Leandra Medine's Blog, page 596

Mind the Wage Gap: Is Your Pay Check Fair?

Collage by Krista Anna Lewis

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The Sex and the City Diet, Round 2: Charlotte York Goldenblatt

Look, I’m not calling these “culture diets” a sort of competition, but if we’re talking about Charlotte of Sex and the City vs. me (as in, Leandra), I feel it’s important to note that though we were both bred on the Upper East Side (granted, her apartment was considerably fancier and she really played into the stereotypes that comprise the lifestyle that comes with the geographic region, e.g. consistent tennis playing and pearls around her neck), I didn’t convert to become a Goldenblatt. I just am one.

Anyway, here is a laundry list of all the ways I endeavored to discharge my inner Charlotte:

I put diamond studs in my ears. When I walked into work on Monday, our managing editor, Elizabeth, told me she was shocked. I reminded her that for the subsequent week I would be wearing sweater sets (dutifully executed on both Tuesday and Thursday) and talking about the kind of shit all hopeless romantics get caught up in, like the power of eye contact and psychics who match you based on zodiac compatibility.

I wore my engagement ring on top of my wedding band all week. If I’m being honest, which as Leandra, I always am, I don’t like wearing my engagement ring for the simple reason that it makes me feel like every other girl in the world who wears the same piece of jewelry on the same finger to signify the same thing. This week, however, I am all about my “basic” jewelry and the significance it connotes. I was especially privy to wearing it while walking around my apartment alone à la Charlotte-mid-break-up-with-Trey.

I wore a blazer with pearl buttons un-ironically over a button down shirt and fitted jeans. I also changed into a navy t-shirt, mini skirt and silver boots. One point for Charlotte here. I just couldn’t handle how much I felt like a horseback rider who drinks lemonade when she’s feeling kind of funky! But again, I did execute on the twin set front.

Céline jacket, Everlane t-shirt, Topshop skirt, Camilla Elphick boots, Sarah’s Bag clutch

I didn’t get, but thought about forehead botox. End of sentence — it’s huge.

Moving on!

I drank exactly no more than one drink per evening, limiting the ilk of my consumption to white wine only. It just seemed like something the dedicated character of Carrie’s first book would do.

I adopted a baby and “prepared” Chinese food for my husband while we discussed the region from which we would adopt this baby. I didn’t actually do either of those things, which means that I lied, which if you remember correctly is perfectly in line with this diet given the time Charlotte lied to her friends and said her sex life with Trey was fantastic even though he couldn’t get it up until she barged into his bedroom while they were separated with shampoo in her hair and her silk blouse’s buttons wrongly done to tell him she’s not a Madonna and she’s not a whore and then, boom! Rocket fire.

I cried when my friend told me she might move. 

I did not watch the first Democratic debate, which kind of pained me, but Charlotte was a member of College Republicans, you know, so instead I put up a poster of Jeb Bush. I’m lying again, which is still in line with acting like Charlotte because even though Carrie called her the Park Avenue Pollyanna, she had a ton of sex with unassuming men she kind of didn’t know. (I am thinking specifically of that tango with the handyman who fixed her VCR.) So that’s that.

Toward the end of the week, I started to feel really competitive, unusually competitive — like the mother of a dog named Elizabeth Taylor who had the potential to be a five-time dog show champion but got her period on a pair of light colored, satin shoes — or something. And thus began to compare our respective coups and losses. Things like:

I’ve been bribed with free shoes before, too, but when that happened, the stakes didn’t include appeasing a foot fetisher’s creepy proclivities.

Leandra: 1, Charlotte: 0.

I showed up at breakfast with two (as opposed to three) of my best friends on Tuesday (bonus point: one has red hair and may or may not have moonlit as Miranda last week) and yelled, “I’ve been dating since I was fifteen! I’m exhausted! Where is he?” They looked at me and reminded me that I’m married and it seemed the rigor I tried to espouse was lost.

Charlotte: 1, Leandra: 1.

I e-mailed an associate at Ralph Lauren to inquire about whether they were in pursuit of new models — Charlotte was a teen model when the new store opened in New Haven.

I have so far heard back from exactly no one.

Charlotte: 2, Leandra: 1.

I started keeping a vagina journal! It is unclear whether Charlotte actually ever kept one because beyond her explaining to Carrie and co. that she had to keep one, we never heard from it again.

I, on the other hand, can promise you that five entries exist within the journal. One says, “Why you gotta smell like that when I wear microfiber?” Another says, “Good job tonight procuring natural lube the minute Abie touched your non-Botoxed forehead.”

Leandra: 2, Charlotte: 2.

Heated moment. We’re tied. You might think there’s no way she’s not about to win — especially given the fact that even though I got a blow out, I only got one and proceeded not to wash my hair for five days, which Charlotte would never do — but you’re wrong. And why?

Because I made my relationship with Bunny work.

Collage by Krista Anna Lewis. Still via ABC News.

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MR Writers Club Prompt: Your Favorite Word, in 500 Words

Earlier this week, Amelia was talking about gumption — I’m not 100% sure what she saying because I rarely listen when she speaks and so for all I know she could have actually been talking about gum (under her) shoe or something. From across the office, our photographer extraordinaire, Krista, yelled, “Ugh, gumption, such a great word,” to which I interjected and said, “Yup, it’s right up there with gusto and conviction.”

What followed was a 13-minute conversation on words we love. Superfluous, fornication, clairvoyance, gargoyle, akimbo, brouhaha — the list went on. In tandem with this conversation, I was setting out to complete the assignment for this week’s writers prompt. In my head, I thought it was high time to ask you to write your own Kickstarter plea, but the words got me thinking — wouldn’t it be so much more fun to have you write a 500 word essay whereby the centerpiece of the story is your all time favorite word? For me, that word is moist. Which means that if I were completing the assignment, I would probably write about a day in the life of a sweaty armpit.

I’m kidding (about the moist thing, not about how compelling a day in the life of a sweaty armpit must be) but now I’m just wasting your time.

A few items of housekeeping: all submissions should be e-mailed to write@manrepeller.com by 12 p.m. EST on Thursday, October 22nd. None should exceed 500 words but all should offer an ab workout. I’m kidding again.

Can’t wait to read you! Bye!

Collage by Krista Anna Lewis. Photographed by Julia Noni for Neiman Marcus via Blog in Voga.

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The Best Workout (Ever) in a Series of Gifs

If you’ve ever tried “the class,” you know it’s a challenge. A very loud challenge. There is a sequence of like, four straight minutes of burpees. One time I did nine minutes of jumping jacks. And push ups! Who the fuck still knows how to execute a push up? If you leave without feeling like your legs have become strands of spaghetti, you probably missed the final sequence of synchronized running in place, yelling and flailing your arms, and not to sound like the banal platitude that David Foster Wallace outlined in his commencement speech at Kenyon College, but through the challenge always — always — emerges such a distinctly divine sense of self-fulfillment.

Not because you’re changing your body (and trust me, you are), but because your mindset is being reoriented. In 2015, this class is the precise definition of “me” time. No longer are blow outs and manicures — traditional tenets of female relaxation and alone time — sacred. Our phones ruined that. If you want to unwind, unplug, get to know yourself again, you’ve got to take to a fitness class. Let it be to the one that marries meditation to severe muscle burn.

At “the class,” you begin to experience the pain of getting stronger not as something to run away from but as a condition to lean into — to set on fire and relinquish. You’re yelling through the majority of the class. Your eyes are closed, you’re rubbing your palms together and into minute three of pulsing squat mode when you hear Taryn Toomey, the class’s founder, preach such clichés as, “Yes, you can.” Yet somehow they come across so completely authentic and personalized, and you start to realize that the only hurdle to overcome in pursuing a good sweat is you.

Toomey cites the yelling (though it’s more like an extended Aaaaaaahhhhhh) as the only thing that can shut the voices up. “We work one muscle group at a time and don’t leave a single muscle untouched,” she says. “We start with the primary muscle, move to the secondary and finally, the tertiary. We exhaust each one, then add cardio blasts to cleanse the palette, shake up the contraction, flush the system and torch calories. We use sounds, breath and intention to create a cathartic experience.”

Here’s a taste of the workout in gif form broken down by how much time you have.

IF YOU HAVE 10 MINUTES:

Movement #1: Squat into jump squat

Music: “Chasing Cars” by Snow Patrol

Duration: 4:25

Bend knees deeply, moving hips back and keeping knees over ankles. On the chorus, let the body open, let the breath get big, get the blood flowing.

Great for: Toning legs and butt, moving stagnant energy that has been stuck in the mind.

*

Movement #2: Heart opening series

Music: “Lose Yourself” by Eminem

Duration: 5:21

Come to sit on your knees or shins. Extend the arms out to the side and soften shoulder blades down your back. Move your arms forward and back in the air. Keep your eyes closed, drop your attention into your heart space and breathe deeply while you clean shop.

Great for: Strengthening the shoulders and chest. Emotionally helps to clear feelings of disappointment and fear.

*

Close with a meditation: Come in to a comfortable cross legged seat, sit upright, close your eyes and watch your breath move in and out slowly.

Music: “Where Is My Mind” by Maxence Cyrin

Duration: 2:47

IF YOU HAVE TWENTY MINUTES:

Movement #1: Squat into jump squat

Music: “Chasing Cars” by Snow Patrol

Duration: 4:25

Movement #2: Butt blast with ab lift

Music: “Levitator” by LP (live version)

Duration: 4:31

Lie on back, lift hips off the floor, draw right knee into chest and lift chest toward knee. Extend leg long parallel with the floor then bring it back in toward the face. As the intensity builds, use deep inhales and loud exhales. Force yourself to feel the clearing of your body and mind from tension, stress, heaviness.

Great for: Lifting the butt.

*

Movement #3: Burpees

Music: “Take Me to Church” by Hozier

Duration: 4:01

Start in plank position, hop the feet between the hands, jump up toward the ceiling. As feet hit the floor, exhale in a loud “Ha!,” and break the tension that you feel in the body. The heart rate will rise quickly and the voice in the head will become loud. Use that unwell voice as “fuel,” and as we say, “PUT IT ON THE FIRE.” Unblock it. This is great to move frustrations and old patterns that you have stored.

*

Movement #3: Repeat butt blast on opposite leg here

*

Movement #4: Heart opening series

Music: “Lose Yourself” by Eminem

Duration: 5:21

Come to sit on your knees or shins. Extend the arms out to the side and soften shoulder blades down back. Move your arms forward and back in the air. Keep your eyes closed, drop your attention into your heart space and breathe deeply while you clean shop.

Close with a meditation. Come in to a comfortable cross legged seat, sit upright, close your eyes and watch your breath move in and out slowly.

Music: “Where Is My Mind” by Maxence Cyrin

Duration: 2:47

IF YOU HAVE 65 MINUTES 

Movement #1: Squat into jump squat

Music: “Chasing Cars” by Snow Patrol

Duration: 4:25

Movement #2: Standing butt taps

Music: “Fade Out Lines” by The Avener, Phoebe Killdeer

Duration: 4:36

Stand upright, bend the standing, stabilizing leg, extend arms out to the side. Tap the opposite toe behind the standing leg, lift the knee up toward center and then tap the toe wide on the floor. Keep the hips stable, being mindful not to straighten the standing leg. Breathe up the front of the body. 

Great for: Toning the overall leg, butt, shoulders. Also works the stabilizing muscles for balance.

*

Movement #2: Butt blast with ab lift

Music: “Levitator by LP” (live version)

Duration: 4:31

Lie on back, lift hips off the floor, draw right knee into chest and lift chest toward knee. Extend leg long parallel with the floor, and back in toward face. As the intensity builds, use deep inhales and loud exhales. Force yourself to feel the clearing of your body and mind from tension, stress, heaviness.

*

Movement #3: Burpees

Music: “Take Me to Church” by Hozier

Duration: 4:01

Start in plank position, hop the feet between the hands, jump up toward the ceiling. As feet hit the floor, exhale in a loud “Ha!,” and break the tension that you feel in the body. The heart rate will rise quickly and the voice in the head will become loud, use that unwell voice as “fuel” and as we say, “PUT IT ON THE FIRE.” Unblock it. This is great to move frustrations and old patterns that you have stored.

*

Movement #3: Repeat butt blast on opposite leg here

*

Movement #4: Mountain climbers song

Song: “Rollercoaster” by Bleachers

Duration: 3:40

Come into a plank pose, engage the belly and draw one knee into your chest, switch, and bring in the other. Speed up on the chorus and then draw back into a downward dog when needed. Feel a lightness in the step, let the heart rate rise up and meet it with deep full breaths. Rest in child’s pose when complete.

*

Movement #5: Heart opening series

Music: “Lose Yourself” by Eminem

Duration: 5:21

Come to sit on your knees or shins. Extend the arms out to the side and soften shoulder blades down back. Move your arms forward and back in the air. Keep your eyes closed, drop your attention into your heart space and breathe deeply while you clean shop.

*

Movement #6: Back body strengthener

Music: “9 Crimes” by Damien Rice

Duration: 3:38

Kneel on your shins, tip forward from the waist, engage the belly, straighten the arms behind you, draw the shoulders down the back, broaden across the upper chest and make little pulses with the palms facing each other as if you were squeezing a beach ball.

*

Movement #7: Devotional tricep presses

Music: “People Help the People” by Birdy

Duration: 4:17

Come to all fours, extend arms long in front of you, bend elbows, allowing them to hover 2 inches off the floor. Begin to pulse the elbows, keep shoulder blades down. Close your eyes and breathe deeply. In this move, feel yourself using kindness and words of softness for yourself, especially if you have been in a place of discomfort. Use this time to reflect and fill yourself back up with words of wisdom and softness.

Great for: Abdominals, triceps and lat-engagement.

*

Movement #8: Abdominal plank pose

Music: “Seven Nation Army” by Zella Day

Duration: 2:53

Come into a forearm plank, tuck your butt slightly under, draw shoulder blades down your back. Tap left knee on floor, then right knee on floor, continue to alternate at the pace of the song. Rest in dolphin pose, lifting hips up and back, and breathe through the body. Then rock forward and continue. Rest in child’s pose at the end and turn your palms to the ceiling.

Close with a meditation. Come in to a comfortable cross legged seat, sit upright, close your eyes and watch your breath move in and out slowly.

Music: “Where is My Mind” by Maxence Cyrin

Duration: 2:47

Photographed by Krista Anna Lewis

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My Eyebrows Got a Princess Makeover

It should be known I am not a beauty person. All of my makeup can be found in the free sample page of a magazine and it takes me about 10 minutes to go from bed to the door in the morning. This is not because I am a natural, glowing beauty, but rather, because I am a natural, lazy slob. I have, more than once, looked into tattooing makeup onto my face, simply to eliminate those existing 10 minutes.

It is a combination of this laziness and pure fear that has stopped me from ever really touching my eyebrows. They are light brown and kind of vanish as they extend towards the outer edges of my face, like a child drew them on and forgot to color in the ends. They are weird — and definitely not trendy in this current age of the thick, assertive brow — but I am painfully aware of the negative effect altering eyebrows can have on one’s face. I spent 7th grade looking like a scared 1920s silent film star and have been wary of doing anything to my brows since.

That is, until I found out someone could take care of them for me. Writer Kelly Oxford spread the good word by instagramming her own brow situation. She was growing hers out for an appointment with LA brow aesthetician Kristie Streicher, who demands at least four weeks of growth for her feathered, Blue Lagoon Brooke Shields look. If Oxford could do it, so could I, so I took my own impressive 10+ years of growth to my local Benefit Brow Bar ($38.00 for a wax and tint as opposed to Streicher’s $100).

After I showed up a prompt 15 minutes late to my appointment, an esthetician named Maria peered at my brows then concocted a natural-colored dye with some sort of modern, intimidating mortar and pestle. She put the mixture on my face and we chatted as it dried. Afterwards, she meticulously waxed a shape into my sad little brows, like Michelangelo chipping away at the David. Within a few minutes, the whole thing was over.

You know that scene in The Princess Diaries when they spin Anne Hathaway around after her princess makeover and she’s suddenly actress Anne Hathaway instead of “nerd” Anne Hathaway with facial caterpillars and a perm? Well, when Maria handed me a mirror, my transformation was 1,000 times better than that. Fellow customers cheered and threw lipstick samples up in the air like confetti. A Prince song played. Maria had magically conjured new, larger eyebrows on to my face like they were made of Chia Pet fur, and I, the terra-cotta pot.

The experience was relatively painless, cost effective and easy. The best part by far is how well my new brows fit into my lazy, no makeup lifestyle. It turns out that manicured brows make you look way more put together and fashionable. I’m getting a weird amount of compliments on clothing I’ve worn dozens of times before, and despite (hopefully?) not being pregnant, I have been told on multiple occasions that I’m “glowing.”

Along with two new brows, the experience gave me confidence. I’d felt weird about my patchy situation since adolescence. Now, with the raise of a brow, I could rule Genovia.

Frida Kahlo, Self Portrait, 1938 via Biography.com. Eyebrows via PhotoShop Web.

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Sweet Investment: The Not-Bath-Robe

Here’s a novel idea: indulge in a bathrobe and chalk up the purchase to unique personal style. According to Thakoon, who sent a blue poplin bathrobe replete with red piping down his Spring runway, there is no time like the present to try your hand at a trend that I am personally guesstimating will become pretty common by the time March rolls around. Tell your friends you thought of it first by getting a head start on it and use these bullet points to validate the inner-wear as viable outerwear.

1) They’re not the obvious choice. Blazers are great, yes. Utility jackets and trench coat are solid, choice body protectors, too, but when’s the last time you saw a striped poplin bathrobe in the wild paired under a blazer and over some pants? (Length at your disclosure.) When a new season hits and the silhouettes on offer feel stale already, it’s time for reinvention. Only you don’t have to remake the wheel, you just have to reconsider how you use it.

2) They’re cheaper than traditional jackets. Granted, they can get quite expensive — and when they’re being made as outerwear (like in the case of the imminent Thakoon robe), you’re less likely to strike a deal but if you take the trend to its source, that is, the purveyors of pj’s, you can find one as cheap as $30 (or less!). The photographed one here is by Sleepy Jones and comes in at $228.

3) They function as a solid third piece for the new-age three-piece suit. That’s it.

Are you convinced? Good! Great! Funtastic! Wonderfool. Here a few bullet points on how you might want to wear them.

With a denim jacket over and cropped, flare jeans under.

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With a counter-print (or crystal) blazer and baggy, embroidered pants.

With a bright colored turtleneck under, another bright sweater over and tied to reflect a sort of full skirt, as opposed to straight dress. In this case, I’d recommend straight leg pants.

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And here are some shoes because…

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Do I need a reason to show you shoes?

Photographed by Krista Anna Lewis

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Modern Boys Love the Real Housewives

Our grandmothers tell us that a little bit of mystery is important in the beginning of a relationship. It’s dated advice, but I get it: Do I need to share my yen for reality television with someone new? I think not. My taste in TV is bottom-of-the-barrel. It’s deal-breaker bad. For context: relative to what I watch, The Mindy Project is an important anthropological conversation.

But I realize that not everyone is so progressive as Mindy Kaling and me. It’s why when I first started dating Jason, I tucked away my small-screen preferences and gushed instead over Orange is the New Black. I declared Larry David “a genius.” (However, when he was distracted, I quickly added that I sometimes liked to unwind to the tune of Chris Harrison’s voice.)

Jason watches documentaries and historic films. He likes smart cartoon comedies that make culture critics type for joy. They make me fall asleep.

We soon decided to talk about books rather than moving pictures, exchanging copies of our favorite paperbacks. And that was good. For a few weeks, we were written into the same cultural manifesto. I read a lot in March. It was nice. But I couldn’t stop thinking about Bravo.

At some point in every relationship, the time comes to slap on a face mask and settle in for an evening of sweatpants and TV. It is in this tenuous moment that you reveal just how much you want to watch the Real Housewives — even when the boy you like would rather make out. Vicki Gunvalson is more important than foreplay. Vicki Gunvalson is foreplay.

The truth spilled out on a brisk evening in April when Jason’s plans with friends were cancelled last minute. I had already resolved to catch up with my NYC gals, so at 8:00 pm he joined me to watch Sonja and Ramona gallivant in the tropics. It was almost 1:00 am when we realized we’d watched five episodes.

There have been great surprises in this relationship: unexpected presents, small celebrations. But perhaps the happiest of all is that it turns out Jason has a real enthusiasm for the Housewives — no matter the provenance. He was first exposed to the Manhattanites, whom he appreciated for their spunk and their sass and their Sonja. But when the most recent season concluded, he moved on to Orange County and decided that he preferred them. Between the Heathers on each show, he told me, he is partial to Heather Dubrow. The Countess has never much impressed him.

Romance is a pleasure and companionship is good. But it is made grander when you’re able to share a bottle of Pinot Grigio with that special someone and Ramona Singer. My mother and Gloria Steinem will tell you that you should never be someone else for a man. And that’s true. Had Jason hated the universe that Andy Cohen created, I would never have given up on Bethenny. Some vows are sacred. But it’s better to tell the outside world that we are busy on Mondays at 9 pm, and that we do it together. The patriarchy is dead! Andy lives! This is modern love.

When I told him I would write this story, Jason stipulated only that I not embellish his fandom.

“I trust you that you will accurately represent my preference in Heathers,” he said. “And that you tell everyone I draw the line at Ladies of London.”

Illustrated by Joseph Amar.

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Ask Isaac: My Friends Say He’s Texting Other Girls

Mate! This guy sounds dodgy as hellllllll and I wouldn’t trust him as far as I can throw him. To recap, he chased you for years, finally won you over, then once he had you, betrayed your trust by hitting up other girls and telling them he was single.

When you try and talk to him about it he gets moody and attempts to control the conversation by bringing up things that have nothing to do with the topic at hand. Do you know who else does that? Dishonest politicians who answer the question they want to answer, not the question that was asked. Tricky Dicky indeed.

I can’t for the life of me figure out what your friends were doing going through his phone, either — that sounds extremely strange. But they found what they found, which was your boyfriend behaving in an unfaithful manner. It’s up to you what you do now, but if you forgive him, how are you going to be able to trust that he won’t do it again once the tension dies down from this little escapade?

I’m hard-line about cheating. I vote get rid of him. Life is too short for relationships with people we cannot trust!

Follow Isaac on Instagram here, Twitter here, and check out his website here. If you have a relationship question for our Ask a Guy series, email write@manrepeller.com with ASK ISAAC in the subject line, or feel free to comment it below. 

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Trend to Try: Amber Lenses

They say three’s a trend — but what does that make ten?

An epidemic?

A decacorn?

Two hands?

Among the quieter trends to emerge following the F/W 2015 runway season were the arrival of see-through sunglasses, which I historically linked to allusions of sex offenders, like the one who killed Suzie Salmon in Lovely Bones.

Sunglasses on Leandra by Karen Walker

Though they did not command the sort of press attention one might expect from a ten-time trend winner (a possible effect of the aforementioned child murderer?), they were hugely popular commercially, and the proof is in the immediacy with which the Loewe version, priced at upwards of $400 and called the “Filipa” sold out (definitely not linked to the anterior reference).  I wore a pair with blue frames for the greater half of last summer, which you would know if you watched this video.

But I digress. Here are some important stats to sell you on the sunglasses.

Runways seen on: Versace, Roberto Cavalli, Tod’s, Fendi, Prada, Etro, Gucci, Loewe, Karen Walker and Jonathan Saunders (the most common denominator here is Milan, thus substantiating a theory that I am working on which suggests that Paris is dead and all the fun is in Milan).

Why this trend is awesome: 1) There is something inherently cool about wearing sunglasses when you don’t have to, but being both literally and figuratively transparent about it. 2) According to the recent styling hacks of Alessandro Michele’s Gucci, librarians are trending and a wacky thick rim + sheer lens facilitates the playing of that role spectacularly. 3) You can keep them on while you’re on your phone or reading a pamphlet about contraceptives because they don’t make seeing more difficult. 4) Like any other pair of sunglasses, they make you look cooler. But in a crazy Aunt Suzy kind of way. Which is so cool.

How to wear them: With really simple clothes. It’s the eyewear that packs an outfit punch — try a solid turtleneck with high waist jeans and a belt.

Sunglasses on Elizabeth by Taylor Morris

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Or a button down shirt with a long, gold necklace that you could double to turn into a choker.

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And also…have you considered athleis-wear?

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What to say if someone accuses you of looking creepy: “You’re an idiot. I’m paying homage to Sir Elton John.”

And then you drop the mic.

Photographed by Krista Anna Lewis

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The Met Gala’s 2016 Theme is Sponsored by Apple — What Do You Think of That?

According to a press release from the office of the Metropolitan Museum, which is more reliable than the oral grapevine that is dinner at a French restaurant with an old publicist-cum-friend, the Costume Institute’s 2016 theme and gala will focus on technology’s impact on fashion.

It will be underscored by Apple.

No looking glass.

No punk.

No extravagant Alexander McQueen dresses (though worth mentioning is the imagery from Vogue’s announcement: a still from McQueen by Sarah Burton’s FW 2013 collection).

The honorary co-chairs for the event (in my opinion, the theme’s best quality and what will give it durable legs) are Nicolas Ghesquière, Karl Lagerfeld and Miuccia Prada, three of the most forward-thinking designers who have demonstrated pretty remarkable strength in reinventing their respective wheels for popular consumption.

The press release cites a quote from the Met’s CEO:

“Fashion and technology are inextricably connected, more so now than ever before. It is therefore timely to examine the roles that the handmade and the machine-made have played in the creative process. Often presented as oppositional, this exhibition proposes a new view in which the hand and the machine are mutual and equal protagonists.”

That makes a lot of sense, and in many ways contextualizes the theme against the obvious proliferation of Instagram and otherwise platforms. And don’t get me wrong — some of the most interesting and compelling minds in fashion, art and culture stand behind the institution who put this theme together, but doesn’t it feel a little too soon for a technology theme? Not like it’s lazy, but like it’s too “real” or something?

A visit to The Met has long felt like an alternate universe where you are encouraged to switch off the reality in which you live in order to take a step back in time — to fantasize about the ancient artifacts that stand among you. Technology (ironically a totem of cyber life) is too current to cushion that fantasy and alternate reality. In many ways, this is what good fashion allows us to do, too. With a theme that is so tactile, so correlated to the realities we live, where’s that suspension of belief?

Should we even be pursuing that?

The other thing, I guess, is the potential looming fear that we, as an industry, are afraid to get left behind. Just last year the CFDA honored Instagram with the media award for 2015.  The business of fashion’s reach to connect with a younger audience? Or is this our new reality?

Photograph via Style Bubble, Feature Photograph by Bert Stern for Vogue via The Red List.

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