Death of daintiness
Sir: I buy and read women's fashion maga- zines, mostly because of my own interest in and about fashion. An aeon ago I was a fashion model, then worked in fashion retailing and loved it, as I still do. I think the fashion world is destroying fashion through magazines that are themselves self- destructing.
In the January edition of Vogue there is an article by Susan Irvine mentioning androgyny several times. The February edi- tion of Tatler has pages of hideous photos that its fashion editor, Natasha Loeb, con- siders to be fashion. The Taller pages appalled and frightened me. February's American Harper's. Bazaar, on its editorial front page, moans about 'the tiresome rou- tine of dressing and making up'.
Tes, it is indeed a beautiful day, and my account for that opinion will follow.' If fashion magazine philosophy is to enhance androgyny, it is surely succeeding. Fashion is represented in weird, ugly, unap- pealing and unsaleable ways and, in so doing, eats the hand that feeds it.
Real women, according to the magazine writers, don't need beauty aids such as real fashion. Really? Tell that to tens of millions who buy cosmetics. Ask the retail- ers which single item shows the biggest profit: cosmetics and perfume is the answer.
I personally do not expect to buy expen- sive women's magazines to be taught punk and grunge. I seek allure, glamour, grace, prettiness, daintiness and will strive for beauty in every possible way.
Women have sought to emulate beauty in paintings, photographs and motion pic- tures. Why look like a Roseanne when you might look like a Princess of Wales? Fash- ion editors mislead and discourage women and dishearten them.
I speak for the majority of women who seek beauty and want to look like women, not freaks. Women buy fashion magazines for guidance not depression. They need attractive ideas, not disheartening and dis- gust. They want to be feminine and to be admired, not sneered at.
We are proud of our femininity and love to enhance it. The current trend betrays and fouls fashion's heritage and brings shame on a great industry.
Geraldine Hanson
London SW1
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