Brava!

There is a website that i love, the title and concept of which may raise an eyebrow or two, but it's harmless silliness. It's called Go Fug Yourself, and it's a blog that pokes good clean fun at the ugly things worn by people who are basically paid ungodly amounts of money to look beautiful. (Be advised: right now the Fug Girls are in the midst of their March Madness brackets, so the site's a little crazy.) The girls also write a fashion column for New York Magazine, and their latest is an excellent look at the habit of major fashion magazines to do annual 'shape' issues, pat themselves on the back, and then promptly banish all models who weigh triple digits from their building for the next 11 months. They're excellent writers, deftly balancing humor and legitimate point of view and i highly recommend this particular installment. Read the full column here, or an exerpt:

Despite presumably good intentions, the shape issue feels more like Vogue trying to bum a ride on a politically correct bandwagon, and our girl Anna Wintour is a particularly lousy hitchhiker. Her editor’s letter boldly blames designers for using scrawny models to present “a non-vivacious, homogenous ideal,” then steps all over that, in its attempt to homogenize zaftig designers Kate and Laura Mulleavy of Rodarte by offering them a free 4-month diet and exercise plan — or, as Vogue puts it, “what some might consider a dream proposition.” Sure, some might; others might consider it rude. Vogue claims it wants them to gain “peace of mind and the energy to prosper;” the Mulleavys bluntly say Vogue thought they should lose weight.... Because it peddles fashion and fantasy better than anyone, these clumsy attempts to soften up just feel as patronizing and ham-handed as a Very Special Episode of Blossom.