A Bridge Too Far…
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| Scanned from Lucky Magazine |
Every now and then I enjoy flipping through a copy of Lucky Magazine. I appreciate that it doesn’t pretend to be anything other than a print version of an infomercial featuring multiple advertisers. The editorial philosophy seems to be nothing more than, “hey, here’s some stuff you can buy.” So just for grins, yesterday I grabbed an issue to peruse while I ate lunch.
I’ve warmed up to the concept of pattern mixing (in small doses), but the wackadoodle ensemble above featured in the January issue absolutely jumps the shark. If I didn’t know better, I’d think this was a parody.
In fact the entire issue really brings the crazy…neon colors, layered looks reminiscent of some homeless people I’ve seen recently. You should see the getups they’re promoting as office wear….
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| SRSLY?? (Also scanned from Lucky Magazine January issue.) |
I don’t care how young or thin you are, this is not how to dress if you want to be taken seriously at work. Unless you work at Lucky, maybe?
Do any of the fashion glossies still speak to you? Or have they all bungee jumped off the cliff into the chasm of irrelevance?
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I spend more time looking at blogs these days – though I do get Vogue on subscription, more out of habit than anything else. That first outfit is a mess, far too busy.
Thank you for making my morning! I had to laugh at the ridiculous first outfit. And a shorts suit in January? Yeah, right. Not only would it give everyone a headache, it would also give me frostbite.
I stopped buying glossies or any fashion magazines for years now and don’t miss them a bit. What I can find on the internet is more than enough to inspire and inform me. From your examples above, I haven’t missed anything lol! Oh dear, what were they thinking? I’m all for the colour/print clashing but top to toe??
From the second pic, it seems if I wear a turtleneck and a structured bag I can wear just about anything else and it works. Thanks for the morning chuckle. Hope you have a great weekend. judy
I do enjoy the occasional Lucky, for the same reasons you wrote, Une Femme – it’s just for ads, but good-looking ones : > The second picture as “work wear” made me choke on my latte!
I have been known to enjoy Lucky Mag too. So when I saw this month’s issue, I was flabbergasted. OMG what happened?! Did the teens take over? Oy vey.
Exactly my thoughts. I have read Lucky for years, and like it, but this last issue definitely gave me the WTFs. I hope this isn’t a trend with them. I want to see outfits I actually like! And would not be embarrassed to wear. What were they thinking?
—Jill Ann
And HR types have to deal with the inevitable consequences of what is promoted as appropriate for work!
She looks like she’s trying to get photographed for a street style blog.
Marsi
I’m with Judy C. on this one. I think what we’re looking at is the generation that was encouraged to dress themselves from a very young age and further enabled by certain brands of clothing that feature quirky ensembles in their catalogs. Not sure what the philosophy is behind this extreme form of “mixing”. Is it that their closet is full of throw away clothes, but nothing to wear and they’re stretching their purchases to make sense of it all?
Thank you for reminding me why I stopped buying fashion mags. What an absolute mess. I agree with silkpathdiary: the internet is consistently providing better – by that I mean real life, accessible yet inspirational – style. I’ll take Vivienne over Lucky any day!
Lucky pretty much jumped the shark in their second issue–they always put stuff together that just looks crazy, like they got a free swag bag and put everything in it on at the same time. Plus the overuse of the same phrases like “girly touch” and “toughen it up”. The looks are designed to be stared at, mostly in not a good way. I got tired of them years ago.
I get Vogue and InStyle for inspiration (and then go shop at Target). I don’t pay for them either–I used my Delta miles, since I don’t fly enough to ever get a free ticket, might as well benefit!
I still love Bazaar. Although most of the merchandise is out of my reach, I enjoy their style. It doesn’t leave out older women. And when they do an unusual spread, at least I can look at it as artistic.
Oh dear! Call the fashion police pronto!
While I do love to see a mix of pattern and colour I think these looks are fine for the very young but disaster for those of us this side of 50!
I could be dating myself but Lucky is definitely not my demographic!
I haven’t looked at Lucky in years, and if those outfits are any indication, I haven’t missed much! The only glossy I read now is Bazaar. As Kristien62 says, it doesn’t shy away from older women (it shows looks on age groups up to 70+), and is less celebrity-centric than most others.
LOL…most of them have jumped!
I still like to thumb through More occasionally but only if its free in a waiting room.
Town and Country is fun for ridiculous reasons, but again only if free and I’m waiting for something.
Cooking and Yoga magazines have much more of interest these days.
Those girls look like train wrecks. But we must remember, the goal of the glossies is to make us feel lacking in some way so that the purchase will “fix” us.
Hilarious, absolutely hilarious. Do you ever feel like those people are “on” something? xo
I read Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. Been doing that since age 17, and that’s right before the dinos smoked their last ciggy.
But my fashion inspiration comes from online- fashion and style bloggers like you.
Scary! Its as though they were trying to justify buying as many bits and pieces as possible.
I probably never was the demographic for most glossies. I’d rather just snoop shop and see what I like. That does mean I’m influenced by current styles and colors that are in stores but most magazines emphasize a lifestyle very unlike my own. Even in my career days I worked in the banking industry so most of the time all but the most conservative looks would be appropriate for me working my way up the corporate ladder. I used to find certain catalogs and retail sites more fun to peruse than fashion mags (Boden, Millyny, Lafayette 148.) But thanks for the laughs today.
I’m with you on this one…she looks like she piled everthing on while wearing a blindfold. I love magazines, buy too many, and am often disappointed. I like InStyle and Bazaar best. Town and Country has an occasional inspiring fashion spread, but otherwise, too snooty for me. I would love to see a FASHION magazine for a more mature fashionista. I like More magazine OK, but really want mostly fashion and beauty content – not disease of the month, etc. I get that information elsewhere. Thank goodness we now have access to blogs like yours!
Lucky has been a mess ever since Kim France left the editor’s job.
Coincidentally, I’ve been reviewing the Vogue Magazine Archive database for my library this week. I’m just blown away at the elegant, beautiful pages that used to be Vogue. The clothes and the photography were stellar, even in the ads. Maybe it’s nostalgia on my part, but didn’t women dress ever so much better 50 and 60 years ago?
The really old issues are fascinating, too. One article from the 1890’s featured mourning clothes.
Yes, yes, people DID dress better 50 years ago. I love to look at pictures of fashions from the forties & fifties. Such elegance! I watched Rear Window on AMC the other night, what beautiful outfits Grace Kelly wore. Of course anything looked good on her….
—Jill Ann
I laughed when I read this because I think it often about so many of the recent fashion magazines I have seen. I still read Harper’s and InStyle for some inspiration looks…But I have to agree the first outfit is wackado….however, to each his own! There are probably many who love this style…just not for me.
Seriously. There seems to be absolutely no right way to wear clothing now. The pics show things that I’d expect a toddler to match up. I don’t have a problem with mixing prints as long as they don’t offend the eye. But the pics above make the wearers just look silly. Like they blindly picked out stuff from a closet and put it on.
I love magazines although sometimes it seems like their main aim is to sell make-up. I have moved onto ones oriented more towards my age.
The top photo looks like someone who wishes they could afford Anthropologie but puts the look together at Target or Forever 21.
Oh, please, tell us which ones you do peruse. I have been searching for something relevant for 10 years now and all I’ve managed to find is More which is really too geared towards the still-working career woman. Love to know what you’ve found!
bungee jumped!!!!!
Annie v.
ou est ce que je devrais dire ils ont saute le parapet!!!
Annie v.
I thumbed through that same issue. I do actually like the shorts and jacket but the top pic is too busy for me.
LOL, just got back from the hairdresser where I typically “catch up” with the latest in style and fashion and let’s just say that the vast majority of these publications have gone completely off the rails when it comes to any taste whatsoever. Pages and pages of semi-starved models, actresses and “celebrities” wearing garish, mismatched ensembles on platform stilts. HIDEOUS.
When you have no idea which photo depicts “Wore it right!” and which is “Wore it wrong!” either you’re certifiable or these “editors” are. I choose to believe it’s the latter, so thank you for confirming that take!
There’s a reason shows like Mad Men, Downton Abbey and The Hour are so inspiring, and it’s not just the plots and fine acting that resonate with so many. It’s the return to beautiful, tasteful styling on people of all ages.
“Jumping the shark” is cracking me up.
I don’t read any fashion glossies — they make my head hurt. Though not as much as the two “looks” you feature here.
Two words – perfectly awful.
I agree with others – my inspiration comes from over 50 bloggers and to me the more simple the outfit, the better.
Carol
I’m really wondering if these looks are the result of ‘fashion insularity’. Fashion group sees only other fashion groups, loses all sense of reality, and ends up putting together outfits regular people find hilarious.
As someone who has worked in HR, it is troubling that they are telling young women this is work appropriate. I’m just imagining the uncomfortable request: “While we do appreciate your energy and creativity, we have to ask you to change into something more professional and less distracting. If you need more guidance from HR regarding what is and isn’t appropriate, please feel free to ask.” Dreadful- for everyone!
I don’t think any of the fashion magazines are really feature anything applicable to my life here in the middle of the US. InStyle is about the closest to relevant for my lifestyle. While I love to look at Bazaar, most things they show are very expensive and not what most 60 or 70 year olds I know woudl wear even if they could afford it. I think that I get a lot more inspiration from bloggers my age than I do from any magazine.
Good grief! Hideous outfits, especially the first one.
I don’t read any fashion mags anymore. If I had to choose one though, it would be Bazaar.
I have never paged through a Lucky magazine because I worried it would encourage too much buying and make me feel like I have a terrible wardrobe. That’s what fashion magazines usually do to me.
I prefer blogs…like yours!
Yikes. The top photo looks like a two-year dressed herself. And the second – for work? Totally inappropriate for almost any kind of work I can imagine.
Ugh!!!! I’m shocked that young girls will think this is the style and try to duplicate this ‘got dressed in a dumpster in the dark’ look.
Oh poor girl, she’s been attacked by a seatbelt.
I just threw up a little in my mouth…jumped right off that cliff, baby.
LOL! You’re bang on the money with this post. I am very tired of this kind of mixed up mashed up look being featured ad nauseum in magazines. I like a little pattern mixing and matching as it can look fresh and interesting. But what is often being styled up these days is usually like that first photo – no matter how young and pretty you are I feel like an outfit like that tells me you either don’t know how to dress or you got dressed in the dark.
Funnily enough I think that big style bloggers who have huge followings for being extremely avante guard in their dress have played a role in promoting this. I think it’s actually the magazines who are looking to the crazier bloggers for style inspiration when they do this kind of thing – there was a similar thing done in UK Vogue called “blogger style” and it was pretty hard on the eyes. It’s okay if you work in a creative industry in a big metropolis where anything goes – you can get away with looking like that but that lifestyle probably applies to a minority of people. Ironic given that when fashion blogging first got traction it was because it was a platform for making fashion more accessible to the masses and not less. I feel with the hefty commercialisation and courting of bloggers by big brands that this has been reversed somehow. I’m seeing twenty nothings cavorting around in a mish mash of designer garments that cost thousands of pounds that have been lent/gifted/placed/whatever by designers and it all starts to feel like celebrity culture and advertising has infiltrated something that once had a bit more authenticity to it.
I don’t actually mind the second outfit but if someone turned up like to that to 99% of offices you’d be written off as barking mad. I’ve complained about this type of “what to wear to work” suggestions on my blog before – I don’t know which line of work other than fashion, a sports teacher or a zookeeper in a very hot country where it would be acceptable to wear shorts if you are a woman and expect to be taken seriously at work.
Both are hideous. Lorrie couldn’t have phrased it better if it were scripted by God. Enough already with the ridiculous outfits, people! Having fun with your wardrobe is a great idea. Looking like a joke gone bad, not so much.
I think catalogs show wearable items–for obvious reasons!
The first picture is actually cool!
Naturally I´m not taking either pictures seriously; they just demonstrate, what all there is to buy, buy, buy…
Happily, I have no need for anything, so I would not mind turning the pages of the magazine in question, just for the amusement.
Hear, hear! And if you take the first shot and ‘erase’ the jumble of colour, you have a very classic, even conventional ensemble. The second shot, with the hot pants, is the territory of youth. It’s not intended for us anymore than a car magazine is.
Where I live, Montréal, the wild mixes are left behind by one’s mid to late 20s though you will see artful colour combos at any age, and of course lots of neutrals or muted colour that lets the cut and quality speak.
I am a subscriber to Lucky, and have been since the very first issue, but the “fashion” in this issue was horrible. That initial outfit . . . !? The whole issue was crazy and not inspiring. I am typically disappointed by the January issue of any magazine, though (and I subscribe to a LOT because I love knowing what the inspirations are for the shapes and colors of the season, new products, etc.) Seems as if editors go all out for holiday sparkle and glitz in December, but give up and do something insane (see Lucky) for January. If magazines showed us style that truly looks good on every woman and is elegant, age-appropriate, and timeless, they would be out of business soon because fashion houses need to produce NEW and boundary-pushing art every season, so that’s what magazines display. I think fashion is about constant change and reinvention, and STYLE is about finding what works for us. That’s why blogs are wonderful!
I would love a magazine that didn’t shy away from repeating themes each year. For example, each spring, pastels and floral prints come into vogue again. It’s never a surprise. It would be great if a magazine would admit it’s nothing new, but show us ways to put together items currently available in the stores to flatter our different bodies and personalities.
There’s a German magazine, Brigitte, that committed in 2009 to using no professional models (though they have sadly changed their mind since then). My favorite part of any magazine has always been the “week in style” articles about a fashionable woman with a great job and what she wears all week to work and play.
As a former HR person in the construction industry my rules for the staff (male and female) were “No cleavage, no belly buttons, and no toes.” I’m not sure how I would describe “no’s” for the above styles. Most magazines seem to be a waste of paper to me and I consider the blogs I visit to be much more informative and inspirational. Thank you for keeping it real.
I totally agree …Seriously! who would wear this mish-mash of colours -styles -textures – patterns. It’s not easy on the eyes in fact it grates. I’ve just spent a month in Paris and fortunately never saw anything remotely like a “Lucky magazine” pin-up girl.
All I can say is Lucky I’m not with Lucky!!
“All Things French”
I love lucky and you may know by my recent post that I love this issue. but yes, that office look was totally off. I’m in the minority and I would wear all these colors and mash-ups.
I want to know what office that woman works at so I can work there too! I love these looks but I think they look forced on these women; they look like the grand scheme of a stylist. I NEVER EVER EVER see women wearing this stuff on the street, especially if the clothes are new and not vintage, but then again, I live in Vancouver… I have the freedom to dress how I want, when I want, and sometimes it’s wackadoodle (I LOVE that word) and sometimes I love chic… I definitely applaud the fact that I have freedom of choice. Great post. I haven’t purchased a fashion mag in years.
I’ll take the cray cray stuff any day over “Business Casual”,a heinous form of dress which to me is truly the reason for the decline in workplace fashion.
Honestly…if I were in my early-mid 20’s again, just out of college and working in some trendy office environment, I’d totally wear these get ups. Proudly and often. ESPECIALLY the first one.
That ship has sailed for me, however. I’m thinking your journey into Lucky-world to be something of an anthropological expedition.
I love the first outfit as a casual weekend look, but the second ‘office’ outfit is crazy bad.
BUT what I really loathe about these mags-and it’s gotten worse in the last decade or so-is the assumption that it’s perfectly reasonable to spend 100’s if not 1000’s of dollars on a ‘look’. Lots of blah-blah about ‘investment dressing’ (an investment is something that over time earns you money, not something that over time costs you money) and the expectation that a young woman in her 20’s or early 30’s actually has and should blow this kind of cash on what are usually badly made one-season-wonders.
Grr, I’ll stop this rant before I get carried away…
Ok, maybe not for work, but these days I’m getting into the idea that people should wear what they enjoy wearing, period.