#2013 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show Review

[sgiandubh]

@outlanderskin :"For those who have doubts: just research a little about Caitríona's dating history. See how she treated Dave and James and how she talked about them in interviews. See how she wrote about the Irish boyfriend she had in Paris in that article. Compare all of this to the impersonal way she treats or talks about Tony. Bingo🙃"

Good point 👌

Dear Good Point Anon,

You know, it's really serendipitous, as I have just finished a weeklong deep dive in very, very old press articles on (or at least mentioning) S and C, who clearly had a life before OL, thinking it would be nice to put some of my archive work skills to good service.

I think @outlanderskin was referring to C's New York Times article I reviewed and analyzed last summer, but I just found way better: a very long report in the Irish Independent's Sunday issue of July 11, 2004, focused on the next generation of Irish supermodels. Of which there could be only one, at that time: C, who dominates Roxanne Parker's 'Through Thick and Thin".

I am sorry, there is no link available to my knowledge, so we'll have to work with these very poor xerox scans:

I took the liberty of generously using my dreaded highlighter and, for the people who need to translate this post with Google, I am now taking my time to type what I find damn interesting in this almost twenty-year old article:

'If Ireland ever has a hope of having its own supermodel, then Caitriona Balfe is it. Sitting in the Pink Pony Café on Ludlow Street in New York, Caitriona swirls a wad of bread into her carrot and coriander soup while informing me that her musician boyfriend just brought her a breakfast-in-bed of cream eclairs and coffee a little over an hour ago. But that doesn't stop Caitriona from finishing her lunch and chasing it with a large cocoa-dusted cappuccino. Ebony-tressed and ivory-skinned, Caitriona clip-clops down the cobbled street after we leave the cafe, heading towards her apartment in Chinatown with Dave Mailone (sic!), the boyfriend, in tow.'

This reads, in 2024, like an interview with a more benevolent C clone from a totally different planet, indeed. A young, carefree, in love and hysterically funny C, who apparently had no problem heavily dishing out happy tidbits of her private life to her home country's press. A C also very much reminiscing anyone with a brain of the 2013-2018 bantering C, as this quote shows:

Again, you'll have to indulge me retyping it, Anon (tedious, I know - but helpful). She is remembering her real breakthrough, in November 2002, at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, in New York:

That was the most I've ever been paid for a show. I've got 18,000 euros for one day's work! They made me get a spray tan before the show, and I was still the whitest and the least well-endowed girl in the entire show! So what did she have to wear on the big day? `Not a whole lot! I think I described my outfit on the day as something Wilma Flintstone would wear on her honeymoon night. There wasn't a whole lot to it and it had bits of fur hanging off it.'

And, for good measure, we even have a (admittedly, awful) picture with the season's fiancé, with whom things did not end well:

I know, it looks like a Pravda pic, circa 1957 and I am honestly sorry. But it's still very clear. And, which is more important, very eloquent.

Anon and reader, you draw your own conclusions on this. I know where I stand. The only guy C has similar pics taken with and released in the press or on social media is the peasant some love to bash every single day in here. Their problem, not mine.

Yes, of course Mordor will yell and hiss. Of course they will throw rotten tomatoes at the blunt knife and scream THIS IS OLD. But hey, do you have any better than this poor (but oh, so endearingly authentic) picture or than any given S&C pic before the fucking EFH and IFH, when she gradually started to turn into today's Reclusive, Restrained and Rarefied Greta Garbo wannabe?

Oh, and please: don't give me the 'he's shy' or the paperwork crap again. Her public persona has drastically changed, and not for the better. It's plain to see and there are reasons for this.

Who's to blame? This question is so wrong, in so many ways.

The question should be 'what's to blame?'

I'll stop here, Anon and I hope it was somewhat useful. Thank you for dropping by.

[siyasharmaposts]

WEEK 6: Slow Fashion Movement and Social Media Influencers

About 20 years ago, clothes shopping used to be done on an infrequently basis, something that occurred only during seasonal change or around holidays. Fast forward to today, the scenario has completely changed. Clothes shopping has become a very frequent hobby, since the clothes are now cheaper and trend cycles sped up (Rauturier, 2022). ‘Fast Fashion’ is the term to describe today’s fashion industries. Fast fashion refers to cheap, stylish and mass produced clothes that are highly harmful for the environment. Because of the cheap prices and new trends and styles emerging every other day, people have started dumping their old clothes just so they can buy clothes from different brand’s latest collections. In addition to environmental issues, fast fashion industries are also responsible for their unethical behaviour like providing unsafe work environment for workers whose wages are below the poverty line and are exposed to harmful chemicals used in textile production. Common fast fashion brands include Zara, H&M, Mango, Shein, UNIQLO, Victoria’s Secret and many other (DiLonardo, 2022). In 2013, the world finally came across the bitter truth of fast fashion industries when the Rana Plaza clothing manufacturing complex in Bangladesh collapsed and killed over 1,000 workers (Rauturier, 2022). Incidents like these made people question the worth of fast fashion products. People are now showing concern regarding the environment and thus started a Slow Fashion Movement. It represents the urgent need to opt for sustainable methods, changes in the ethical values in the fashion industry and to focus on more durable products. A study developed in Finland in 2009 revealed that people who truly support slow fashion place higher values to ethics and planet earth instead of physical appearance and ongoing trends (Domingos, Vale & Faria, 2022).

I have been following fashion influencer Marina Testino for a very long time, she is very active on her Instagram to bring light to the issue of fast fashion and providing solutions. She is not just a model or a fashion influencer but is one of the most popular sustainable fashion advocates. She is trying to normalise repeating outfits and spread awareness that same outfits can be worn many times and in many seasons. She has also undertaken a project where every Friday she shares sustainable fashion brands on her social media. Fast fashion might have become a trend in the past few years, but now people are becoming more aware and informed about sustainability. There has been a shift from fast fashion to slow fashion brands which forced some brands in fast fashion industries to take effective steps in order to be more sustainable and environmental friendly. Although, a few brands haven’t been completely sustainable as they claim to be. As per the reports, 59% of green claims by European and UK fashion brands are misleading and higher chances of greenwashing (Rauturier, 2022). To support sustainability and slow fashion movement, a change in mindset is required since fashion brands cannot be totally trusted.

References

DiLonardo, M 2022, What is Fast Fashion - and Why Is It a Problem?, treehugger.com, viewed 12 April 2023, https://www.treehugger.com/fast-fashion-environmental-ethical-issues-4869800

Domingos, M, Vale V & Faria, S 2022, Slow Fashion Consumer Behaviour: A Literature Review, viewed 12 April 2023, file:///var/mobile/Library/SMS/Attachments/22/02/2A5432B4-4E7B-49BA-85E4-91322EC16DF1/Domingos+Slow+Fashion+literature+review.pdf

Rauturier, S 2022, Greenwashing Examples: 8 Notorious Fast Fashion Claims and Campaigns, goodonyou.eco, viewed 12 April 2023, https://goodonyou.eco/greenwashing-examples/

Rauturier, S 2022, What Is Fast Fashion and Why Is It So Bad?, goodonyou.eco, viewed 12 April 2023, https://goodonyou.eco/what-is-fast-fashion/