ADVANCED STYLE.....plus FILM TRAILER!~

I'm really excited about the Advanced Style book that just came out last week. I love that women in their 70s and (way) older are being taken seriously as fashion innovators. The book and coming film aren't not kitsch or condescending, it's an actual celebration of personal style (and of the persons behind the style). These women look avant garde, they look completely modern. It's not pearls and wool pencil skirts or houndstooth collarless fitted jackets, necessarily. It's got major elements of DIY--the film trailer features a woman who fashions her own false eyelashes, another who does her own sewing despite arthritis.

Granny fashion has been having a moment since about the mid nineties. Enid Coleslaw's 'old lady fashion', the endless moment of the granny boot, cat's eye glasses, pencil skirts, fall capes, ladylike heels, depression era dresses, grey and mauve hair from last season--many times these things signify counterculture awareness, a nod to pin-up style, rockabilly, Harold and Maude, Little Edie from Grey Gardens....on and on it goes. The look is impeccable, meticulous and hip at the same time. The difference is that 'Advanced Style' as introduced to us by Ari Seth Cohen and his model muses is actually worn by the elderly.

Why is it so wonderful to see? Why do I feel happy and even reassured by the denizens of advanced style? I think it's because it's about hope, beauty and aesthetics, three things there are way too little of. I stopped reading fashion blogsfor a while because it felt like an DIY alternative to mainstream fashion publications--but the exclusivity is still palpable in lots of popular blogs. You get the sense that everyone got the same notes for the each season--everyone in fishtail braids, or straw boaters, or the same muted greys, muted peach, the same soft focus pictures of skinny unsmiling young white girls.

Things like Advanced Style, fatshion blogs, Tavi Gevinson's blog--are the antidote to all that. There is a core element of true expression there--of using clothes to say something about yourself or your obsessions. These are places where aesthetics are valued as ethics, and the ethics are punk rock, DIY, a celebration of one's self.

And that is where Advanced Style will step in and blow ya mind--these women are not up for the competition. They are dressing for themselves, they are proud of looking so bangin'--and they are (possibly older than) your grandparents! I like that many of the women featured on the site are totally iconoclastic, the 'rule book' doesn't apply to them because the rule book the rest of us are being sold ages you out after about age 35! Like other fashion rebels (fatshion bloggers for example), they have liberated themselves from the tyranny of commercial fashion.

They've also honed their style over many years, it's unlikely that any of these women are new to fashion and style aspirations. What makes them so remarkable is they dare to express the narcissism of the truly stylish--you have to really like yourself to go to this much effort, don't you? In the end I think advanced style is so awesome for the simple reason that these women do not seem to give a fuck. Existing in a blissful world free from the oppressive male gaze (I'm being a little tongue in cheek here), they are free to create a sartorial language and expression that is totally unique to them. This type of expressive fashion requires commitment, time, an eye for detail. In a time where juicy couture sweats and flip flops are considered appropriate clothes for public view, it's totally refreshing to see people put the effort in. And to put the effort in for the love of fashion, the love of clothes, the need to create a unique self expression, to stand out. It cheers me, it truly does.

Do you think fashion blogs have been co-opted? What's your favourite source of insane eye-style-candy?

SATC vs Girls

Are both of these shows just an effort to chase the high of the Golden Girls? I was a huge Golden Girls fan; I remember spending months at home watching the show in reruns twice a day; I was off school recovering from surgery and I distinctly remember my father saying to me "You can't live your life according to when the Golden Girls are on!". (Other TV obsessions included "Twin Peaks", "Thirtysomething", "Murder She Wrote" and "Northern Exposure"--clearly it was a simpler time).
For me, Golden Girls, SATC and Girls exist in some hazy guilty-type pleasure zone. Part of it is, I think, the sheer pleasure of watching women act like women on TV. By that I mean: within the context of intimate relationships with other women. Otherwise known as "friendship". The shows are all different, clearly. And all amazing, also clearly. All are products of a particular time and place, and reflect a certain aspect of a white, upper middle class life.

(I'm still a little bummed about the criticisms of Girls--and I guess SATC too to some degree--for it's lack of characters of colour. I'm more bummed about the criticism than I am about the lack of POCs in the show. I think it's bs that shows reflecting or catering to a modern female audience are expected to be all things to all marginalized demographics. This seems like a clear product of not having enough fucking female-focussed or feminist shows to begin with.)

There have not been a tonne of great shows pitched to women over the past 50 years. In 10 seconds off the top of my head I can think of MTM, Rhoda, My So Called Life, Maude, Kate and Allie, One Day at a Time: 'my' shows are the aforementioned. For whatever reason, I like and relate to them. I think all three are feminist; if you don't agree I'd probably think you're just wrong. I think there is some quality of the interaction that felt real to me; or that felt familiar to me in a way that felt good.

I was raised in a home culture that was sort of a matriarchy. Outside of my nuclear family we had relatives in Ottawa and Montreal; all older women (my mom's mother and aunts primarily); and all super funny. From age 5 until my 20s I was exposed to women talking, women laughing, women sitting at the kitchen table whenever time permitted; smoking and drinking coffee and talking about everything from politics to gossip. Basically when I think about having a really good conversation with someone; in my life that person has been a woman; often a relative/sister/mom/cousin/aunt; often a friend, but usually a woman. I just feel like the quality of the conversation and humour are different with women. Of course there are rare male exceptions and I have had very affecting and important (to me) friendships with men. It just hasn't been the norm. I guess in some way; GG felt like home to me. Not sure how else to explain my obsession with in from age 15-through....well, now. It's also fucking funny. It's well written. Even the dumb stuff is awesome (the fashion; some of the silly premises etc). 

Ok, SATC. I hate that I feel a little sheepish about loving this show so much. There is truly, so much to love here! The writing was amazing, it blazed a trail in it's portrayal of women talking about sex; engaging in sex and; oh yeah relationships! The friendship between the women is written beautifully. THIS bunch of cosmo swilling, funny women is exactly what you and your friends feel like when you're shooting the shit on a night out (or in or whatever). The clothes are the fucking bomb, so shut up if you have some problem with the show sartorially. I feel like maybe the second film jumped the shark on this show and retroactively caused the show to stink or something? Don't get me wrong, I loved the second film too! I will probably agree with every criticism that could be levelled against it; and still love it. My partner cemented our bond by buying me every season and both films on dvd. He's never seen the show; I know he would hate it. It might be one of those shows that heterosexual men just don't get the decoder ring for. Or else it's straight up misogyny that prevents men from liking it. Just kidding! It strikes me as maybe the MOST quintessentially "women's" shows (well, say 'scripted' women's shows); and with that in mind I'm just really stoked that it's also so likeable. I may have to go watch all the episodes again soon. 

Oh where was I? Yes, it's RELATABLE. It's funny. It makes promiscuous sex seem....fun! adventurous! Not lousy and regrettable; and allows watchers to reframe their own (lousy, regrettable) sex that way. Thanks SATC, I love you. I don't give a shit about all the haters who say GG and SATC became the same show, I say GOOD because they're both fucking awesome!