This Week’s Haute Links
Savvy shoppers hock the Jimmy Choos they got at H&M for double retail price on eBay- The Cut
Twitter Killed the Celeb Star- The Black Snob
‘Unfriend’ is a New Oxford Dictionary’s Word of the Year (Among Others)- USA Today
Sarah Palin’s Stylist Outs Herself- The Cut
Dear Chris Rock: Let Black Women ‘Do Our Own Hair- The Black Snob
FYI On Personal Email and the Law-WSJ Law Blawg
Mangagement Ring Trend Means It’s the Ladies’ Turn to Put a Ring On It – NY Daily News
Burberry, LV and More at a CostCo Near You- Fashion Bomb Daily
Wintour Hires Obama Online Campaign Masterminds for Vogue.com- Fashionologie
New Virtual Boutique on Read My Lips!
I decided to create my very own VIRTUAL BOUTIQUE here on Read My Lips! It includes a collection of new, gently used and vintage pieces that I think you’ll love. I still have quite of few pieces to add. And, once I get my new camera for Christmas (wink wink), I will put some looks together with some of the pieces, rather than just hanging each individual piece up, because that’s kind of boring…
The links to the items and purchasing instructions are in the sidebar. Here’s a question for you:
This Week’s Haute Links
Michelle Obama’s Brooches Are ‘Part of Her Code’: The Cut
Racism AND Sexism at the NY Post?: The Black Snob
Andre Leon Talley and Kimmora Lee Simons to judge America’s Next Top Model: Gatecrasher
Lawyer’s have invented a new defense to trademark counterfeiting : Counterfeit Chic
Meet the New Black Model on the Block, Kelly Moreira: The Cut
Did Northwestern Students Pay Witnesses for False Testimony?: WSJ Law Blog
EEk! Fashion Industry Downsizes: Layoffs Lomming at Zac Posen, Gucci: Gatecrasher
Lou Dobbs Quits CNN: AverageBro
Asked and Answered: Miss J of Top Model (Whose book released this week, btw): The Moment
Empire State of Mind: Garance Dore
Love Letter: The Stylish Wanderer
The Future Modelling of Sudan Parade: Style Discovery
Chanel Iman Went Blonde: Design Scene
Will the Real Black Barbie Please Stand Up?
Who do you picture when you think “Black Barbie”? Lil Kim? Beyonce? Gabby Union?
Mattel recently created and launched the ”So In Style” (S.I.S., for short) Barbie, a line of black dolls featuring more “authentic facial characteristics” than the company’s black dolls have in the past, in an effort to better reflect African American images and interests. The dolls have “fuller lips, a wider nose, more distinctive cheek bones and curlier hair,” says the toymaker, and are intended to “celebrate the diversity of African American girls and encourage positive themes.”
The idea for “So In Style” Barbie was developed by Barbie designer of 12 years, Stacey McBride-Irby, an African American mother of two. In an interview, McBride-Irby explained that she wanted the dolls to have skin tones, make-up and facial features that were “true to girls in my community.” McBride-Irby said she was inspired to create black fashion dolls that her 4-year-old daughter could relate to. She said she also wanted the dolls to ”…encourage girls to be inspired and dream big.”
The line includes three best friends, Grace, Kara and Trichelle, who are all about fashion, fun and friendship. Each of the dolls has its own unique personality and style and reflects one of three varying skin tones. One prefers math and the drill team, while another art and journalism. And, the developer paired each of the dolls with a little sister doll, to foster the idea of mentorship in pursuing one’s goals.
Despite the efforts and good intentions the dolls, “So In Style” Barbie has gotten mixed reviews. While some like the dolls, others feel that Mattel relied too much on hip-hop stereotypes in selecting details like shiny bling, big earrings and fancy sneakers.
Not all black people like hip hop,” said Barbara Mootoo, 15, of Manhattan. “They gave her a chain like a 50 Cent video,” referring to Kara’s silver rope chain necklace
Tyaine Danclaire, 15, of the Bronx, liked Trichelle’s straight, long hair because it looked like “a weave,” but she thought the idea “was sorta racist.”
They say black girls are ghetto with the gold earrings, with the big bling; I don’t agree with that, she said.
So, is it a positive step forward? Definitely. Writes Raven Hill of the Root:
As a child, Barbie was the fantasy version of how I envisioned my grown-up, glamorous life: closets full of gorgeous dresses and sparkling jewels, my choice of high-powered careers, and without question, fabulous hair…Barbie could be anything or anyone she want[ed]—doctor or diva, bride or bombshell, princess or president..… They may not be mirror-perfect, but they come closer to the fantasy than my childhood playthings. I would want these dolls for my daughter.
So the question remains: What should black Barbie look like?
When Fashion and the Law Collide: American Apparel (Again)
American Apparel, the largest garment manufacturer in the U.S., and “arguably the most vocal” in speaking up against U.S. immigration policies, is terminating about 1,500 employees at its Los Angeles factory, because they were unable to prove their immigration status or fix problems with their employment records. This after a government inspection uncovered that close to 1,600 of the manufacturer/retailer’s workers didn’t appear to be authorized to work in the U.S.
The debate over how a country built on immigration should manage its new immigrant workforce exploded into mass demonstrations in several major cities in 2006. American Apparel was a leader in the campaign to legalize foreign workers, saying that it is good for business.
Policy overhaul efforts failed in Congress in 2007, and both presidential candidates said they supported humane reform, but kept quiet on the subject in the months leading to the election on November 4, 2008. The dramatic tailspin of financial markets and the slowing U.S. economy has pushed the immigration issue even further into the background, a situation that American Apparel has tried to challenge.
Large workplace sweeps by U.S. immigration police hit meat-processing and electronics plants across the country in late 2008, and Homeland Security released a list this past July of 652 businesses nationwide that would receive audits (I-9) of its workforce. American Apparel was one of them. The company has never been raided, but it has had to let workers go whose papers are discovered to be false in the past. An attorney working for the company on the audit said the results showed no wrongdoing by the company.
Despite the dismissal of more than 10% of its workforce, AA doesn’t expect problems with productivity, since, well, “the confluence of several factors including the slow economy and high preexisting inventory levels,” said the attorney. So what does that mean? Get your bootys over to American Apparel and buy something!
When Fashion and the Law Collide: Salacious Obscenities
One visit to the American Apparel website, and it’s clear that they aren’t just selling T-shirts (that I so adore). Adolescent-looking models, with dear caught in headlights expressions, in “come hither” poses, are like, well, the retailers trademark. And nipples are often exposed.
Attitudes regarding nudity in Western cultures are often more critical than attitudes in non-western cultures. For example, in the U.S., exposure of female nipples is a criminal offense in many states and are not allowed in public at all, while in the U.K., nudity may not be used to “harass, alarm or distress” according to the Public Order Act of 1986.
However, it was a British advertising watchdog that recently criticized the clothing company for the ad pictured below, after a reader complained to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) that the ad, which originally ran on the back cover of Vicemagazine in the U.K., but with a series of six images — instead of three — in which the model further disrobes from her flex fleece and where her nipple was partially exposed in one shot, was “offensive and inappropriate because the model appeared young and it could be seen to sexualize a child.” Reuters reports:
American Apparel said that it did not think the partial nudity in the advertisement would cause widespread offense. It said that the model was 23 years old and did not look under 16, nor was she portrayed as a sex object. (because you look naturally sexy wearing a hoodie, right?)
The ASA disagreed, calling the images “provocative,” and adding,
“Because the ad could be seen to sexualize a model who appeared to be a child under the age of 16 years, we concluded that it was inappropriate and could cause serious offense to some readers.”
Sexual materials range between erotic art (which usually includes “classic nude forms” such as Michelangelo’s David statue) and the generally less respected commercial pornography. The differentiation between sexual materials is a particularly difficult one and a contentious First Amendment issue that has not fully been settled. Many cultures have produced laws to define what is considered to be “obscene”, and censorship is often used to try to suppress or control materials that are obscene under these definitions. The definition differs from culture to culture, between communities within a single culture, and also between individuals within those communities.
In the United States, the 1973 ruling of the Supreme Court of the United States in Miller v. California established a three-tiered test to determine what was obscene – and thus not protected, versus what was merely erotic and thus protected by the First Amendment.
Delivering the opinion of the court, Chief Justice Warren Burger wrote,
The basic guidelines for the trier of fact must be: (a) whether ‘the average person, applying contemporary community standards would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest, (b) whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law; and (c) whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.
The legal distinction between artistic nudity, and permitted commercial pornography (which includes sexual penetration) that are deemed as “protected forms of speech” versus “obscene acts”, which are illegal acts and separate from those permitted areas, are usually separated by the predominant culture appreciation regarding such. In fact, federal obscenity law in the U.S. is highly unusual in that—not only is there no uniform national standard, but rather, there is an explicit legal precedent that all but guarantees that something that is legally “obscene” in one jurisdiction may not be in another. In effect, the First Amendment protections of free speech vary by location within the U.S., and over time.
However, “mere nudity” was upheld in the Supreme Court case Jenkins v. Georgia , 418 U.S. 153 (1974) and deemed not to be obscene under the constitutional standards announced by Miller. As declared by the judge at trial “… nudity alone does not render material obscene under Miller’s standards.” In the U.S., the word “obscenity” is usually limited to content that directly refers to explicit sexual acts that are publicly accessible, though it has at times encompassed other subject matters, such as spoken and written language that can be publicly transmitted and received by the general public.
With the advent of Internet distribution of potentially obscene material, this question of jurisdiction and “community standards” has created significant controversy in the legal community. So, while the nude content was offensive to some in the U.K. community and it has been banned from distribution through print publication (so that no one else will happen to glance over at the doctor’s office or on public transit to be incited with disgust), the online community isn’t as easily offended by nudity, perhaps, and hasn’t spoken out. So, if you’re in the U.K., and want to see bare nipples, then you’ll have to go to American Apparel’s website, where nipples run free, although, I couldn’t find the other three photos on the website either, only the ones pictured above (there are plenty others, however).
What do you think of the racy advertisements? Offensive? Not offensive?
Black Beauties: Jordan Dunn, Sessilee, Chanel, and Arlenis Cover the September Issue of i-D Mag
i-D will be the first fashion magazine to showcase women of color on the September 2009 issue.
See the video here.
No Ma’am!
Miss J has a book coming out titled, “Follow the Model: Miss J’s Guide to Unleashing Presence, Poise and Power,” in which he (she?) tells of a story about being denied acces to a particular fashion show. When he arrived, a man told him, “I’m sorry to do this to you, but I’ve been told they really don’t want you here.” Miss J didn’t cause a scene, but was embarrased. He writes,
I still don’t know why I was shut out of that show…As fate would have it, the same Brazilian designer later begged the producers ofANTM for two weeks to do our final runway show for cycle twelve with them in Brazil. All I have to say about that is God don’t like ugly, and Rosa Cha was such a a [sic] better choice and a total dream to work with.
Brazilian designer? Hhmm…Idk. But, you got to watch where you step in those stilettos. Source
Does Rihanna Read My Blog?
Probably not. Although, Kanye reads Sea of Shoes. So, it’s not totally out of the question.
However, someone must have passed along my friend’s advice that the only way she and Chris could ever appear together in public would be to go on the Oprah Winfrey Show because bloggers are now saying that Rihanna won’t forgive Chris until he publicly apologizes on Oprah…because the public won’t forgive Chris either until the Queen of Daytime Television approves!
Making History: Model Liya Kebede Partners with J. Crew
In good news of the day. Etheopian supermodel Liya Kebede will be the first model to be featured exclusively, cover to cover, for the J. Crew catalogue. What is more, the company will also carry pieces of Liya’s own line of hand-made children’s clothing collection known as Lemlem (means “to bloom”) , as part of their children’s Crewcuts line. All the pieces are made by hand in Ethiopia. -Source
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