Friday, January 8, 2010

Gertie, Girl Reporter

I've never done one of these news/links round-up posts, but so many great articles showed up in my RSS feed this week . . . . I just had to share them with you!
  • Feministing's thoughts on this excellent question: why are plus size models always naked?

  • A great article on the current body image climate has my favorite title of the week: "Body Image Revolution Postponed."

  • Scary stuff: What does H&M do with its surplus clothing? It's left on the street--but first holes are slashed through it so it can't be worn.

  • Charles Kleibacker, "master of the bias," passed away on Sunday, leaving behind an incredible design legacy.

  • Here's a fantastic discussion from Sal on the potentially troublesome notion of the "sexy secretary."

  • I always love Glossed Over's Vogue magazine analyses. Awesome tidbit, in response to designer Alber Elbaz's snarky question about why pretty young girls want to be models rather than seamstresses: "Yeah! Why be the beautiful woman who wears the clothes when you could be the poorly paid one who makes them?"

  • Hey, what's this?! Why, it's a collection of greatest hit posts from yours truly on BurdaStyle.
Happy weekend, friends!



6 comments:

  1. I saw the article about H&M early this morning. It's pretty appalling--disrespectful on so many levels--to the designers, to the people who made those clothes, to the earth, and to people who could use those clothes. This steels my resolve to sew my own stuff.

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  2. i worked in retail for 8 years. i have been required to toss out everything from unsold books, to toys, to clothes. many retailers require it's employees to do this! it's insanity! if we were to take any of it home, we could face theft charges. if i remember correctly, we were asked to do this twice a year. i felt horrible about myself every time i did it, and so did everyone i worked with.

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  3. They used to do this all the time at our local Wal-Mart with unsold clearance clothing. I don't know if they still do, because they're under different management since I worked there to put myself through school. Heck, it would be better for retailers to donate such things for the tax break to charities or even thrift stores.

    My sister-in-law hasn't been asked to do it at Target. Clearance is how she dresses my niece, though. That and sometimes the Lost and Found. They only keep things for a month, and then toss what hasn't been claimed. Joanna has kept things that Evie can use and just washed 'em. Once it's 'garbage' it's fair game.

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  4. Great posting! I read about H&M and Wall mart! They both were doing the same.
    Thanks for the additional information :-)

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  5. Sadly, I think H&M and Wal-Mart are far from the only retailers who do this type of thing ... Makes me glad that I've been boycotting Wal-Mart for years.

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  6. That's an interesting point about "shape" issues. I also get frustrated by these shape issues, because, while I don't really have a problem with women who are a size 10 or above, I'm not sure that they're very representative of the average woman.

    At least based on what I've seen around me, most women just have a bit of pudge here and there, as do myself. I feel like these shape issues are just a reflection of the fashion world, which tends to embrace extremes, rather than average... which can be pretty un-average, based on the "regular girl" spreads of Brigitte magazine.

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Thanks for your comments; I read each and every one! xo Gertie

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