One Blog You Should Be Reading
Manolo says, if you are not reading Linda Grant’s marvelous new blog, The Thoughtful Dresser you are missing out on important and hilarious discussions such as this one.
A few years ago, I was having lunch at Moro in Clerkenwell Market with the then women’s page editor of the Guardian. Sitting at the next table were a group of adoring acolytes hanging on the every word of a flat bloke with a blonde bristly head like a pig, dressed in combats encasing thighs which oozed like over-ripe Camembert sluggishly running off the edge of his chair.
That, said my lunch companion, is Alexander McQueen.
And a spasm of pure rage passed through me. Who was this fat bastard to tell women that they were obese if they couldn’t fit into a size 10? To make clothes that half the population couldn’t wear? I am tired of fat men telling non-skeletal women that they don’t exist. Granted, McQueen, like Lagerfeld, with the assistance of the finest trainers money can buy and no obligation to prepare family meals three times a day, have slimmed down, or in the case of Lagerfeld, turned himself into his own corpse, but fashion is full of fat men (sorry Alber, I really love you in every other way) giving normal-sized women an inferiority complex.
This made the Manolo laugh out loud.
Although, at the same time, the Manolo is sympathetic to the fashion designers, for as he has noted in the past, many fashion designers are quite unattractive, and thus they are obsessed with the most conventional notions of beauty and proportion, even as they are filled with self-loathing for their own appearance.
It is difficult to desire physical beauty so intensely and yet have it denied to you, as the Manolo, from his own personal circumstances, can tell you.
November 2nd, 2007 at 1:31 pm
We are none of us perfect and must do what we can with what we’re given. Beauty fades but innner beauty, kindeness, talent, a sense of humor- all things the Manolo has plenty of - are for life.
And Miss J must also add that she too is sick of the tyranny of designers who won’t design in sizes most women can wear. They can kiss Miss J’s “chubby” butt.
November 2nd, 2007 at 1:43 pm
If one is beautiful on the inside, it transforms the outside. The person’s kindness, intelligence and joie de vivre shine through the person’s eyes and smile, creating a transcendental, undefinable beauty.
The Manolo is a beautiful man. Period.
November 2nd, 2007 at 2:12 pm
“It is difficult to desire physical beauty so intensely and yet have it denied to you, as the Manolo, from his own personal circumstances, can tell you…”
I understand so well! In their personal appearance these designers, they are the Salieris of fashion.
November 2nd, 2007 at 2:15 pm
Oh, don’t be absurd. The Manolo is a perfect babe and would be hot hot hot to anyone with half a brain and a sense of humour (thought unfortunately many individuals exist who are both stupid and humourless - eg Ms V Beckham.)
November 2nd, 2007 at 2:49 pm
And let us not forget that Coco Chanel herself her own designs all of her life and nothing else.
November 2nd, 2007 at 2:51 pm
i’m still giggling over lagerfeld turning himself into his own corpse. he is rather looking like a peruvian cave mummy.
i love queens who have unrealistic expectations of how women ’should’ look. **ahem** sistine chapel???? i’ve seen more convincing tranny hookers (they live in my ‘hood)
November 2nd, 2007 at 3:19 pm
The Manolo is of course very beautiful - I meant the Salieri quote to refer to his point about designers, not about the Manolo himself …. The idea!
November 2nd, 2007 at 3:24 pm
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November 2nd, 2007 at 4:15 pm
No offense, but I don’t think it’s entirely fair to dismiss the Manolo’s observation about his own beauty, or lack of it, with comforting words about real beauty being on the inside and bound to be recognized, and so forth.
However true that may be (and isn’t it pretty to think so?), the advantages of beauty and the price paid by those who are not beautiful — or, rather, those who fall outside the current range of aesthetic acceptability — are very real. The definition of physical beauty varies, obviously, from time to time and place to place. But the idea of physical beauty is a constant, and there is always a distinction drawn between those who have it and those who don’t.
These distinctions obviously weigh more heavily on women than men, but they are not to be offset, in either case, by various notions of “real” beauty, however valuable. They’re simply not the same thing.
November 2nd, 2007 at 4:33 pm
Hey, Salieri was quite the respected composer of his day–that movie employed considerable drammatic license!!
November 2nd, 2007 at 6:12 pm
I do not know the appearance of the Manolo, but I do know that he is kind, intelligent, and humorous, qualities that will outlast any perceived physical imperfections.
I asked my husband if writing that would make me a complete suck-up and he said yes, but I wrote it anyway.
November 3rd, 2007 at 11:55 am
Is it true that starved human bodies desperately grow extra hair in order to keep warm? That emaciated fashion models must fight increased facial hair? Or is this just a jealous rumor started by sweaty fat folks like me?
November 3rd, 2007 at 2:54 pm
Leenda: I don’t know about skinny models, but I remember reading somewhere that Stella McCartney is kinda furry, and was called ‘Wookie” by an ex.
November 4th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
I just realized that your friend Linda is author of an article I printed out and re-read every week or so since it was published in September. She is very, very good.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2162396,00.html
November 5th, 2007 at 4:11 pm
Leenda: One of anorexia’s late side effects can be the growth of fine hair on the face and body, known as “lanugo.” It’s the same hair that babies sport inside the womb, when they have not yet gained enough body fat to insulate themselves. It’s not thick and dark, but fine and feathery.