I was going to write a review on a film: Timothy Greenfield-Sanders’s documentary “About Face: The Supermodels, Then and Now.”
One problem. I haven't seen it.
I do try (pretty much) to avoid writing on subjects about which I know nothing as opposed to pontificating at length on them verbally.
So I'll write a review on a review: When Beauty Fades by the New York Times' Ruth La Ferla. Ms. La Ferla is an expert on beauty. At least one kind of beauty – the physical sort that anyone with a working eyeball can recognize. But what does she know about the way beauty ages and how wide are her sympathies on the subject? Especially in her business where wrinkles are not seen as beauty marks?
In her review of Mr. Greenfield-Sanders’s film Ms. La Ferla reports that Isabella Rossellini complains that she “is not invited to the ‘A’ parties any more” and comments that she then “erupted into peals of laughter touched with rue”. Is the “rue” Ms. La Ferla hears an editorial opinion based on misinterpretation? Maybe not, but I didn’t hear any empathy for Ms. Rossellini’s regret.
The truth is that even if you’ve had a beauty-based career, if you trust your identity and self-worth to the kind of people that invite you to those kinds of parties you have put your fine self in the wrong hands.
Fashion is big business and its modeling icons can become “super” in their mid-teens (sometimes running a gauntlet through low-life types who abuse children) but it’s a business that lives in the moment and if those moments are all the Supers will ever have there’s likely to be a hard fall into supernova at the end of the runway.
The business needs -- we all need -- an updated perspective.
There’s a whole new generation coming on the scene and they’re going to force their own definition of beauty and fashion. We’re going to be yanked up to speed with the rest of the world. Wrinkles, in many societies, are seen as lines that mark the division between those who’ve gained the wisdom that comes with experience and those who haven't. And wisdom -- along with a lot of other remarkable things -- shines with its own kind of beauty and it comes from beyond the depth of skin.
Any woman who gathers that wisdom and cultivates those other alluring traits can age gracefully. And beautifully. And that beauty, Ms. La Ferla, doesn’t fade.
It evolves.
We need to get past the surface, look deeper and find the things there that are worth admiring. It’s not an impossible mission. In fact it’s become obvious to some of us. Even a few in the fashion business.
One problem. I haven't seen it.
I do try (pretty much) to avoid writing on subjects about which I know nothing as opposed to pontificating at length on them verbally.
So I'll write a review on a review: When Beauty Fades by the New York Times' Ruth La Ferla. Ms. La Ferla is an expert on beauty. At least one kind of beauty – the physical sort that anyone with a working eyeball can recognize. But what does she know about the way beauty ages and how wide are her sympathies on the subject? Especially in her business where wrinkles are not seen as beauty marks?
In her review of Mr. Greenfield-Sanders’s film Ms. La Ferla reports that Isabella Rossellini complains that she “is not invited to the ‘A’ parties any more” and comments that she then “erupted into peals of laughter touched with rue”. Is the “rue” Ms. La Ferla hears an editorial opinion based on misinterpretation? Maybe not, but I didn’t hear any empathy for Ms. Rossellini’s regret.
The truth is that even if you’ve had a beauty-based career, if you trust your identity and self-worth to the kind of people that invite you to those kinds of parties you have put your fine self in the wrong hands.
Fashion is big business and its modeling icons can become “super” in their mid-teens (sometimes running a gauntlet through low-life types who abuse children) but it’s a business that lives in the moment and if those moments are all the Supers will ever have there’s likely to be a hard fall into supernova at the end of the runway.
The business needs -- we all need -- an updated perspective.
There’s a whole new generation coming on the scene and they’re going to force their own definition of beauty and fashion. We’re going to be yanked up to speed with the rest of the world. Wrinkles, in many societies, are seen as lines that mark the division between those who’ve gained the wisdom that comes with experience and those who haven't. And wisdom -- along with a lot of other remarkable things -- shines with its own kind of beauty and it comes from beyond the depth of skin.
Any woman who gathers that wisdom and cultivates those other alluring traits can age gracefully. And beautifully. And that beauty, Ms. La Ferla, doesn’t fade.
It evolves.
We need to get past the surface, look deeper and find the things there that are worth admiring. It’s not an impossible mission. In fact it’s become obvious to some of us. Even a few in the fashion business.
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