As they do every year, the catalogs are jamming my mailbox, now in August, with their new fall fashions. I suppose I could stop them from being sent to me, but why? I rather enjoy thumbing through them while bored sitting on the throne,and every once in a while, I spot something I really like. It doesn't happen very often, but it does happen. I know women, and I am sure you do too, who go through catalogs, with an eye to see what they are going to add to their wardrobe.They order stuff all the time, and it's no big deal. I am not one of those women. I may see something I like, but I have a rule I go by. If I don't love it, I don't buy it. I have to absolutely love it,for the simple reason that I don't buy a lot of clothes. It is not one of my all consuming passions. So, whatever I do buy is going to have to last me for a long time,because I will wear my clothes until they are of no earthly use to anyone else on the planet,not even as a dust-rag! See, I am a tightwad. A penny-pincher. I find no delight in spending lots of money for silly stuff,that's other people's department, not mine. I suppose it all stems back to all those years of shopping for clothes, with and without Yon son, looking at everything available, and then buying everything for Yon son,and nothing for myself. I. Just. Couldn't. Do. It. And. I still can't. So, if I have a need, eventually, I will break down and fill it, but only after I have found that thing that I love. Because, if I don't love it, I won't wear it. Yet, just like anybody else, I must clothe my body. It's an absolute necessity.So far I have three catalogs, and I have been through all three,and I've got to tell you, pickings are slim, friend. I am not taken aback. I expected as much. This years best is so far down on my list of things that I would wear,it is practically non-existent. I have found one shirt, one gown and robe set, one or two pairs of shoes/boots, and one cape. Oh! But what a cape! I love capes! I have been needing a new coat for about five years, but every year I just gave up looking about the time the snow flew,and thought, well, maybe next year. And this cape is the right cut, color and fit, and even has faux fur trim on the hood and the sleeve openings...okay, it's not quite perfect, because the fur trim is grey, but slight imperfections can be overlooked, considering that I won't probably find another cape even close to this one for another five years! So, I have looked at it,and looked at it, and even shown it to Yon son, and he agrees with me that I couldn't find any other cape at such a price, so it's pretty much official, I am going to get that cape! Maybe. So, that is the up side of the catalogs for this season, now, let's look at the down side.
In another catalog, again, there was very little to which I was attracted. Most of the clothes offered, had sort of weeds here, and weeds there, with things dangling down making the item appear messy and unappealing. Now, don't misunderstand me, I am all for feminine ruffles and fru-fru, when it is done well. But what I am talking about was not done well. Zippers that go nowhere,and a top with gathering to one side,with ribbons hanging down from the gather really looks like a mistake, not a fashion technique! Likewise, a dress with a skirt that has eight or nine ruffles going horizontally around the skirt, beginning with a tightly banded waist, with multiple colors, and then goes down from brown to gold to brown to tan and orange and turquoise,and then repeating the tan with ball-fringe on it, and ending in dark brown does not look festive to me, it looks like somebody couldn't make up their mind what color to make the skirt! Or else, they had a lot of stuff left over and decided to use it all up this way. What a mess! But, what really upset me greatly was in about the middle of the catalog, where they ran this piece about three make-overs.They took three women of their employees,and did what they called fall fashion updates. Complete with before and after pictures.To begin with, they looked okay. Not fashion plates by any means, but just normal looking ladies, wearing pants or jeans, and for the most part there wasn't a thing wrong with their looks.The way they were dressed was unremarkable, but there were no glaring flaws. One was average,and the other two were a bit overweight, but as I say, nothing glaring about any of them. The one lady they called Bonnie said she would like a makeover so she would have " that special dress for her up-coming son's wedding day" and in addition, she wanted to show off her recent weight loss,and find a look that "made her feel and look younger." The other two ladies had similar desires. On the flip side of the page, the results were shown in a picture with all three ladies grouped together,and when I saw what they had done to Bonnie, my heart just sank. They had fiddled with her hair,and the resultant style was worse than what she had started out with.She began with fluffy hair,and nice shiny bangs. What she ended up with was no bangs at all, and a drab lank nothing of a style that robbed her of her original cuteness.Gone were the boots, jeans and long shirt, and they had put her into one of those sleeveless black dresses with huge oddly colored flowers all over it, and a hemline that was up and down all over, as though it had been cut with a pair of enormous pinking sheers,and the bottom of the skirt hung in long pointy wisps, black here, pink and olive and grey there, all the way around. In addition, the hem(?) hit her about mid- calf. On the top part of her body, they had slung an ocher colored shrug that in no way matched her dress. My eyes stung taking in the sight. That poor woman. Instead of putting her in a lovely long dress that went nearly to the floor, or at least in a nice suit that had a straight hemline just at the knee, so she could show off her waist and the nice part of her legs, they put her in a horror that revealed only the worst part of her legs, large swollen ankles,and then stuck her feet into shoes that looked as though they had gone through a pencil sharpener! The overall effect was pitiful. Just pitiful. La pathetic. Now, the other two women faired well. They both had long pants on,and looked alright, but again, nothing that justified two days worth of styling tips and wardrobe changes. What slays me about the whole thing is, you would think that they would do their very best to make all three of those women to come out of this with a really smashing look,and go out of their way to make Bonnie look her very best. What they did was to take her least attractive points, and put them on display to the Nth degree,and when one sees that picture, that is all anyone can see!When I saw what they had done to her, I just sat there, staring, wondering why anyone would do this. With all the clothing and so forth at their disposal, why didn't someone step in, and find Bonnie a nicer outfit, rather than allow her to come off as some sort of ragamuffin? That style did not suit her, as anyone who sees this picture would know, so why? And then, it hit me. On that full page picture, next to each figure was the information of where to find each component of their outfits. The dress, the shrug and the shoes, and what page they were on. This then, was the whole purpose of their magnanimous gesture. Not to do something generous and kind for the girls involved, but just to put the clothes the company wanted to push on live people, to sell that stuff! Well, I'd say it jolly well back fired on them, then, didn't it? The picture proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that they had no intention from the very beginning to dress those women,and do make-up and hair according to the individuals body type, coloring and basic style. No! Under the pretense of a make-over, they used those women,and whomever did the makeovers did a very poor job, because they didn't know what they were doing! There were three outfits that needed filling,and they just threw the clothes at them, had someone else mess with their hair,and put some make-up on them,and called it good.
I have to give poor Bonnie credit though. If she felt the butt of a really mean joke,she still had the confidence to smile for the camera,head up, shoulders back, and appeared totally pleased with what they had done to her, God bless her.That takes character, and bravery.
Somebody give that girl an Oscar!
OUI?
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