Open post of the week

Welcome to another Open post of the week where I give you some insight into what goes on at MM HQ and shake it all about. And then you talk about whatever you want. Let’s do it.

The balloons

Dove sent these balloons in and I found them on the roof above Rick’s desk so I snaffled them on my way out the door for the kids.

The 10 year old fashion It Girl

When I first heard about the 10 year old who had the fashion industry in a flutter, I rolled my eyes. When I saw her face, I gasped because yes, she is incredibly stunningly, almost shockingly beautiful. BUT SHE IS 10. And the fact that she is featuring in the world’s premiere fashion title – the ADULT version, not the kids or even the teen one – well, that’s a lot of shades of messed up, isnt’ it?

Here is an interesting opinion piece on the idea of 10 year olds modelling adult clothing that I came across in The Guardian (you can go here to read the full article):

The most shocking thing about having a 10-year-old model clothes for Vogue is not that the guest editor, the fashion designer Tom Ford, thought that dressing a pre-pubescent in heels, a cleavage dress and lipstick was a good idea, it’s that the clothes look rubbish, too.

Thylane Lena-Rose Blondeau has been featured in French Vogue, in a gold lamé Dynasty dress that makes her look 10 going on 45. Ten-year-olds look cute in anything. Except gold lamé, it turns out.

But then, Marc Jacobs uses a 13-year-old to model his dresses, and Miu Miu’s most recent campaign features a 14-year-old, and even though it’s well known that teenagers can wear anything – jeggings, a binliner, an almost criminally bad attitude – and still look good, they don’t: they look like 64-year-olds waiting for the bus.

It’s really rather gratifying, this. Because it’s not that designer clothes don’t look good on you. They don’t look good on anybody. If you can’t make a 13-year-old look pretty in a dress – and Ellie Fanning in the Marc Jacobs ad looks like the dowager of dowdy street – you’ve no business being in the game.

But then, it has long been said that fashion is a con-trick by largely gay male designers to make women look more like men: breastless, hipless, as skinny as a boy. And in this respect, pre-pubescence is merely the next logical step. These clothes aren’t meant to look good on you, they’re meant to look good on Justin Bieber. (And even he would struggle in that Marc Jacobs dress.)

Child models are absurd. The logic of anti-femininity taken to its ultimate extreme, an expression of the hatred fashion designers seem to possess towards the women they dress. Wear Tom Ford, or Marc Jacobs, or Miu Miu… but only if you really hate yourself that much.

The frockwatch

I’m having such a Sass and Bide moment. I’ve always thought the world of Heidi and Sarah-Jane both professionally and personally and they’re influencing my wardrobe in the biggest way. So this gallery is a complete personal indulgence……

The Can Of Worms

It was rather a surreal experience watching this show this week when the subject became…me. And the debate I accidentally ignited about sport and heroes. “Angry Anderson just said my name,” I said out loud at one point. And STILL I couldn’t comprehend it.

The poll statistics were interesting. I don’t republish them here with any sense of I TOLD YOU SO. More just to reassure myself that it’s not just me……

• The majority (71%) of Australians think we “hero worship” our sports stars too much, but 28% think we do not “hero worship” our sports stars too much, and 1% are undecided.
• Almost a third of Australians (32%) think sports stars deserve to be regarded as heroes, but the majority (68%) do not think they should be regarded in this way.
• While 71% of people say they would not count an Australian sporting triumph as one of the great moments in their life, 29% say they would do so.
• When asked if they would rather their child be an academic or a sports star, most (83%) Australians would rather their child be an academic, 12% would rather their child be a sports star and 5% are undecided.
• Two thirds (67%) of Australians think it is not un-Australian to dislike sport, 32% think it is un-Australian and 1% are undecided.
• Most people believe that sports stars should be held to higher, or the same moral standards as all Australians (21% higher, 75% the same) but 3% of people believe that it is acceptable for sports stars to behave badly.  One percent could not say.

Watch the video:

Mamamia on Sky News

So, we did episode 1 in series 2 of Mamamia and I’m so much happier with the format, the set….just everything. I even enjoyed myself. We’re still tweaking around the edges to get it even better. Our guests around the table this week are Caroline Overington (author, journo), Sarah Hanson Young (Greens senator), Nigel Marsh (author, advertising guru) and Sam de Brito (author and columnist).

And the Floor Interview (as it shall become known from here) is with Jessica Rudd. She’s talking about her Dad’s operation, Julia Gillard and her OWN newfound fame as an award-winning author. You know I love this girl and the interview is fun and revealing. Don’t miss it: Sky News Friday 9:15pm.

Here’s the promo:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQl9AzhkEro&version=3&hl=en_US]

Sick People and Pseudo Sick People

It occurred to me this week as I assessed various sick people and people pretending to be sick so as to get out of school, that 7am at our house is a lot like doing triage.

Roll on Spring.

Masterchef, The Renovators & The Block

I’m not committed to any reality show at the moment. And it seems that many others are feeling the same way with viewing numbers down for all of these shows. Well, TV programmers, why would you expect differently? How can you expect us to commit weeks and weeks – sometimes every night a week! – to getting involved with the characters and ‘journeys’? And that’s not even including Australia’s Next Top Model and Project Runway.

Seriously, it seems that all these shows are overlapping right now and competing for our attention. Why not space them? There are only so many storylines and ‘journeys’ we can keep track of simulaneously……..

Video of the week

This is amazing – take a look.

MOVE from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

Thanks John from Booktopia.

How’s your week going – anything on your mind?