I am a fashion photography junky. I can't help myself. Today there is an article in the New York Times about Michael Thompson, a newish photographer on the fashion scene, and there is a whole array of his flashy fashion photos to look at. When I go to the hairdresser, I use the hour to look at all the high fashion magazines, indulging myself in Bazaars and Vogues. It always seems a little funny to me, as I sit there in my wet spiky red hair, that I am addicted to reading these wild fashion ideas, most of which I will never be able to use in any productive way. Unlike most of the other women there, for those two hours, I am not interested in movie star news or Ladies Home Journal recipes or People magazine...I want the high-fashion fix. I always think that maybe I should be reading a good book.
Even as a young girl, I have always loved fashion magazines, and I think it is for the photography. The photos are creative and done with abandon and the clothes are so far out that no one would be able to wear them without being arrested. I often wonder what would happen if we tried. Everything is WAY over the top. I guess the person who seems to be trying the hardest to translate these into real life is Boy George. In real life, after the photos are taken, the models wash off all the red eye shadow and blue cheek powder and run out into the New York street wearing a t-shirt and jeans. These fashion ideas are just way out of control, and maybe that is why I like looking at them so much. They are not about this world. At least not about MY world.
George is lovely about all this. He watches the runway shows on TV with me on Saturday morning at 8:00. They show the fashion shows from Paris, Milan and London and he critiques the clothes with me. Most of them are unwearable. The pencil thin models in their strange gait are stunningly surreal and sometimes so ugly they are beautiful. They are a stretch into a creativity that we never will get to wear ourselves. They are like fashion science fiction.
Oh well. I like it.
Have a great day.
