Those in the know have been curling their lips at fascinators for years already, of course. But with the twin evils of Aintree and Ascot close at hand – not to mention wedding season gathering pace – it’s a relief to be able to speak it aloud. The fascinator is dead; long live headgear that doesn’t look like you made it at home with a glue-gun
- Harriet Walker, ‘The fascinator is dead…long live proper hats’
The Spanish are really upset about their kits - and with that … thing they have to wear, we can understand them. Are you happy about your nation’s sartorial choice? Do you think it represent your country well?
[Above: Kits for Russia, USA, UK, Brazil, France]
Photographs: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images for adidas; Ralph Lauren/AP; Misha Japaridze/AP; Cameron Spencer/Getty Images; Sergio Moraes/Reuters; Charles Platiau/Reuters
Most people don’t look like Rihanna, which means that most people are going to be utterly vanquished when they attempt body-to-fabric combat with a Rihanna-style ensemble.
Sarah Ditum on Rhianna’s new fashion line for River Island
Photograph: Neil Lupin/Redferns
I’ll declare my own interest right here at the start and admit that, like the vast majority of people, I find youthful looks appealing. My husband, whom I have been with since he was 23, hits 40 this year and still often gets ID’d when he buys alcohol. But there’s a big difference between saying that youthfulness is sexually attractive and saying that babyhood is. Under the headline “Is This the Sexiest Ever Face?”, a headshot of the pretty model Karlie Kloss (19 years old – modelling since the age of 13) was analysed feature by feature with reference to a book by Robin Dunbar, called The Science of Love and Betrayal. Alongside the usual do-this-or-you’ll-die-a-spinster must-haves like fine brows and a delicate jaw, the magazine said: “For maximum sex appeal, your eyes should be small and be positioned halfway down your face (like a baby’s – don’t ask) as a way of indicating youth and fertility. Think Kate Moss, whose low-set eyes sit on a par with the tips of her ears.” A few flicks on, a five-age beauty feature entitled “Oh, Baby!” imparts the following wisdom (under a photo of the model-of-the-moment, Lindsey Wixson, who is 18, looks closer to eight and began modelling at 15): “Spring’s most flattering beauty trends are inspired by the first flushes of youth – think virgin hair, cherubic cheeks and plump, peachy skin”.
Illustration: David Foldvari
Vidal Sassoon and the politics of hair
At the age of 17, Vidal Sassoon was active in anti-fascist work in his local East End of London. Working against the blackshirt thugs who would march through his neighbourhood, the young Sassoon was given a bruise or two. Talking about his activities on Desert Island Discs, he said: “After the Holocaust, no one was going to put up with it. ‘Never again’ was the theme. Never again.” He also went on to fight in the Arab-Israeli war in 1948, prompting a Daily Telegraph writer to call him an “anti-fascist warrior-hairdresser”.
Photograph: Ronald Dumont/Getty Images
Emer O’Toole wrote a tongue in cheek Q&A about her I-am-not-shaving experiment.
Here goes:
I have conducted an 18-month experiment in body hair on your behalf and will now answer the questions people most commonly proffer when confronted with my prodigious manes of untamed womanhood.
Don’t men find you physically repulsive?
At first this was a problem. But then I starved myself to a skeletal size, had lumps of silicon surgically implanted into my chest and permanently tattooed black lines around my eyes.
Just joking. The man I was going out with when the experiment began was a little apprehensive when I unveiled my innovative grooming plans, but when I actually grew the hair out he was proud of me. One evening, friends of ours asked him a variation of the above question, and he said: “If I was a girl, I wouldn’t shave my legs.” Because he is awesome. Then, in a completely un-hair-related twist, we broke up. So I did what single girls in London do, and had ALL the boyfriends. None of them minded (some of them liked it). And then one of the boyfriends turned out to be completely amazing so I made him the only boyfriend. He is also proud of me.
Don’t you smell?
I smell exactly the same as I did before – a bit like soap after showering, and a bit like Christmas cake first thing in the morning.
Don’t people point and laugh at you in public?
Yes. Sometimes people do look at you as if it is the 19th century and they have paid a ha’penny to attend a freak-show, saying: “Ha ha ha. Look at the hairy lady – just like Julia Roberts that time shelost the plot.” Note to tube users: if you whisper and giggle behind your hand while staring straight at a fellow passenger, she will probably know that you are talking about her. For a hand is not a massive opaque screen. It is a hand.
Randomers point and laugh at my legs and armpits in public sometimes. But the problem isn’t my legs or armpits.
Don’t small children run when they see you, fearing you will lure them to your gingerbread house?
A scene from my life:
Small child: Why do you have hair under your arms?
Me: Because when girls and boys grow up into women and men they grow hair under their arms.
Small child: My mum doesn’t have hair under her arms.
Me: She shaves it off.
Small child: She doesn’t.
Me: She does. Ask her.
Small child: Mum, do you?
Mother of small child: Yes.
Small child: Why?
Exactly, small child. Exactly.
Sorry chaps, Abercrombie & Fitch simply doesn’t fit Savile Row
‘The Row has been the heartland of English bespoke tailoring for 200 years. This is not the place for T-shirts and cargo pants.’
Resident chap, Mr Gustav Temple, argues that the US brand shouldn’t get a store on the famous London street (and do check his really classy byline picture. What a guy!).
In ‘Dieting brides v the custom-fitted tyrant of the wedding dress,’ Sarah Ditum discusses the extreme dieting measures many take in the run up to their big day. She says, “a wedding is just one day in a relationship – one day that’s heavy enough with symbolism to make the bride’s weight an irrelevance”.
• Read more here
Photograph: Lewis Whyld/AP
I was first scouted at the age of 14 by one of the world’s most prestigious model agencies. I was told that my life had now changed and had to be perfect: bikini waxes, leg waxes, lots of water, perfect skin and having to stay slim were all on the agenda. I had just about started my period by then. When I put on seven pounds to become a whopping seven and a half stone (105 lbs), it was commented on before I’d made it halfway through the office.
I did my first topless shoot a year later for a well-known photographer, and they were photographs that oozed sex. They will tell you that it wouldn’t happen in the UK, that it’s illegal; I would ask you not to be naive. My father shuddered and wept when he saw them in my model book by accident. He wanted nothing to do with it ever again. I quit modelling at 18 and went to university, tired of seeing my 15 and 16-year-old colleagues on Vogue front pages looking like they were all about sex, while overhearing men saying things I couldn’t repeat about girls I knew to be still awkward about kissing boys.
Anonymous, who replied to our call to readers on the hypersexualisation of girls
A French report has issued guidelines calling for a ban on “mini-miss” beauty pageants and children’s lingerie to combat the “hyper-sexualisation” of children. This follows the international controversy that French Vogue sparked when it published pictures of a 10 year old model in make up and adult clothes.
• We’re asking readers for their thoughts on the topic here.
• A reader sent us a link to this 30 mns Canadian documentary about young girls and how they are hyper-sexualised. It is very, very good.
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