Just Me Today...

Wow, Johan Jr. answered my prayers today and wore white loafers, a white belt, and a handbag-ish messenger bag. I was waiting for the day I could report that he had matching white accessories...if only he had been wearing the sunglasses too.

My melatonin levels have been sinking rapidly so that's about all I could focus on this morning. That, and the evils of U.S. agriculture while reading The Omnivore's Dilemma on the train - a true must-read. It is probably the most informative thing I have read in the last few few years. Clearly, of late the only informative literature I read has to do with product, but that's probably because everything else was boring me. Read it.

My sister asked me how I am affording my budget-conscious makeup purchases and I told her I make my own tea every morning. Then she bought me coffee. Right now, I need about 10 cups of both. I love how my day-to-day decisions revolve around makeup, food, and clothes lately. I'm trying to tell myself that after living in India for a year and subjecting myself to pre-med courses for another year and a half, I deserve it.

By the way, I read on An Indian's Makeup Blog! about a look using only Milani cosmetics. Sounds fun. Now I want to try every famous Milani product there is - I already have the Java Bean eyeshadow, but want to get the Rose Fetish lipstick and a couple of blushes. These are really cheap and I could probably afford to buy tea, too :)

Not So Vogue

Italian Vogue's July 2008 issue will feature only black models since they are so underrepresented in the fashion industry (read about in The New York Times here). I was kind of intrigued and impressed by this idea, but also rather disturbed because of course, the magazine is now turning this into, quite literally, a very black and white issue.

I guess Italian Vogue is making some sort of an effort here, albeit a very superficial one. What I don't understand is why there are still such extremes, and not just in terms of skin color but overall "look" - why is classic and patrician versus exotic and new? I get that this is probably what sells, and I also understand that black and white models can still encompass a wide variety of looks and body types, but it still seems that everyone else falls between the cracks.

The other day, a friend was telling me how people are always surprised to hear her ethnicity because she doesn't supposedly look "Indian," with the implication that looking remotely "ethnic" would somehow make her less attractive. I say we get an issue of Italian Vogue out there that is um, brown maybe, since most people fall somewhere between black and white, plain and exotic, and are definitely more "ethnic" looking than the fashion industry seems to prefer.

Now I want to start a magazine for these people. Oh, wait, that's totally been done before. I'll just superficially blog about such issues instead.