Monday, January 4, 2010

Back to work and crimes of fashion


Back to work today. *groan*
What a day it was indeed. Half the newsroom is still on holiday, and so our currently depleted work force was but a bleak shadow of its glorious self today. This, of course, meant a doubling up of duties.
I landed the dubious task of manning the newsdesk for the first half of the day, and then writing about the 50 candidates shortlisted on fashion designer Simon Rademan's top 10 lists of the best and worst dressed women in South Africa.
I was less than thrilled to get the assignment, I have to admit, as apart from my complete disinterest in fashion and celebrities, I intensely dislike the nastiness and mean-spiritedness of the worst dressed accolades.
Last year one of the Idols finalists got landed the title of the worst dressed woman in the country because she was photographed with a bit of her tum peaking over the top of her tight jeans. This, it seems, was a fashion crime that doomed her to utter humiliation as a close-up shot of the offending tummy roll was posted next to her name along with the snide comment " We're glad you fitted all of it in, angel.... or almost".
It seems this years shortlist knows know bounds. Rademan, who sports a cheesy picture of socialite Edith Venter and her apparently stylish dog on his home page, has put out this list of 50 names, declaring that 10 of them are the best dressed and 10 are the worst.
Our beleaguered trans-gender runner Caster Semenya appears on the list, which I think is completely and utterly unfair. The woman is an athlete, why does Rademan wish to rate her in terms of fashion and style? And while the list is specified as being for women, handyman Riaan " Die Nutsman" Venter has also been thrown into the mix.
Last year Rademan similarly named an actor on his worst-dressed list, along with the hardly-explanatory comment: "I am not saying a word about this one... except: "You go, girlfriend!" He-he".
All I can say is that I hope Rademan - who claims he creates this list in order to inspire South Africans to dress better - is less spiteful with his comments this year. And may those who come in for a hammering rise above the shallowness of it all!

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