style issue, discount edition
Was it just me, or was this a very discount style issue? Or was the New Yorker taking the advice of Patricia Marx's little subject, Eliza. I swear I didn't read that whole thing, but this jumped out at me, because I used to do this too . . .
"'You play it cool the first five days of school and wear something bland,' Eliza said. 'Then you break out your outrageous stuff.'" (79) By October, however, I looked like a drunken fifties housewife. Or so they told me.
Since we're still brainstorming obsolete mores and manners, I'll just say that this reminds me of something from, I think, Age of Innocence (book not movie, love them both, and the adaptation of psychological interiority to sensory materialism). Where the up and comers wore their Paris fashions right away. Now that I look it up on google, it's the opening of chapter 26. And it's a bit longer than I'd remembered. All I'd remembered was,
"It was Beaufort who started the new fashion by
making his wife clap her new clothes on her back as
soon as they arrived: I must say at times it takes all
Regina's distinction not to look like . . . like . . ."
"Clap her new clothes on her back?" Clunk, smack, trip, whack. That stuck in my head.
And then there was Calvin Trillin on something called Guy's Frenchy's. This was a little long, and way too precious, but kind of fun and my partner in crime read it too and we are always calling each other "swayve" now - we've been doing a lot of thrifting ourselves in places that smell like a thrift store.
But Larissa MacFarquhar on Diane von Furstenberg and QVC. I think this might mark the first appearance of QVC in the New Yorker. I liked the "once upon a time" opening and the fact that it's a biographical piece, but one which recognizes that's is a biography of woman who is a brand, who has been too free with her license, who as a brand has not had unmixed success. And all the stuff about the story of her life and it's standard version and "this story is not a cynical production: it is the way that she conceives herself" (117).
Also, MacFarquhar gets to quote someone who says, "'American fashion still revolves around Jackie O., and there was no one prissier.'" (119) Ha!
And, looking forward to the upcoming issue, Bill Buford will go slumming with Food TV.
Categories: material, newyorker, thrift, excitement/joy, interest/excitmement, aural
"'You play it cool the first five days of school and wear something bland,' Eliza said. 'Then you break out your outrageous stuff.'" (79) By October, however, I looked like a drunken fifties housewife. Or so they told me.
Since we're still brainstorming obsolete mores and manners, I'll just say that this reminds me of something from, I think, Age of Innocence (book not movie, love them both, and the adaptation of psychological interiority to sensory materialism). Where the up and comers wore their Paris fashions right away. Now that I look it up on google, it's the opening of chapter 26. And it's a bit longer than I'd remembered. All I'd remembered was,
"It was Beaufort who started the new fashion by
making his wife clap her new clothes on her back as
soon as they arrived: I must say at times it takes all
Regina's distinction not to look like . . . like . . ."
"Clap her new clothes on her back?" Clunk, smack, trip, whack. That stuck in my head.
And then there was Calvin Trillin on something called Guy's Frenchy's. This was a little long, and way too precious, but kind of fun and my partner in crime read it too and we are always calling each other "swayve" now - we've been doing a lot of thrifting ourselves in places that smell like a thrift store.
But Larissa MacFarquhar on Diane von Furstenberg and QVC. I think this might mark the first appearance of QVC in the New Yorker. I liked the "once upon a time" opening and the fact that it's a biographical piece, but one which recognizes that's is a biography of woman who is a brand, who has been too free with her license, who as a brand has not had unmixed success. And all the stuff about the story of her life and it's standard version and "this story is not a cynical production: it is the way that she conceives herself" (117).
Also, MacFarquhar gets to quote someone who says, "'American fashion still revolves around Jackie O., and there was no one prissier.'" (119) Ha!
And, looking forward to the upcoming issue, Bill Buford will go slumming with Food TV.
Categories: material, newyorker, thrift, excitement/joy, interest/excitmement, aural
posted by zoe p. at 11:34 AM
3 Comments:
There were lots of juicy nuggets in Marx, which I liked despite wanting not to. I also thought the article about MoMA was pretty good (it made me want to see the new MoMA all the more).
I have now read Buford on Food TV. Like his article on slaughtering a pig, I thought it was material (a 72-hour Food TV marathon) more suited to blogging.
I wasted my time reading "The Wanderer" in the Sept 18th issue. It was long, boring, and kept pretending like the plane rides were going to reveal something. 3/4 of the article could have been cut! I can never get that time back! And I don't have a problem with Clinton. It was the tedious, boring writing. Remnick tried to make a trip into the adventure of a life time and it turned out to me more like a bad day in line at the IRS office.
the episode where that boy has to design a jackie o outfit? or was this a less literal connection? my week with cable included that episode and a few others.
i've got a few things to say about bill buford, too.
didn't read "the wanderer" but thanks for the warning!
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