Megan McInerney
What if you were given the power to come back as anyone, during any time period? My quick answer would fulfill my alter ego as a 50’s movie star, but my final answer would be Cindy Crawford in the 80s. A time when watches were worn to keep track of the long hours spent in dark rooms, creating away. People walked around the city, famous or not, and learned from each other, showing respect to a fellow New Yorker, whatever their story. I imagine the nightlife and what it must have been like. People would arrive as if they walked off a runway, but they didn’t wear it for the guy who buys the most champagne bottles; they put it on because that is just who they are. Isaac Mizrahi’s documentary showed evidence of a world I have heard of. Immediately after watching it, I wanted to buy a pack of cigarettes, lose 20 lbs., and go buy the biggest and brightest fur coat to go dancing. Flipping through old pictures to rehash my own memories of my first NY experiences, and then I realized that is just what I did. During the time of being blinded/naive to “what is what,” shopping with my best friend, who we did everything together, I bought the biggest faux fur I could find (it looked like a polar bear), and we went out dancing. I didn’t care who was who, and I didn’t do it for anyone. It was just who I was. It’s true; when you are just who you are, you don’t need to seek social approval. Let me give myself less credit; I didn’t even know about social status quite yet. And those were my most adventurous times.
Flashback to the 80s! A time when Amber Valletta referred to the popularity scale of fashion as ” Mount Everest.” Designers took risks not to climb over the competition but because they burned to do so. Cool A-list Movie Stars (back then they were THE star) sat on the front row to support their girlfriends walking the catwalk. There was color and life in everything. No posers, just vogue posers. Fashion mattered because you mattered. People needed to express who they were. From the backstage to models, to designers, it wasn’t about a hierarchy because they were all on the same high. The fashion was enough. Ego melted, and the clothes were the stars. Isn’t that a great thought? Letting the art be the centerpiece that we all get to share together. Today, everyone is in charge of their own tabloids. They become the headliner. Going to a fashion show to take pictures of themselves attending the show instead of the focus being the clothes. I was the worst one of all. I let New York and people change me for the worst. Instead of expression, I was putting on an outfit to get attention and status. I stood around posing, frankly not having any fun, but it’s true what they say: when you’re in it, you don’t see the change in you. One slap of reality later, and I’m back to wearing pieces of art because that is just what they are. For the “chosen ones” of fashion who were born appreciating self-expression and good fashion. We ought to do just that, and when it’s a part of you, it’s not just a “thing”; it just is. There is no need to draw attention because the style just speaks for itself. Anna Wintour once said in an interview when asked about her favorite issue, “I don’t prefer to look back, only forward,” respectfully I think if we just glance back to see what we did have figured out, then we can run, walk, skip, or dance forward taking unconscious notes of what to hold onto. If we can put away the self-promotion and let the fashion do the talking. To express. Not impress. We are at least walking…strutting in the right direction.
https://variety.com/2023/tv/reviews/the-super-models-review-apple-tv-1235722257/amp/
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