Saturday 13 December 2008

Dumb Animals…

Liz Jones, the ‘Mail’s’ style expert, is in a tiz over Nigella Lawson:
A few weeks ago, I wrote a piece celebrating Nigella Lawson's milky curves, applauding her good sense at not conforming to the diktat that women must be thin and young to be beautiful.

Well, I take that article back.
Why? Well, Nigella had the nerve to endorse the wearing of real fur. Though from the sound of it, her real error was to disregard the opinion of people like Liz, who make a living from telling everyone else what to wear:
What is particularly galling is that while I might expect a model, fashion designer or actress - such as Gwyneth Paltrow, who has a contract with Italian leather goods label Tod's, one of the worst fur offenders - not to appreciate the danger of condoning this industry, I expected more from a grown woman with an Oxbridge education and sufficient wealth never to be in fear of being dropped by anyone.
Yup, note the casual way she dismisses the people who help her earn a living as either clueless morons or cowardly go-alongs, yet an educated woman didn’t agree with Ms Jones on what to wear!?! *Swoon*
….I find it very hard to sit in the front row of fashion shows where fur is paraded inches from my nose.
Perhaps you should try another job then, Liz? Are you even qualified for anything else?
Protesters from People For The Ethical Treatment Of Animals (Peta) stormed the catwalks of Roberto Cavalli and Burberry in Milan a few seasons ago.

I was disgusted when the protesters, mainly young girls, were dragged from the catwalk by security men, and all the glossy magazine mavens cheered when the show was able to resume.
Yes, fancy that. A major event in your ‘job’ went ahead instead of being disrupted by publicity-hungry cretins and people were happy about that? Does not compute!
While most British glossies have a strict 'no fur' policy for editorial photographs, they are happy to take adverts from labels that use fur.

When editor of Marie Claire, I mooted the idea to the magazine's publisher that we bar all adverts from such labels, but was told this would be financial suicide.
Oh noes! Harsh realities of the world of business!

Joining in the harpy chorus is Melanie Rickey, ‘Grazia’ fashion editor:
It's the fur debate and in my mind the answer is simple. In this country, and in the climate we live in, there is no excuse for us to wear fur at all. On a practical level, we don't need to. It's not cold enough. The practice of farming fur was banned in Britain in 2000.
I wonder what car Rickey drives? I’m pretty sure it’s a good one, loaded with all the latest gadgets. Bet she’d squeal like a stuck pig if someone came along and swapped it for a Ford Cortina, though, on the grounds there was no need for heated leather seats and sat-nav on a practical level.

And because we have banned fur farming simply means it’s moved abroad, to places like China, where regulations on animal welfare are sometimes lax or even non-existant. Not sure that helped, Mel. But then, the perfect has always been the enemy of the good.
And yet whenever there is a cold snap, out come the furs. This year, it seems more fur than ever is being strutted around town by young, fashionable women. Some of them are even walking their dogs - an irony perhaps lost on them.
Yup, when it gets cold, people wear fur coats! Who knew…?
They would do well to sit down and seriously question their morals in order to form an educated opinion, and then take a stance on whether or not they should wear fur. Wearing one canine - a fox - while walking your beloved four-legged friend is just wrong.
When Mel says ‘form an educated opinion’, she really just means ‘agree with me’.

The fact that they may have formed an educated opinion that wearing chemical-based acrylic instead of a natural, farmed substance isn't better doesn’t seem to have occurred to her. An educated opinion is only educated if it agrees 100% with her own outlook.
On Wednesday, at the tea party thrown by Katie Grand to celebrate her new magazine Love, I bumped into model Agyness Deyn, the owner of two small dogs, swathed in an Arctic fox coat. It looked fantastic, yes, but that doesn't make it right.

'I was freezing,' she told me. 'I didn't think it would be as cold in London as it is in New York, so I had to dash into a second-hand shop and saw this fur for £100. It's not bad to wear fur if it's second-hand, is it?' she asked me with genuine concern.
I didn't want to cause a kerfuffle, so I said: 'Well, at least you are recycling it.' But I wish I had given her a kindly lecture. The thing is, if you are going to wear fur, you have to be able to justify it to yourself and others.
Actually, she doesn’t. Not in the slightest.

That’s what really causes your hackles to rise, isn’t it, ladies? Not the ickle pwetty fluffy bunnies? The fact that some people have heard and rejected your arguments…

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Liz Jones - what's the point of Liz Jones? She spent a while detailing her 'marriage' to a younger bloke - who kept having affairs. All a bit weird and uninteresting.
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Off topic, but related to an earlier post about how some people shouldn't take their work home with them:

POLICE officer walked free from court after being cleared of beating up his lover.

Det Sgt Adrian Ramdat, 40, was accused of two violent attacks on fellow City of London Police officer Insp Amanda Lowe, 33, at the home they shared in Carew Close, Chafford Hundred.

After a short deliberation the jury at Basildon Crown Court on Friday acquitted Ramdat of one count of assault and one count of assault by beating.

Speaking after the verdict a City of London Police press officer said: "Adrian Ramdat has been subjected to the same judicial process that any individual accused of such offences would be.

"A jury has found him not guilty of the charges against him."

She also said the police would be reviewing his suspension following the verdict.

During the trial Ramdat, who left his wife and two children to set up home with Ms Lowe after just two weeks together, admitted he fell in love with Ms Lowe but the relationship started to breakdown shortly afterwards.

He said there were rows over her previous affair with his boss Det Chief Supt Steve Head but it was because it had affected their careers and not because he was "jealous and obsessive."

Ramdat, formerly of Hawkins Drive, Chafford Hundred, said Ms Lowe suffered from severe mood swings and was a self harmer and on the night of the first alleged attack on July 7 last year she attacked him with a hammer.

He denied trying to strangle her and said he was concerned she was going to hurt herself and at one point he put his hand across her mouth to calm her down because she was screaming "hysterically."

Ramdat also denied assaulting Ms Lowe the following month by throwing her around her bedroom, trying to throttle her, pulling her hair and causing her to fall and break her ankle.

The defendant said once again they had been arguing and he was concerned she would hurt herself but he admitted grabbing her throat pushing her away after she lunged at him and started punching him when he came into her bedroom.

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Whatever - they are both clearly flawed people and do themselves or the police service no credit.

Anonymous said...

He was freed..? Good grief!

"...they are both clearly flawed people and do themselves or the police service no credit."

Agree totally.

James Higham said...

In Russia, you wouldn't get more than half a mile without fur.