Pink Rock Candy – Top fashion trends, news and shopping of 2010

Blake Lively and Elettra Wiedemann front row at DVF’s S/S 2010 show.

Celebrities are like evil step-children to the fashion industry. You deal with them for the sake of your spouse— the public, in fashion’s case—but you generally wish they would simply go away. I’ve met and been around my fair share of “listed” people, from A-list to D-list, but seeing and meeting them is very underwhelming to me, and compared to meeting designers or editors, the excitement is negligible. So, when I read “How Much Fashion Brands Pay For Celebrities to Sit in Their Front Rows” on Fashionista.com, the outrage at the rates paid to celebs for sitting front row almost outweighed the bemusement of the post.

Here, on Pink Rock Candy, my celeb name dropping is few and far between. There are a few starlets whom I believe actually love and appreciate fashion the way industry insiders and even us bloggers do, and I respect them for that. The males of the celeb-world are a different story complete, but suffice it to say, they are generally chalked up to eye candy.

Being informed that some celebs are getting paid almost six figures to sit their meticulously toned tushes in a front row seat many people, fashion lovers and socialites alike, would give anything to fill, kills me.

I know public relations enough to know celebrities are a necessary evil, but charging a fashion brand to enjoy it’s latest work in one of the best seats in the house is a bit excessive. To me, that process is almost as ignorant as it would have been to charge Michelangelo to create a sculpture for you, as if it was an honor for him.

This may come as a surprise to many celebrities, but their presence at fashion events though often, and unfortunately, is a necessity to gain public notoriety, is anything but an honor.

As my little brother once said of homework, “It’s a have to do, not a want to do.”

What do you think of celebrities charging fashion brands to grace the front rows with their presence?

Photo Credit: Style.com

On Friday, there was a article published on The Guardian entitled, “Why I hate fashion,” in which the writer, Tanya Gold, speaks about her journey from being fashionably absorbed to leading a fashion-free existence.

As I read the article I could hear Meryl Streep as Miranda Priestly spit, “This… stuff?” before she launches into her rant about Andy Sachs’ “lumpy blue sweater.”

It wasn’t the linking of a sixteen-year-old girl’s unfortunate death to her high heels or Gold’s insinuation that the industry I love is oppressive that infuriated me. It was her reasoning for escaping what she remarks is “one of the ultimate evils in the universe.”

“The oddest thing rescued me from fashion. It was that I got fat,” says Gold.

Not only, is there an entire article bashing an industry that is inescapable to those who choose to live in modern society— Mark Twain once said, “Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society”— but she insinuated that those who aren’t skinny and are in turn, “fat,” cannot participate in “fashion,” or more precisely, be fashionable.

Are there as many high fashion designers who cater to the size-10-and-up crowd as there are who cater to their smaller counter parts? Most definitely, not. That, however, doesn’t mean larger women, and men, for that matter, are completely excluded from the cycle and can’t be fashionable. Quite frankly, I think the argument that her weight played a part in her escape from this strange meta-world called Fashion is idiotic, even knowing how high fashion designers cater to the lithe. If you truly think about it, there are more people in the world who can’t afford to purchase from high fashion designers than there are people who are “fat,” and when it comes to mass retailers and fast fashion, the scales are infinitely more balanced (no pun intended).

So, Miss Gold, I must channel Miranda Priestly again when I say, though you may view yourself as “fat,” you, I’m assuming, have yet to joined a nudist community and still wear and buy, from time to time, clothes/beauty products/home goods— all things that are influenced by fashion trends— making it “sort of comical how you think that you’ve made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry.”

Yesterday, blogger, Yuli Ziv said “I’m so over high/low Target collabs. Sorry, Jean Paul…” via Twitter, and honestly, I kind of agree.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Target for their great prices, forward thinking, and ability to purchase clothes, make-up, tampons, green tea, Pop-Tarts, and a toaster to heat the snacks up, all under the same roof, but the Go International collaborations have simply, and constantly, let me down.

They’re like a crush-worthy celebrity. In theory, he’s perfect, hot and successful. He even looks amazing in pictures, but if you do manage to ever meet this hottie— because generally they’re off the market or unavailable for some other reason— he totally let’s you down. That perfectly groomed five o’clock shadow is more of a five past five o’clock mountain man beard, and those chiseled abs you saw in a photoshoot last week were definitely airbrushed, though his modest beer belly does prove impressive because they were begotten on during his accent to beer pong champ at his local drinking hole. If you can manage to overlook his slight imperfections— hey, nobody’s perfect— after the first couple of date’s you realize you only liked him because of his name and the relationship falls to pieces.

Generally, you end up disappointed and angry, but even this doesn’t stop you for crushing on the next hot thing to grace the silver screen.

As much as I adore most of the designers, the collections generally aren’t cohesive, the fabric selection is terrible, and though the prices are remarkable compared to the normal price of one of the designer’s duds, the piece of clothing is bound to fall apart. “Why buy a designer dress only to know I won’t have it in 2 or 3 years?” I always ask myself. However, with every collection, I get excited and head to Target the day it’s released in hopes of finding that jewel. The one piece that is as great in theory as it is in actuality.

Jean Paul Gaultier, Zac Posen, and Tucker are up next, and part of me is tired of the disappointment, but I can’t help but be a little excited.

Photo Credit: Fashionista

Photo Credit: V Magazine & Models.com

In fashion, there will always be a newer, hotter trend, designer, or style icon, but it’s the controversies that really get people buzzing. First it was all about the lack of diversity in the fashion industry, but it seems plus size is the new black for 2010.

The lines are drawn, skinny vs. curvy, but I’m not sure which side to take. V Magazine is playing the part of Vogue Italia with their Size Issue which hits newsstands January 14th, 2010. The images from the Terry Richardson shot “One Size Fits All” photoshoot pits Jacquelyn Jablonski against Crystal Renn in a zero vs. not zero, no-holds-barred, pose-off designer duds, in an attempt to prove designer clothes will look good on anyone— who can afford them, that is.

Now, they’ve just released a second photoshoot entitled “Curves Ahead,” and it wasn’t the pictures many of the models wearing next to nothing and looking fierce as all hell that piqued my interest. It was the comments I read on OhNoTheyDidn’t, the first of which was “gross” followed by a “mte” (my thoughts exactly), that made made me stop and think.

Since when was it not okay to have a full figure and be proud to show it off? Isn’t confidence supposed to be sexy?

To be honest, I know what designers mean when they say clothes hang better on tiny, tall girls, but I also realize it’s unhealthy and sometimes down-right impossible for most girls to be a double-zero. I’m not saying I’m about to buy my official team curvy girl “Booty is Beauty” t-shirt because, let’s face it, I’m not really all that curvy, but I do think women can be beautiful no matter their jean size.

The most disheartening comment was written by someone who claimed to also be plus size, “as a plus sized person…this array makes me want to go puke up my coffee and crisps.” A comment that led some to express shock, while the commentor went on to say, “yes well i have lots of hate for my own body. seeing it in picture form only makes me feel worse…i’m munching on new years candies and silently berating myself while enjoying and loathing every bite!”

It scares me that western culture’s ideal of beauty has become so skewed women not only loathe their own curves, but other’s because of what it represents to them. Part of me feels as if V Magazine is only giving this size debate lip service to cash in on a new trendy controversy, but another part of me hopes this makes some small impact not only on the fashion industry but on all of western society.