truth in fashion

Yesterday, Modcloth co-founder Susan Koger shared an open letter to the fashion industry, asking for more truth in fashion advertising and pledging to help promote those truths herself. Modcloth asked if I would be interested in writing my own open letter to the fashion powers-that-be, and you better believe I was interested! So here it is --



Dear Fashion,

For most of my post-adolescent life I've struggled with feeling unattractive. Through blogging I've grown more confident in my appearance (in my very first outfit post I had blocked out my face because I thought I was so ugly) but I find I'm still susceptible to advertising witchcraft. I can get dressed in the morning and put on an outfit that makes me feel like a million dollars, and then walk into the mall and instantly feel like a chubby, hideous little freak compared to the beauties in the posters surrounding me.

I'm all for every and any advance that can be made in advertising. No photoshop? Fantastic. Every body shape? Wonderful. But here's what I really want to see -- regular people. I want to see advertisements with girls who don't fall into society's accepted definition of beauty. Some girls with bigger noses, like me! I want to see girls with scars, disfigurements, average features, disabilities, crooked teeth, freckles, pimples, and low cheekbones. Size 0, size 28. Pear shape, square shape. It's all well and good to say that you didn't photoshop your model, but when she still looks like most models do post-editing, it doesn't really help much. I want every girl to look at advertisements and see herself. See that her flaws can be beautiful, and she doesn't have to fit into one standard beauty mode to be considered pretty. Every girl is gorgeous, but hardly any of us believe it about ourselves. Seeing our own unique beauty reflected in the advertisements around us would do wonders for our collective self esteem.

I'd also like to see cellulite. I know, nobody actually wants to see it. But guess what? 90% of us have it. And yet I don't think I've ever seen it in an ad, catalog or online shop. Even though it's been statistically proven that almost all girls have it, I still find myself feeling insecure and gross when bathing suit season comes around. Because all of the images I've seen in my life have tricked my brain into thinking that I'm alone in my dimpled shame.

In the end, that's what fashion has done to a lot of girls -- it's made us feel alone. And it's a crying shame, because fashion is SO fun. When we were little, so many of us loved playing dress up. When we looked in the mirror, we didn't see our imperfections, we saw princesses and fairies staring back at us. The only thing that changed between then and now is exposure to advertisements that made us believe our bodies were bad and our faces were ugly or plain.

Let's finally have some truth in advertising, so we can all look in the mirror and see regal reflections once more.

september giveaway: tan scalloped bag

This year I'm doing one giveaway every month (in addition to my blog anniversary & birthday giveaways) There's one catch -- to enter, you have to perform a random act of kindness today. It's on the honor system, obviously, I can't actually make sure that everyone does it, but I trust that you will. If you're stumped on what to do, the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation has a list of ideas right here!



What you'll win: One person will win this tan scalloped bag from asos

How to enter: Pledge to perform a random act of kindness today and use the rafflecopter widget to enter. You can also earn extra entries in the widget by tweeting about the giveaway, tweeting about your RAK* following me on facebook and bloglovin, or making a donation to your favorite charity. You must be a follower to enter (and, please, none of this follow-and-leave as soon as the giveaway is over jazz.. that's super rude!) This giveaway is open to everyone on planet earth.

a Rafflecopter giveaway Giveaway ends October 1st at 12:01AM EST.
* Anyone who uses a twitter account used solely to enter giveaways will have all of their entries disqualified. 

peace, love and garlic

Hey, long time no see! I'm finally feeling back to normal again, yay!

This weekend I donned my best festival-wear because I attended a.... dun dun dun... GARLIC FESTIVAL! haha! It's probably way less funny than I thought it was, but there you have it. Lacy dress, flower crown, round sunglasses, and of course a peace sign.



I had such a good time it's ridiculous. I've wanted to attend the Garlic Festival in the Poconos for years and I'm so glad I finally got to go! I tried so many awesomely weird garlic foods. My favorite was fried garlic on crackers with garlic sauce, but I also tried (and loved!) milk chocolate covered roasted garlic, garlic chocolate chip cookies, garlic ice cream and garlic shaved ice. I also got garlic lolipops that I haven't had a chance to try yet.

Needless to say, I'm sure everyone at this festival was popping mints all day afterwards, haha! But it was so worth it. We left around 6pm and headed for Scranton, where we had dinner at Chick's diner (I went there during the Office Wrap Party last year and it's my favorite diner ever! The home fries are to die for.) and then I FINALLY got to swim for the first time this year at our hotel's indoor pool.

Oh, and of course I made myself a garlic fan club pin specifically for this occasion, ha!

dress - asos | flower crown - modcloth | shoes - h&m

sunglasses - urban outfitters | bag - asos | pin - your fan club

saturday night movie: libel

I'm like to think I'm a pretty smart person, but when it comes to movies I hardly ever figure out the twists before they occur. I know if I put my mind to it, I could.. but I'm usually so caught up in the story that I don't try to figure out what's going to happen while the movie is playing. Such was the case with Libel. I'd imagine some people out there might guess the ending before it happens or figure out all the twists before the movie is halfway finished... but I was surprised every step of the way, as confused and shocked as the screenwriters hoped their audience would be.

The film is about a wealthy British aristocrat, Sir Mark Sebastian Loddon, who sues a newspaper for libel after they print an accusation that he is an imposter. What seems like a simple case of slander actually turns into a case of stolen identity when it's revealed that there were two men -- almost identical -- who escaped from a POW camp together, Sir Mark Loddon and the scoundrel Frank Welney. Only one of them returned, and said he was Sir Mark.

As soon as they introduce the character of Frank Welney into the proceedings, you the viewer and all of the characters in the film are suddenly thrown into a sea of doubt. Is Sir Mark actually Frank Welney? If so, whatever happened to the real Sir Mark?

Dirk Bogarde plays Sir Mark Loddon in the present setting, Sir Mark in the prison camp flashbacks, and Frank Welney. Dirk Bogarde is one of those people who sometimes looks completely different from one photo to the next, so while his Sir Mark does look remarkably like Frank Welney, you don't for a minute doubt that these are two different people- not twins or one person playing dual roles. And his present-day Sir Mark looks even different still! It's really impossible to tell just from appearances which man is calling himself Sir Mark Loddon.

Libel has an outstanding supporting cast, including one of my favorite character actors, Robert Morley and Wilfrid Hyde-White (who is always, in my mind, Col. Pickering) and features a pretty impressive performance by Olivia de Havilland as Dirk Bogarde's wife. In a way, her role is connected to the audience in that what she feels, we feel. Close-ups of her reactions to developments in the case are used as hints as to what she is thinking, and what we should think. When she has complete faith in her husband, so do we. And when she doubts her husband, so do we.

If you're looking for an edge-of-your-seat courtroom thriller, I highly suggest Libel! And if you're just looking for a Dirk Bogarde film to enjoy, look no further than Libel, where you get two Dirk's for the price of one!

Libel is available to rent on Amazon here.



This post was originally published on my movie blog, Silents and Talkies.