The Return of Pretty....And The Big LIE!!*

So where have I been? well my beauty brethren I have been on a self imposed pretty hiatus. First a little writers block turns into a whirl of wondering and a much needed break from the beauty biz. Sometimes the business of beauty can be pretty ugly, and who has time for that?
Well like Jack yelling "Here's Johnny" as he smashed down the door with his axe to celebrate his return, ( of course I am using tweezers to get through my door, which takes a bit longer, but also means if you get a splinter it's a quick fix) I'm back my Beauties!!
With all the inane beauty'isms being whipped around, I thought a little bit of freshified pretty air was what was required- a dose of Jodyism's like cool water on a parched summer day was welcome.
So what first to chat about?
Well there is a few things that come to mind but I decided I wanted to focus on the Big Lie. You know, the one where you look at all of the beautiful pictures in magazines, the stunning covers of supermodels and Hollywood royalty and sigh in sadness and feel a dose of self hatred, cause you, a normal woman, can never, will never look like that. Well heres the thing- neither do they. Its the BIG LIE.
It's all illusion and make believe. A fairy tale of pretty marketed to make you purchase. There is a reason why makeup and skin creams are called Hope In Jar-the beauty belief is with this purchase, this lipstick, this shadow, this blush - well you can be just like those cover girls.
You can be Angelina, a Global Goddess off saving the world with pseudo hubby Brad by her side and her exotic Benetton brood trailing behind. Or Jennifer; sad, single, always searching for love, Jennifer (who by the way, when she shows up on the cover of magazines, sells more newsstand copies then any other Hollywood actress- single and sad is a big money maker) the golden LA girl with the broken heart and shiny hair always looking for true love, especially when there is a new movie to promote. Oh hi ya Vince, John and Gerard. Or Demi, with the disappearing/non existent hip bones or Madonna, 50 and fabulous and giving the middle finger to all those who want her to act her age and put away her rock hard abs and candy dish. How do they seemingly defy gravity and nature? Its all a Big Lie.
Even the ladies who trumpet loudly for real women everywhere like singer Kelly Clarkson on an issue of Shape and Tina Fey on the newest Vogue are not immune to the Big Lie either. Real beauty with a healthy dose of enhancement is like a spoonful of sugar to make the medicine go down, making their pretty more palatable and purchasable.
Good Dr's and needles and designer genes, for sure they all play a part in the maintenance of perfection, but more importantly is the art of the retouch. The magicians of photoshop wield their wands like modern day Michelangelos sculpting with digital bits and bites.
Even the genetic lottery winners, the gorgeous girls better known as models, all pretty super, with their doe eyes, plush cushiony mouths and flawless skin, the ones who traipse hungrily down the world's runways wearing size zero sample sizes know its all illusion and play. A pretty party of make believe with hair, makeup, lighting and photo shop. Need longer lashes, a thinner nose, less wrinkles, a fuller mouth, more curves or less? No problem- a little computer magic is better then looking at life through a vaseline smeared lenses. Less sticky.
The Big Lie requires you to believe that this Holy Grail, the pinnacle of pretty, truly exists in the realm of mankind and not just inside your computers hard drive. These pictures I posted will show you what a little bit of digital paint can do for a picture. When you realize all images that appear in fashion/beauty magazines have been retouched, digitally enhanced and improved, you start to appreciate them for fantasy and for pleasure and start cutting ourself some serious slack. Simple escapism instead of self hating requires taking your critical eye and turning it outward. What you see on the page is a fantasy as opposed to what stares nakedly back at you from your mirror. Stop comparing and criticizing and just start celebrating. You.
A daily dose of self love is the Power of Pretty in all its radiant glory and no computer is required. Pretty powerful I think.

*click on a few pictures to make them expand and see the true art of the retoucher

IS this RACIST? Sometimes its not a simple Black or White.

So the cyber and fashion worlds are all atwitter so to speak. Getting in deep and deeper into the color divide debate. French Vogue editor, Carine Rotfield, has come under fire for recently publishing a photo spread of model Lara Stone painted black to match some of the clothing she is wearing. Lara Stone is white and while the photos are beautifully shot they also have a distinctly heated sexuality. There have been calls for the firing of the editor, a very vocal french cri de coeur, don't you think , of "off with her head" from newspapers and irate bloggers all over the world. People angrily insisting that the photo spread is racist and inflammatory and wrong. Insisting that this is another example of blackface buffoonery or mocking minstrels, a big photo spread N word that wraps itself in the guise of high fashion and art.

I think the Stephen Klein photo shoot for French Vogue is beautiful.

France is a country where African American expatriate Josephine Baker was treated like a Queen and revered as a Goddess. She was a French cultural icon of beauty, eventually becoming a French citizen, when back home in the U.S. she was still expected to ride in the back of a bus. France is where vocalist African American Nina Simone is revered as one of the greatest singers the world has ever known and where she died at age 70. France doesn't have the same recent weighted history of clashing color, of civil rights and race riots, as the US does. A nation where palpable tension simmers like a glass of angry OJ left boiling on the stove.

The image of the painted black hand holding the giant 65 carat marquise diamond is from a Vogue photo shoot by David Bailey from 1970. It was the idea of then editor Diana Vreeland who had the rock for two days to shoot. She had the gorgeous arm of a model who had the best arm in Paris, says Vreeland to model it. The model was white, a beautiful Swedish girl. The photo wasn't working. Vreeland thought it looked "too boring, too terrible - too tacky." She was on a deadline and frantic- the clock is ticking and nothing was working. She needed a shot that did the diamond justice. She went for a walk and she thought of precious stones and how they always were found in countries of people of color, who looked so beautiful wearing them on or against their varying shades of dusky skin. Her idea was to shoot the diamond not on a black hand but the white hand painted completely and artificially black. Painted with black shoe polish. She says in her book ALLURE that the reason the shot worked was it's absolute artifice. On a natural black hand , however beautiful, she says she would have just found it banal. Is this photo racist? Was Diana Vreeland the 1970's fashionista equivalent of wearing white sheets and burning crosses?

I think the image created by Vreeland and Bailey is beautiful.

The final images are ones taken from my own collaborative creative with photographer Margaret Malandrucolo many moons ago. It was one of those photo shoots where everything seems as if its falling apart at the last minute - the original model, a pretty white girl named Joanie, canceled at the last minute and our concept went out the window - the new 'model' we got was a club kid Margaret met the night before, who she thought had a great face, who's name escapes me.The idea came from me looking at the clothing the stylist brought. The origami paper shapes and hard angles of the clothes was my inspiration for hair and makeup. I had the idea of turning her into a half finished mannequin, whiting out all the skin on her hands and her facial features, letting color only come through where she came to life. Does making an asian girl look 'white' make me racist? I don't even remember contemplating the idea of cultural or ethnic sensitivity- I remember I just wanted to make amazing pictures.

I think the images* we created that day were beautiful.

I think the danger of becoming so politically correct and overtly sensitive to everyones issues and points of view is it becomes paralyzing. I think art, creativity and beauty should make us question ideas and the acceptance of the status quo. The way we see things like color and race and gender and sexuality need to be challenged for us to grow as people. Maybe the viewer's who see these images and cry racism and blackface have a bias they need to change. I see beautiful pictures. You? What do you see?

To see the entire sequence go to www,jodydaye.com under women's fashion