October 7, 2007
Style and me
Lately something strange has been happening between me and The Globe and Mail Style section. Once a source of inordinate wrath on my part, now Style is one of the parts of the Saturday paper that I enjoy most. Part of this could be down to the fact that I’ve become older, less poor, and less wrathful over the years. I’m still not really interested in fashion, skipping such features, but I do regularly read Style for the articles. Ha ha. But I do.
This also says a lot about Focus— namely that it’s disappointing usually. But Style seems to have become more substantial. And of course it’s no coincidence that Leah McLaren’s writing appears to have improved as my own knee-jerk bitterosity has decreased, but still some weeks McLaren’s articles are quite well-done. And nearly every week I find myself appreciating Karen von Hahn’s columns, this week in particular with “Why are women so angry? Pull up a chair”. I like Russell Smith’s column. I love the restaurant reviews. Even the gardening page, which pops up from time to time.
And okay, maybe I am becoming more interested in fashion (or at least less interested in perpetually resembling a hobo) because I took Leah McLaren’s advice a couple of weeks back and started wearing eyeliner daily, and I feel significantly more attractive as a result– and not just due to those who have informed me that I might be. This weekend Style celebrates my most favourite colour in the world, informing me that “red is the new neutral” and I feel as though my whole way of being has been validated. Today I even purchased the hat which Leanne Delap featured in her “Knock-off” column last weekend “Cloche Call”. (Which is a really tacky thing to do, now that I set it down in words, but it is truly a wonderful hat. See photo below).
So I have changed. It’s one of the best things about growing up, actually: you don’t have to so angry at everything. You also can afford to go shopping. And maybe all this constitutes selling out, but I am way less ugly these days, and Style is too. I don’t know if I’ve come down to their level, or they’ve come down to mine, but something is eerily synchronous. Which I’d worry about a whole lot more, if I weren’t so happy with my hat. 
Great hat! And you are lovely, my dear, with or without eye liner.
The Globe Style section? Hmmmm…I’m afraid I’m still a bitter grump about that. Yes, Leah’s writing has definitely improved, though for the most part, I still cannot read her stuff. Russell Smith is a very talented writer (have you read Muriella Pent? Just wonderful – his best yet, I think), but I can’t read his style columns without rolling my eyes in exasperation. And Karen Von Whatsit can never be forgiven because she once said some very stupid shallow things about Charles Schulz’s ‘Peanuts’. I do like Marjorie Harris, though, and always read what she has to say about gardening, even if it’s much too fancy for my tastes.
It usually takes me about two minutes to go through the Style Section in the Globe. I guess I just have no style. But I can live without it. (Though I’ve managed to use eye liner for years, without the help of any stylist!)
I LOVED Muriella Pent— Russell Smith truly comes into his own. And I am pleased you like my hat– I wanted a grown-up one, sans pompoms and bobbles.
I will emphasize once again that if Focus were better I’d be less impressed by Style. But the eyeliner really has been revolutionary– I never took the time or bother before.
Your hat is beautiful. I feel it is a time for hats, and have been itching to buy one for a couple of months now, though I haven’t had the Globe Style section to guide me.
When I was in NB, Paul and I got the Globe weekend edition delivered to our house. We would run to the market to pick up German pastries, and then over coffee and back in bed or on our sun porch, we would pull apart the paper. While it almost always frustrated me with its irrelevance and silliness, I almost always read Style first and enjoyed it the most of all the paper, aside from the crossword.