Saturday, January 8, 2011

When Bad Fashion Happens to Pretty Good People

A WOMAN IN THERE SOMEWHERE?

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A FAIRLY DECENT-LOOKING MIDDLE-AGED DAME leaves her homeland and takes up residence in---or just visits---another country? Does she take leave of her fashion senses? Is that the reason we take vacations? Is she desperate for attention at any cost? Or does she no longer care? Is red the most attention-getting color on the planet?

I can't answer any of these questions for sure. I can say with certainty that I find this get-up most unattractive for many reasons: the screaming color, the way it's used and comportment of the model. It would be one thing if we can do this in the privacy of our homes or compounds or on a back-country trail where there's a chance we might get lost and need a helicopter rescue. But this indiscretion has been broadcast round the world and it's unfortunate for women everywhere. Middle age should be a time of fashion improvement and simplifying and not a time of flaming hubris. There's one and only one viable excuse for this: Dame Helen was leaving an (unsuccessful) audition for the lead in a remake of a low-budget Little Red Riding Hood.

HERE'S MORE, if you can bear to look.

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