ff

with all the fashioooon on here these days, and with the fall runways rolling out, it is time again to give a little thought to this industry's not-so-goods.

it can be oh so hard for me, sometimes, to reconcile my love of fashion and my love of feminism. i try as best i can to focus on the clothes as art - art that you put ON yourself, which i think may be the way i have best been able to deal with art for the last few years. i try to focus on the image's composition, the fact that awkwardness and bravery are displayed.

but, of course, there's also all the dumb we've talked about before, and before, and before. these emaciated, strange creatures we worship. giraffe-alien-clotheshangers. children dressed up like adults - and all of the problems that come from wrapping kids up in a really grown-up business. the fact that a very small few anomaly-humans who are 6'2" and skinny like saplings have set the bar for so many women/girls to destroy themselves trying to be something so near impossible.

(there are, too, issues of sustainability, toxicity, the conditions in which our fast-fashion-consumerist-habits are created and maintained... but i can't think about all the things all of the time, so for now i leave most of that to the oh-so-dedicated sarah jay whom i know will save the world, or at least me.)

being a feminist-fashion-face is so important to me, because it keeps me level to be listening to the side that says 'hey, whoa, what, careful...' as well as the side that says 'pretty pretty fierce pretty'. it is one of the things that drives my belief that feminism is so so currently necessary, and that we haven't won yet despite the first and second wave. because there are still people who are so unaware of the scary-craziness of the images that we're constantly constantly seeing that they will be surprised at reading this pieces:

* globe and mail's amy verner discusses the issue of the 'thigh gap'.

* and then this is just an awesome thing making fun of fashion mini-films. cause YAY!

* and then this happiest of fashioney-newses: a lingerie line designed by and for trans women.

* and, finally, of course, the perpetual scandal-non-scandal that is perv-extraordinaire terry richardson. (i mean it is 3 years later, and these conversations still come and go and this man still gets a shit-tonne of work in the biz...)

so there it is, folks. your reminder to be thoughtful and considerate and critical while enjoying the fall fashions that be blowin' up this blorg. as i'm sure you always are. cause you're super-champs.

happy friday, real-sized models!