Everyone's talking about: V magazine's "Size issue"

Everywhere I turn today I am accosted with posts, pictures and articles about V magazines size issue. And it hasn't even been released yet!

Overall I have read postive posts and comments, but I have also noticed how many people spew hatred about having to look at pictures of someone who might be a little bit fatter than them: is it really that big a deal? But of course it is a big deal, if for no other reason than that we aren't used to it. Most magazines only feature what I refer to as "standard" catwalk models: tall, thin, flat chested. But (and I say this as a curvy girl myself) I can understand why.


When i'm flicking though a magazine or catalogue I rarely notice the models: i'm looking at the clothes. I don't know if this is normal or unusual, but I never know which model has appeared in which catwalk show, even if I was there. I don't look at the models at all, only what they're displaying. And androgenous women are the perfect clothes horses; boobs and hips are sexy and appealing and they get in the way when i'm focusing on looking at a dress!

Now if i'm reading an editorial it's a different story, and some clothes hang better on bigger women; so I think that magazines should have more versitility in the models they use. And I think it's nice to see a women who looks like you wearing a dress you quite like; hell, it might even encourage you to go out and buy the dress! But I don't think this should become a big "versus" argument: there is no war! I'm not sure why some articles are giving big ticks to plus sized models and then in turn, subliminally perhaps, putting a big cross next to the standard ones. "That's one for the big girls" "The big girls are taking over" Isn't there room for everyone?There certainly is in our society, where I wouldn't dream of pitching women against each other based on their height or weight (except, perhaps, if I was organising some kind of wrestling tournament) I understand the fashion world is different from the "real world" and not all shapes and sizes can or will be embraced, but I just can't believe that a few inches on a waistline can cause these kind of headlines.

I would also like to point of that the "Size Issue" featured plus sized and petite women. So why are we only reading stories about the plus sized models? I know it's a slow news week, but maybe some of the tabloids need to take a step back and get some perspective.


I won't be deciding how I feel about the success or otherwise of the issue until i've actually seen it: a few widely distributing pictures does not an opinion make!


Love, Tor xx

PS - I would also like to point out the only positive of all this debate: I seem to be having a girl crush on Crystal Renn!

Abercrombie and Bitch

This morning a friend sent me an interesting article about Abercrombie and Fitch, and more specifically the "eccentric" A&F CEO, Mike Jefferies. The article was written in 2006, before A&F opened their first UK store (or store outside of the states in fact) in London's Mayfair. I've never been impressed by or interested in the A&F all-American preppy look, either on myself or the attractive men that often wear it. It always struck me as bland and uninteresting. But by the end of the article my apathy had turned to blind hatred: A&F is now a brand I will never be able to view positively again.
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If we ignore the continual contraversy around their hooker tees for teens and suggestive thongs for 12 year olds, Abercrombie and Fitch attract media attention at every turn and they are not known for their openness or tolerance. Just last month I got a sick taste in my mouth when I read about Riam Dean who was banished to the stores stock room because her prosthetic arm didn't fit the A&F "look". The Abercrombie and Fitch look has always been clear; A&F don't hire shop assistants to work in their stores, they hire 'stock models'. The girls should be tall and thin, preferably blonde, and pretty. The guys should be muscle bound, tan, and have model-good looks. (As as aside, did you know that the company maintains a strictly enforced dress policy which includes rules on the length of women's fingernails and even advice on what colour of toenail polish is acceptable?)You aren't buying a top, we're told, but a lifestyle. And who can buy into that lifestyle? Well not everyone, that's for sure!

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I, for one, would surely be excluded. As would at least 29% of you, my dear readers (that I believe is the percentage of under 25s in the UK that are classed as overweight or heavier) Because as far as A&F CEO Jefferies is concerned, the unattractive, overweight, unpopular or otherwise undesirable teens can shop elsewhere. I'm sad to write that this is a direct quote: "In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids," he says. "Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don't belong [in our clothes], and they can't belong."

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Who know that a T-shirt had so much to do with determining whether your school experience was a happy or an unhappy one? And thank God so many schools in this country (my own included) insist we all wear uniforms!

Ironic that I keep writing about t shirts but none of their models will wear one, right?

They're only clothes at the end of the day, and I know we live in a world with bigger problems. But maybe one of those bigger problems is all the young people that feel they have to hide behind this bland uniform, blend in, preferably become a little bit invisible, to be popular or at least fit in? There are increasingly more and more of them. Even the topshop look which I so admire has become a uniform, with girls walking to the shops in matching leggings, checked shirts and studded pumps. Will these A&F followers, with their air of superiority become our future world leaders, doctors, kings of risk and industry? I can't help but feel that by never learning to think for themselves, instead immersing themselves in an easy to follow fashion-perfection driven culture, the answer is no. If you need someone to tell you what colour your toe nails can be, how can you ever make a decision that could change the world. And without those kind of people where will we be in 20 years time?

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Ever notice how its the kids at school that stood out, that didn't conform, that dressed how they wanted, who make it when school is over? I bet Bill Gates didn't wear an Abercrombie and Fitch t-shirt to blend in with the "in crowd. " I think everyone should dress how they want to. And if, on an independent whim you decide you want to wear an A&F muscle tee, then I might judge you a little but so be it. Good for you for making your own choices. Just don't wear it because you think you should, because all the "cool kids" are doing it. This same advice by the way goes for buying an "it" bag or louboutin heels: I cant count how many women I know that would sell their souls for the status that goes with that shiny red sole!

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My one fear is that writing this post isn't highlighting how important it is to dress how you like rather than conforming to a tribe uniform, but the opposite. Abercrombie and Fitch's marketing is driven by "uncool" people like me complaining about them; what is it they say about all publicity being good publicity, after all? I'm frightened that I just played right into their hands...

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...but what do I know. With the jacked up prices of their London store i'm quite sure I couldn't afford to dress in abercrombie even if I wanted to. Meanwhile, Mr Jefferies laughs all the way to his crammed full swiss bank!

Love Tor x

UPDATE: 10 minutes ago it was announced that Riem Dean has won her court case about Abercrombie and Fitch. She was awarded £8,000.

It's just the way it works...

DISCLAIMER: Don't read on if you've had a bad day, or for some other reason don't want to read me having a moan. Scroll down, find some awesome pictures instead!

Over the past couple of weeks I have been thinking more and more about my career (or lack thereof). I suppose it's because the bf and I are moving in together, and no longer living in student houses or flat shares is making me feel very much like a grown up.

I like my job. The people are great, I get to write and it's hardly taxing. But i've never hidden the fact that although its what I keep falling into, online corporate writing about, if i'm honest, things I know nothing about, is definitely not what I want to spend the rest of my life doing.

For as far back as I can remember i've wanted to be a journalist when I grew up (this of course depends on my ever growing up); at first I wanted to do hard hitting front line correspondence - a modern day Kate Adie, but for the past 5-6 years, i've known that what I really want to write about is fashion. And not just because I love clothes, but because proper fashion is so fast paced and innovative and exciting. WHo can see Hussein Chalayan's crazy interdisciplinary dresses, and not realise that fashion is about so much more than what looks pretty.

What i'm moaning about here then isn't the fashion industry. From my squinty view way over here outside the circle of power, I love it, despite all it's flaws which I love reading on the bloggosphere everyday. What i'm moaning about is how I find a tiny little hole in. See, I think i've done everything right; work on the student paper? Check. Take fashion related units at uni? Check. I've worked for OSOYOU and styleshake writing their blogs (short term contracts), I'm a member of the NUJ, and I love love love fashion!

But apparently, this isn't enough to get me an interview anywhere even vaguely fashion related. Unless I want to take 6 months out and work for no salary whatsoever (which in my case would mean eating gruel and living in a box to be affordable; definitely not an option!) then the answer is thank you, but no cigar!

I'd love to meet an ordinary girl like me who can afford to have no income for 6 months; how to people do it? Surely this can't be the only way in, or only girls called Miffy and Bunty would ever make it! I've been told a million times "that if you want to get into the industry you need grit, persistence, and determination". All those things I have. But £10 grand in the bank or better still, the capacity for starvation and homelessness? Well, the lines got to be drawn somewhere!

So what can I do? Well, keep knocking on those doors with my fingers crossed I suppose. I'm forsaking my summer holiday this year and spending my time off on a work experience placement instead. I've signed up to start a fashion course at night school in March (although mostly if i'm honest this is more for fun than career purposes)

And I guess I can stop feeling sorry for myself! Stop writing this little rant and toughen up. Oh, and try to block out the sound of all those doors slamming shut before they've even opened.

Lots of Love,

Tor (Who promises to be in a much more optimistic mood tomorrow!)