BigShinyThing

Hot on the dangerously high heels of the ‘hemline index’, comes another economic indicator from the fashion world. A recent issue of the FT’s How to Spend It glossie features a shoot in an alien-looking location. Fashionistas are even more notorious than ad folk when it comes to jetting off to the Maldives ‘for the light’, but this shoot is different. This fashionably sparse landscape doesn’t come courtesy of some desert or even Lanzarote. Instead, the photo credits include “Bryant Homes, new homes development, Oxfordshire” who are clearly diversifying in the absence of any houses to build. Times is hard.

Arts collective Are You Generic declare sweetly ‘we miss content’ and invite readers to critique glossy mags by inserting the following diatribe between the ads:

The confessions of a generic magazine We loaded this issue with more advertising than content. The content we did publish was edited, censored and manipulated to please our advertisers or as lame filler between the product pushing ads. We got paid quite handsomely to produce this issue and are glad you will pay to read what we already got paid to print. Are You Generic?

Are You Generic? say that they are

A group of artists that seeks to protest, to question, and to disprove. Its nemeses are unethical corporations, censorship, the slanted media, hypocrisy, excessive advertising, and plain stupidity. Its heroes are art, discussion, independent thought, and creation.

We like. Via Wooster.

Once you get past the zillion pages of ads, it’s rather beautiful … see the FT site for details. Get it while it’s non subscription…

This week’s Hot Stars mag (free with OK) is a case in point. On the cover it ‘reports’:

Fears for thin Kate: London friends of Kate Moss have voiced their fears for the supermodel after her weight appears to have plummeted in recent weeks. Kate, 31, is looking thinner than ever and has also developed spots on her face. The style queen also seems to have lost interest in her appearance, and was snapped with messy hair and wearing the same clothes on consecutive days [shock horror].

However, by page 38 the same outfit is a good look: “As seen on: Geri Halliwell, Fergie and Kate Moss, whose pins all look perfect in cute and sassy shorts.”

And by page 48 readers are being encouraged to ape Moss’s fitness regime:

Swinging [I don't think that the double-entendre is intended]. Who does it? Kate Moss. Benefits? You may feel like a bit of a lemon, but who cares when you’re having fun and fighting the flab at the same time? And if Kate can do it, then so can we!

These people are messing with our minds!