Archive for August 2010
Happy Birthday, Chris Tucker
Happy birthday, Chris Tucker. I loved you in that movie you were in. Okay, I really didn’t, but it’s your birthday and I wanted it to be special . . .
Expand Your Fashion Vocabulary #50
Miss Kitty: A character on the long-running television show “Gunsmoke.” Miss Kitty was a old-west saloon owner with a penchant for flashy gowns, fitted bodices, dangling earrings and updos, much like the typical Hollywood starlet on the red carpet at an awards show.
E.g.: Becky failed to impress the critics at this year’s Emmy Awards in her Miss Kitty ensemble.
Happy Birthday, Cameron Diaz
Happy birthday, Cameron Diaz. May your special day end in the back of a police van . . . again!
Winter 1998
Cover: Winter 1998
Context: On January 26, US President Bill Clinton denies that he had “sexual relations” with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Destiny’s Child release their debut album on February 17. From February 7-22, the 1998 Winter Olympics are held in Nagano, Japan. On February 23, Osama Bin Laden publishes a fatwa, declaring jihad against all Jews and Crusaders. Elton John is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace on February 24.
Points of Interest: Manolo Blahnik was the second footwear designer to receive a credit for a cover look. John Fluevog also designer a pair of boots that appeared on a previous cover.
What Tyra Would Say: “I’m on the fence with Andie. On one hand, she’s long, lean and modelesque, but on the other hand, I haven’t been able to make her cry once during the entire competition. It makes me wonder if she really wants this.”
What Auntie Fashion Says: “Can Estrogen Make You Smarter?” Oh brother . . .
Grade: A+.
Happy Birthday, Lea Michele
Happy birthday, Lea Michele. You’re riding a bike in a white romper? You know you’re filming a tampon commercial when . . .
Happy Birthday, Shania Twain
Happy birthday, Shania Twain. You know you’re old when you need to use a torch to light the candles on your birthday cake. What? That’s not your cake?
Kim Alexis
People who weren’t around in the early 80s when Kim Alexis ruled the world probably don’t appreciate how big she was. If she wasn’t on the cover of “Vogue,” she was on the cover of “Cosmopolitan.” If she wasn’t on the cover of “Glamour,” she was on the cover of “Mademoiselle.” And if you didn’t see her on a cover, you only had to flip a couple of pages until you found her hawking every product imaginable. She was modeling’s money machine, earning contracts galore, including Maybelline, Revlon, Noxema, Silkience and Chantilly. With great skin, great hair, and a look that was as all-American as they come, Alexis was as good as gold.
Yet the most memorable contribution Alexis made to modeling was how easily she could go from ingenue to tramp. Tyra Banks has admitted that she herself has a face that can handle a lot of makeup. Alexis was no different. Makeup artists could paint it on an inch thick while still leaving a recognizable countenance under all that product. Scrubbed-down, Alexis was just as pretty. It was that versatility that landed the model over five-hundred covers in her career.
While she’s often dismissed as a “commercial” girl today, it’s only because the people dismissing her have no idea how huge she was in her heyday. She was the Gisele Bündchen of her era, and she had the bank account and the editorial clout to prove it. Models don’t get much bigger than Kim Alexis.
The Rachel Zoe Project
Like most shows on Bravo, “The Rachel Zoe Project” doesn’t air in Canada contemporaneously with its US debut. Since I don’t like to watch two-year-old programs that have become completely dated when they finally air, I’ve declined to watch the show. But last night there was nothing on, so I decided to give it a chance.
Dear Zob in heaven — it was awful! I spent the entire hour wanting to slug the entire cast in the face. Watching Rachel, Taylor and Brad panic over every stupid detail was painful. Everyone who reads my blog knows that Rachel Zoe bugs the hell out of me, but I didn’t realize her neuroses ran so deep. Everything was a crisis! The manufactured drama was as fake as anything I’ve ever seen on reality TV — and I’ve watched “The Hills.”
The only tolerable parts of the episode I saw were brief segments with Rachel’s strangely patient husband, Rodger Berman, and a cameo with the lovely Liv Tyler.
Seeing the show just made me dislike Rachel Zoe even more. I know a lot of people claimed that they warmed up to her after the program debuted, but it just left me scratching my head, wondering how this show made it to a third season when I don’t think I could stomach a second episode.
C’est la vie!
Happy Birthday, Chris Pine
Happy birthday, Chris Pine. I heard you’re in this movie about an unstoppable train hurtling towards a city, with no one on board to stop it and if it doesn’t stop before it reaches the city, it will explode! I think it’s called “The Train That Couldn’t Slow Down.”
Auntie Fashion 
