Fashion Mini Celebrates Ten-Year-Old Taste

You know, it’s pretty much par for the course that a magazine has the power to make us feel bad about ourselves.  Between the impossibly skinny models, their never-seen-the-sun skin, and our apparently inadequate earning power, reading a magazine can sometimes turn into a real battle with our self-esteem.  Last night, we were reading the October issue of Marie Claire, feeling pretty good about our bank balance—until we saw that a $295 Tory Burch dress listed as a “steal.”  Suddenly, our mood darkened.  A dress that costs a good deal more than our car payment?  Oh, sure, what a fantastic way to spend our hard-earned dollars!   But was the magazine’s perspective skewed, or are we simply not bringing home enough cash to finance a fashionable life?

Fortunately for our sense of self-worth, the page also suggested a $34.95 H&M dress.  (And we aren’t really in the midst of a magazine-induced personal crisis…yet.)  Still, we have to wonder who Marie Claire thinks is reading their magazine when such disparate price points are both considered bargains, but we’re digressing.

We’ve been reading fashion mags for the better part of our life (really!), which means we’ve absorbed plenty of stories about men, clothes, and money that don’t even approach our reality.  Still, we hadn’t yet read anything that made us feel like we were inadequate in our youth.  Until tonight, that is!  Who even knew that poor self-esteem could be retroactive?  Well, it’s totally possible!  How?  Well, the September Fashion Mini crowns actress Camilla Belle one of their fifty most stylish luminaries.  Then, horrifyingly, the issue confronts us with a detailed account of actress Camilla Belle’s preferences as a ten-year-old—taking us all the way back to 1997. 

Although that was the year we turned twenty-one, Belle’s means—not to mention her taste—were already well beyond our reach.  Reading her style picks, it becomes rather clear that some of us (and we do mean us) will never quite catch up with the magazine world’s favorite tastemakers.  Behind the jump, we compare our picks with Camilla’s, circa 1997.  Looks like we can blame our lack of Louboutins on our childhood!

Camilla’s favorite travel destination: Italy
Glossed Over’s favorite travel destination: We were super-eager to head to Vegas for the first time as a 21-year-old. Getting kicked out of the Hard Rock in 1996 was ultra-humiliating.

Camilla’s favorite store:  Oilily, in Beverly Hills
Glossed Over’s favorite store: Old Navy, at the Beverly Connection

Camilla’s restaurant of choice:  Hot meal at home
Glossed Over’s restaurant of choice: In college, a hot meal at home meant Pizza Hut had delivered.

Camilla’s style icon:  Her mother
Glossed Over’s style icon: In 1997? Hell, we don’t even remember. Alicia Silverstone in Clueless, maybe? We totally coveted that yellow plaid suit from the opening. And the burgundy dress from the scene where Cher and Dionne take Tai to lunch! The argyle sweater vest. The black pin-striped blazer she wears when she and Dionne forge the love note to Miss Geist! And the beret with it—ooh! We could go on like this for at least an hour.

Camilla’s guilty TV pleasure: Disney Channel films
Glossed Over’s guilty TV pleasure: We could not tear ourselves away from The Real World: Boston.

Camilla’s fave film: The Color Purple
Glossed Over’s fave film:  Had to be a tie between Clueless and Muriel’s Wedding, both of which we still love.

Camilla’s most expensive accoutrements:  Black leather biker jacket
Glossed Over’s most expensive accoutrement:  Well, we did own a used Mazda.

Comments

[christin]

couldn't agree more about Clueless fashion. That was probably the first time in my life I realized it could be chic to dress up nicely - to be polished. Cher Horowitz forever!!!!!

[christin]

one more thing to add - "Where's my white collarless shirt from Fred Segal!!?!?!?"

[Glossed Over]

Hahaha...Our favorite quote is Cher's line, "You see how picky I am about my shoes, and they only go on my feet!"

[Jessica]

My favorite part of Clueless at the time -- other than the clothes, as it seriously made me want to stop --was when I could ID the mall they were shopping in. (I think it was Westside Pavilion, but now I don't remember.) I spent all of '97 drinking (I too had just turned 21).

[Glossed Over]

It was Westside Pavilion! We haven't been to that mall recently, but in 1997? Total shopping heaven.

[Pinky]

This site is AWESOME! Keep up the good work!

[Sharanya]

"Between the impossibly skinny models, their never-seen-the-sun skin, and our apparently inadequate earning power, reading a magazine can sometimes turn into a real battle with our self-esteem."

Finally -- someone talks about the earning power inadequacy!