beliefs or focusing on family time or just running around Hollywood without any underwear claiming to not do drugs? We like the celebrities we can relate to. The ones who admit they are human and have had chemicals injected into their face instead of denying it and claiming that sunscreen is the real reason why there are no wrinkles and err, facial movement.

Sometimes we like them for the very reason that they are oh so wrong and tragic. It’s like a kind of maternal thing, maybe? You know, you just want to tell Lindsay to lay off the fake tan, quit smoking and eat a hamburger. It’s endearing almost.

We love that they are not perfect and that they screwed up.

Sometimes, we are able to sympathize with their problems, when they are our problems too. When these photos of Jessica Simpson were released, along with their nasty headlines, I felt sorry for the poor girl, and angry too. It didn’t make me love her, but it sure did make me like her just a little bit more.

I think it also has something to do with what we wish we could be. Skinny, tanned, married to the hottest guy on the planet, the ability to look good in a paper bag…

My list of female celebrities that I wish would crawl into a hole and disappear out of the public eye is far greater than the list of celebs that I genuinely love and admire. I wonder what that says about me?

What about you guys? Why do you think women hate certain celebrities and love others? Who do you love/hate?

xxx

ps. The Scavenger is a new online site with the premise of ’salvaging what’s left after the masses have had their feed’. It is awesome. Lots of stuff on feminism, pop culture, health, media, social issues, animal rights and tons of interiews and reviews too. I may be assosiate editor, but I’d read it even if I wasn’t. Clicky click!

The Modelling Industry Needs To Check Itself

Today I read another fantastic article by The Frockwriter examining the current “trend” of model deaths. I spoke about my total shock and heartbreak regarding Kim Daul two weeks ago and wanted to put out a few more words on the whole subject.

When we turn the pages of our glossy fashion magazines, sometimes we forget that the models we see are actually human beings. They sneeze and fart and feel heartbreak just like us.

What we also forget is that the majority of them are teenage girls, albeit tall ones with long limbs. Or they started modeling as one. Do you remember yourself as a teenager? Awkwardness and mixed emotions and confusion 101. These girls are removed from their homes, their familiar surrounds, their families and the people who love them. They go to endless castings and go sees and face an unbelievable amount of rejection- they aren’t the right look, they are too wide, too narrow, not blonde enough, not brunette enough. At such a young age, it is impossible to form a clear cut answer to the question “who am I?” so it’s really a surprise that the inner workings of the modeling industry is kept so hush-hush.

Once upon a time, a model’s agent, booker and/manager were like older siblings. Today, with the industry worth billions of dollars, most models are pretty much left to fend for themselves. They are the commodity. The pressure they are under is enormous. That, coupled with the sense of isolation and loneliness away from their families, it’s a wonder that there actually aren’t any more suicides throughout the industry.

Catherine McNeil is on the latest cover of Vogue Australia,  looking smoking hot (even as a blonde) if I do say so myself. The past few months she’s been in the media spotlight a lot. First there was all the speculations about her sexuality as she was seen in paparazzi pics canoodling with Ruby Rose. Then there was her unusual absence from the recent Spring/Summer shows which lead to talks about her weight gain being the reason.

Then, early last weekish, photos appeared of her at a Girlfriend search with scratches visible down her forearms. Journalists went into a frenzy over the pics, which were blown up and focused on said scars, and debated over the idea of self harm, while camp McNeil insisted they were from a skateboard fall and nothing further. Since then, her mother has spoken out to Grazia Australia (part one,  part two, part three) about the state of her daughters mental health, claiming that she often got lonely and depressed in her current hometown of NYC.

Jesus, is it any wonder? She may walk for the likes of Balenciaga, Fendi, Dior Prada but the girl is only 19. She may not be one of my favourite models, but I seem to have an affinity for any Aussie model who makes herself a name internationally, especially one who lives in beat up motorcylce boots and laughs at herself for being a bogan. To think that this beautiful girl is intentionally cutting herself kills me inside. Of course, we will never know if it is true or not and honestly, I wish we never even knew if was a possibility. It is a private behaviour that people turn to as a coping mechanism. If the poor thing was depressed about all the rumors before, how must she feel about this current one?

I think model agents should be on the look out for warning signs and symptoms. I think that any adult working in the industry should be educated on what to look out for. The problem is, trying to keep an eye on 30 or so girls at a time where things such as drug use and eating disorders are almost a given, how can they watch for changes in mood or behavior? We all know that people who are depressed and/or suicidal will most likely deny their feelings, especially if it means something like loosing a possible campaign.

I’m not sure what the point of my post is. Sympathy is not usually an emotion that we feel for models, but maybe we should. They do not lead easy lives. Any career that considers you “old” at 25 cannot be a walk in the park. I wish there was an easy solution, but there isn’t. My heart goes out to them all.

xxx

Just A Minute In… November

Can you believe it’s December already?! Holy bejesus! I love the little reflections on the past month over at Wine In The Afternoon so I decided to steal, copy, appropriate it for my own little section of the blogosphere. (God I hate that word!)

Listening… Mumford & Sons, Pheonix, Florence & The Machine, Jimi Hendrix
Reading… The Picture Of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde
Watching… The TV Series Oz, Ghost World, Heathers
Buying… Clothes (for the first time in forever) scented candles, YSL hot pink lipstick
Wanting…More hours in the day!
Trying… The gym. Bluerch.
Loving… Abby Lee Kershaw, Robert Pattinson, bright coloured nail polish, arguing with people about vampires, air-conditioning when it’s hot!
Planning… Awesome Christmas gifts for people
Making… Mixed media collages. Want to see them?
Writing… Christmas cards, beauty articles, book reviews
Cooking… Tuna and bean salads
Inspired by… Nude colour palettes, fairytales, milky pale skin, Anubis (one of the Egyptian gods of the underworld), shooting stars

xxx