Big Brother (UK) fashion victims

[thefunkykitten]

I wasn't sure where to post this... it's more of a comment on fashion trends that big brother itself, hence why I didn't post it in the entertainment thread.

Liz Jones gives her verdict on Big Brother's fashion victims

By LIZ JONES 5th June 2007

Badly-fitting dresses, tarty skirts and trend overload: our style guru despairs of the fashion victims in Big Brother.


Franky, it makes you feel ashamed to be female. The endless, eardrum-piercing, hysterical shrieking at nothing at all (the sight of a bath tap, perhaps?).
The knock-kneed teetering on high-heeled platform shoes. The constant waving of acrylic false nails in front of the face.
The glassy-eyed stare when confronted with a woman over 60, or the prospect of no men. The elaborate gurning in front of any reflective surface. Scroll down for more

Sister act: Housemates Charley, Amanda, Sam and Chanelle



But the most annoying, eyesore-making, shaming thing about the nine young women who entered the Big Brother house on Wednesday night (the two older women are, for the most part, exempt from my criticism) was the eyepopping array of clothes they had decided, probably with a great deal of deliberation, to put on.

The programme was a useful tool to see exactly how women - real ones, not Kate Moss - manage to put a look together.

Despite the orgy of fashion magazines on the shelves showing us how to "get the look", it seems these women can't even read.
They pile everything on at once; they don't mix something cheap with something classic (a pair of 501s) or vintage.
I have often wondered who on earth would wear a Sixties nylon shift with graphic circles, black footless tights, a pink ra-ra skirt exposing buttock cleavage, a white waistcoat pulled too tight, high-waist denim hot pants, tons of black mascara, frosted eye shadow, big belts, big hair, gooey lips and a purple mini-babydoll shift with a giant bow.
And yet here they were, thinking they looked fabulous, cutting edge and sexy when, in fact, they looked like children, or at least Jodie Foster's character in Taxi Driver.
I would also wager that none of these outfits cost more than six pence.
As a fashion editor for a couple of decades, I can't help but ask: Has no one been paying the slightest bit of attention?
Now, I am all in favour of the democratisation of fashion. The revolution in the High Street has meant that good design (by which I mean clothes made in natural fibres, which are well cut, lined and responsive to trends, though not slavishly so) has trickled down and is available to everybody.
But - and the sartorial choices of the women on Big Brother confirm only what I have been thinking quietly for the past couple of years - it has all gone terribly wrong.
The High Street shops started to become as greedy as their more upmarket cousins.
Prices shot up (have you seen how much a mass-produced, badly made acetate dress in Topshop costs?), quality plummeted and the copycat designer flourishes on every garment shot up.
Have you ever wondered why the Sixties look took off so dramatically last summer and this?
It was simply because Sixties designs - with their splashy prints, lack of seams or darts and sheer paucity of fabric - are cheap to manufacture.
In my view, the boom in the High Street, the vogue for disposable, instantaneous design that is readily available even in supermarket aisles, has made most young women look like very young, very stupid hookers.
There might be just one lap dancer in the BB house, Charley, the Sinitta lookalike.
But, come on, didn't they all look like one, bar Lesley, the lovely WI member who was wearing a nice, tailored cream jacket with black slacks.
Carole, a health worker, and Tracey, surely a transsexual, look like the sort of women who earn their money by having it stuffed down their knickers.
The point young British women are missing is that to pull off the very young, gamine, trailer-trash, gaudy look, you have to do it expensively, using luxury fabrics and with a touch of knowing irony.
You also have to be jawdroppingly classy, beautiful and understated, not a bit fat or short.
You think the inclination for putting 6ft 15-year-olds on the catwalk over the past few seasons wasn't dangerous, that it had no effect on women's lives other than to make them feel unattractive?
Take one long, hard look at the women on the programme and you will see how they swallow fashion trends: they not only look like children, they behave like them.
They don't interpret or add their own twist or personality to a look they have been sold wholesale (not literally wholesale; where would be the profit in that?). Young British women today all look the same. Which is sad - and absolutely the fault of the fashion industry for being far too greedy and far too lazy for far too long.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=459625&in_page_id=1879

 

[just_me]

umm.. It IS Big Brother the trash program.

What did she expect?

 

[thefunkykitten]

umm.. It IS Big Brother the trash program.

What did she expect?

BB does, however, represent a huge portion of the young british public... so it is indeed sad to see so little individuality

 

[Manuva]

Franky, it makes you feel ashamed to be female. The endless, eardrum-piercing, hysterical shrieking at nothing at all (the sight of a bath tap, perhaps?).

I was sitting there in horror watching Big Brother, when the twins went in and screeched at everything because it was pink. I know they're quite young, but come on, they were acting ridiculous.

Also, the girl who wants to be Victoria Beckham - we already have one and she is more than enough.

Honestly, the people on BB doesn't represent all British Women as the article seems to imply. Also, this:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=459324&in_page_id=1879 is an interesting read about the selection process.

 

[ApertureRomance]

I see girls like that everyday doesn't really faze me anymore.

 

[Ithillien]

Chanelle lives near me, shes a right psycho haha

 

[Alexandra8715]

I didn't like this:

"and Tracey, surely a transsexual" - how is it relevent/good taste to write this? (ironically good taste is the thething she's saying is lacking in the BB house)
"You also have to be jawdroppingly classy, beautiful and understated, not a bit fat or short" - erm who says we have to be just to wear a designer piece? Who says we even WANT to be??!


Not sure if Liz Jones is saying that the contestants are ignorant of fashion and therefore dress cheaply, or if she's saying that we're all screwed anyway because of the crap they sell us on the highstreet.

Weird article. But thanks for it anyway.

 

[ApertureRomance]

It's the dailymail what do you expect

I think it's less about the clothes and more about the desperate need for notoriety most big brother contestents seem to have and I guess that links in with increased focus on celebrities as examples of style and aspirational models. I know it's always been that way but the past few years it seems to have grown.

 

[thefunkykitten]

yeh, i've since learned that the daily mail is a very Tory paper - which makes the content a little more, ummm, not acceptable... but unsurprising maybe?

 

[Paper Champion]

Chanelle lives near me, shes a right psycho haha

The twins live 10mins away from me and are a mates mates sisters (if that makes sense)

Not everyone Newcastle, stoke look or sound like them, but unfortunatly they represent a large amount of our population in this part of the UK, its a shame really!!!! eek

 

[tifa]

That article is badly written, useless rubbish with no value whatsoever. Congratulations fashion journalist, you're exactly like the programme you're criticising.

 

[ailimeanna]

ugh i can't stand liz jones' daily mail drivel.. not that i like any of these outfits or anything