The Fall of Fabric

There’s nothing better than beautifully draped fabric. It flatters a woman’s body like nothing else can. Also, is that a baby bump under Rachel Zoe’s gorgeous black dress? I hope so – I just adore her and ‘Rog’!

Source

Jessica Biel's Not-So-Killer Bod

About three weeks ago, my friend BBM'd me about a story in Glamour pertaining to Jessica Beil. The article, among other achievements, celebrates Biel's athletic physic and goes into some detail as to how she maintains it. My remarkable clever friends writes, "A policy of not eating (and I quote directly) 'bread, dairy, sugar, salt and not a lot of meat' is a miserable and dangerous one, which ought not to be published in even a vaguely commendable light". Of course she is right. Ms Biel, for all her admirable self-control around all yummy-tasting foods, is recommending that a good body comes at the price of a healthy diet. Of course, dieting is about denying ourselves certain things, but it is NOT about depriving oneself of several major food groups. My MENSA-brained friend closes with the cutting, and kick-ass, remarks: "Your front cover promises details of how Jessica gets her 'killer' bod; I wish at the very least that these extreme measures had been covered in a way that showed Glamour's aspirational readers that some things come at too high a cost". Some things come at TOO high a cost.

Today, Jezebel proved that sometimes the cost aren't worth a thing. Glamour published photographs of Jessica wherein the airbrushing was unfinished.

If anything were to drive home the point that there is no such thing as bodily perfection (well, not without some state-of-the-art software, and a steady hand), and that any attempt to be Jessica Biel doesn't actually get the body you see in Glamour, it is this image. While Glamour preaches about Jess' "killer" bod, the photo editors are busy at work, tinkering with the very body we are all supposed to want. It opened my eyes to the hypocrisy of 'glossy mags' even more than ever. Don't get me wrong, I still love them (that is my very own hypocricy), but in my minds eye I will try extremely hard to seperate the reality from the fiction, i.e. what is achievable through diet and exercise, and what is achievable only with the help of a MacBook.

In other news, I recently took up yoga and it is make me love my body in ways I never have before (even though my body is pleading with me to stop the torture!). THAT is the feeling we should all strive for in the healthiest possible way - not the unobtainable dream of Jessica Biel's body, especially when Ms Biel herself isn't even seeing that in the mirror...

Body Inc.

I am fascinated by tattoos. I get voyeuristic about those I spot on shop assistants, or classmates. It’s always intriguing when someone decides to commit to something on their body. When I decided that I wanted one of my own, I couldn’t ignore the feeling. It was like a compulsion. There was an article in Vogue (March 2009), which voiced the same feelings – once you have it in mind, there’s no escaping it.

I love my tattoo, and I love looking at other peoples. The stories behind them are always intriguing… What we choose to put on our bodies says a lot about us. I saw this one on Jayde from The Hills (um, the Playmate!) and I thought it was a ridiculous oxymoron to have 'respect' tattooed on her bikini line!

But then I also saw this of a father's two little girls names - sweet!

I don't often like bigger tattoos, preferring the smaller, more intimate option. However, this I just love for the busted cage - the birds fly away are stunning.

Source: Jayde, daughters, birds

I love models with tattoos, too. I don’t like my models as blank canvases! It gives life to the ‘living mannequin’ look!

Lily Donaldson appears (aptly) on the cover of the aforementioned Vogue, with a tattoo of her mother and sisters names in her own (very cool) handwriting.

Freja Beha Erichsen’s tattoos are now more famous than her gorgeous face! She has many, including one reading ‘redemption’ on her inner arm. The girl in the chair before I got my tattoo also got ‘redemption’, which considering she looked about 16 years old was puzzling – needing redemption already? A little alarming…

'this world tonight is mine'

'Float'

Does the idea of getting a tattoo on the neck give anyone else the heeby-geebies?

'This too shall pass'

I really like Nicole Trunfio’s little coat hanger – what a cool nod to her career!

Tattoos to me are an opportunity to express something in words or images… I never understood why people would choose to scar themselves, until I felt the urge myself. There’s no sense in a tattoo for the sake of a tattoo unless there’s some aesthetic value in it – but I certainly enjoy them, and love the stories they tell…

Plastically Perfect

In a sea of stories about celebrities disfiguring themselves with surgical procedures designed to reduce, realign and resurrect, Heidi Montag’s stood out to me.

The Hill is one of my many guilty pleasure shows (naturally, I stopped watching after LC left. Duh!) and, like the rest of the viewership, I was not a fan of Heidi. She is portrayed as the most gullible, starry-eyed, platinum-headed collection of cells (even by LA standards), but one always felt that she was probably alright deep down.

I can’t explain why this before-and-after effected me so much, perhaps because her already-fake figure was, even then, starting to look unrealistic, or perhaps it’s the super-stretched, non-expression in the 'after' shot, like a bemused Fembot whose hard drive has crashed. Either way, it seems to represent to me the worst thing about a society that is able to morph its physique to attempt to achieve ‘perfection’.

Of course, it’s not surprising that in a world which holds this as the gold standard of aesthetic perfection…

…that people are always, and WILL ALWAYS, be dissatisfied with their bodies, but there is so much sadness in the decision to ‘perfect’ oneself this way.

Heidi might want to be Barbie, but if we can train ourselves not to respond positively to these ‘transformation’ stories, and rather be content to going to the gym more often, or buying new lipstick, then maybe we can halt mentality that unless Hugh Hefner wants to fall asleep on top of you you’re somehow wrong.

Body Beautiful

A couple of images to capture the beauty and elegance of what God (or whoever!) gave every woman...

Sketch by Kyle T. Webster The Daily Figure