...HIT ME BRITNEY ONE MORE TIME

written by Raminta Paukstyte

Miss Britney Spears turned 30 on Friday (December the 2nd) and with it the desparing realisation that time doesn't stand still, looking back how rapidly and suddenly idols change. Britney used to be the goddess for many teenage girls but times change and princesses do also. Sadly but true - she is not that pop princess anymore.

I used to love Britney. Absolutely adore her, actually. Those big eyes, blonde wavy hair - I am sure there was something in her innocent look that every teen girl tried to seek. And there was nothing wrong with that.

I kept buying magazines just because of her every time I found a little picture of the girl who did it again inside of them... I was proud of myself knowing word for word (as I've learnt them by heart!) and kept singing every single song she sang, even though I didn't know English then.

Then there's  even more embarrassing (?!) memory that I tried to do my hair in the way not a girl, not yet a woman did and looked for clohes similar to those she wore, so that I could look like her. All in all: that was all rather positive impact she gave to me.

It's not even because she got older or something that we stopped admiring the girl next door look. We don't actually need that innocence anymore - sadly or not - it is no longer attractive in this sexualized society we live in. Then it comes to judgment - what do we have attractive today?

There's no such a thing as 'innocence'.  We have Rihanna, pop princess, who sings about how badly she wants sex and that chains and whips excite her...

We also have Lady Gaga, whose music video clips could surely compete with pornography and American culture "beauty", music awards' winner Nicky Minaj, whose plastic surgery-shaped ass for a public eye is much more important than she and her music is. Some artists,  to be honest, actually deserve much more to be nominated and awarded for  the best bump of the year rather than the best album of the year, but, anyway...

This is where it all goes. What is wrong with that? I'd rather be kicked and misunderstood but would ask the new, next generation's Britney to hit us, babies, one more time, because I'd never like to see my future-teen-daughter seeking to look like one of those new, sexualized pop princesses. 

Britney Spears performing ...baby one more time

Personal Fashion Memoir: "The Higher the Heel, the Closer to Heaven"

It started when I was a little girl gloating over the gorgeous dresses on the television screen, when I first saw Miss Universe beauty contest. For somebody else it would have been the actual dress, but for me it was more about that subtle and inspiring feminine walk, which my bittersweet memory muscled in on. I’ve always wanted to be that girl - confident and beautiful - ever since. I felt it was something about the footwear.  And now, I know, that it was all about the heels... 

by Raminta Paukstyte

Falling in love with them came gradually, though. Switching from the black leather steel toe boots to high-heels wasn’t easy for a 16-year-old-punk me. Something radical should have happened, but there was nothing - just a dramatic, ultimate fashion contradiction. I started attending a modelling school at the age of 16 and here the confession continues...

That was the first time in my life I was not sure what I was doing, but, I absolutely loved it. We were taught various things, including dancing, acting, posing, that helped me to obtain and develop self-confidence in the role of model, although I found catwalk lessons really challenging sometimes. In the very beggining, it was quite embarrassing to appear on a catwalk with such a confidence as if you were a diva (making sure everybody believed you actually were), while everyone was watching you, especially while other girls secretly laughed at me. 

I knew some of them did. There was even a reason for that. I was the only girl in the group who never stopped wearing military leather steel toe boots. The thing is, I never wanted to be the girl next door. I thought I’d rather look cool. I’m sure I did. 

I couldn’t tell anyone and kept hiding the fact that I was carrying heels with me to my classes, so that I wouldn’t lose, what I thought, was my own identity. That’s how my very first experience with high-heels started. Poorly and cautiously. 

"I couldn't tell anyone and kept hiding the fact that I was carrying heels with me to my classes, so that I wouldn't lose, what I thought, my own identity was"

I would never have guessed I would be soon running about the busy streets of one of the fashion capitals; running in circles from one metro to another, catching and breathing hot air from the buses. holding a map in my hands and, at the same time, having twelve-centimetre-high platform wedges on, when thermometer showed no less than 33 degress. That all happened after only a year.

I lived and worked as an assistant in a modelling agency in Milan. This city made my reinvention possible. Living there became an endless catwalk that worked even stronger than a scary mirror hall. It didn’t even matter that italians were already shorter without me even wearing heels. “I’m living in Milan“ - I kept repeating to myself.  I became aware of that and didn’t go back to my teenage look again. 

Now my boyfriend comments, with reproach, “Why do you nearly always wear heels?“ I know that on occasions like this I appear to be an inch taller than him. However, that doesn’t stop me wearing my beloved platform shoes. I love them... both. And why shouldn’t I? I am not yet Miss Universe, but I am, at least, confident and beautiful. 

Obsessed with red? Fashion feature/ Thinkpiece

By Raminta Paukštytė

 What's so hot about redheads? Rihanna, Cheryl Cole… 

What woman would not want to look like them? 

Even for a short time. Even if it’s just a matter of colour..

 Redheads claim it is worth trying. "I'm never allowed to dye my hair a normal colour as the redhead was what attracted my boyfriend to me!" said Sarah, 19. "Red hair makes me feel more attractive", said Ashley, 25. Only one out of five redheads I've interviewed admitted that no celebrities influenced her decision to dye her hair. Such an obsession followed by an exaggerated aim to become a celebrity lookalike or by thinking 'if it worked so well for her, why not trying the same thing?'- is an obvious example of how the celebrity cult has grown during the last years. 

It would be fair enough to say that bright red hair colour is an unnatural look.Today's  woman is already missing that naturalness, as she wears make-up daily and uses tons of other beauty equipment. She straighten her hair if it used to curl, she curls it if the reverse, she sticks on artificial nails sometimes even daily, and now, she decides to minimize her naturalness even more by masking her hair with such a bright, unnatural-looking colour like red. Not yet green, luckily. (Special thanks, Rihanna?) 

One telling comment popped up on YouTube recently, soon after Rihanna's video clips from her new album appeared. According to one anonymous woman, Rihanna should be proud of herself, because while she was at the hairdressers, she heard three women asking for 'Rihanna's red color, please'. Equally unsurprising is that this comment got the most thumbs-up during the day. And, certainly, there's no chance now of not seeing 'Rihanna's red' heads while going shopping.

Rihanna is an artist, though. She has to reinvent her image over and over again. There's nothing else to do but to feel sorry about all new redheads around- trying to become someone else is ridiculous, it never really works.

However, does bright red hair create for its wearers a certain image of personality? "It's all about confidence, you know. I have had a lot of compliments where I work from customers saying the colour is fabulous", said Ashley. This is the extent to which it has developed: submit to the obsession for red and become confident, sexy, wild and extremely attractive.

Breathtaking looks, manipulated, attention seeking styles, obsessive following of fashion trends... It seems these are the only important things for a woman to think about in her daily life. Living in a cliché- "What to wear?" and how to improve the look rather than just to think of some more objective business has become an obvious, celebrity inspired lifestyle. It'd be difficult not to follow, though. Consumerism has teamed up with fashion, which is why being self-confident and self-satisfied has never had so much in common with fashion as it has now. 

Is it a new fashion, which occupies women heads? While hairdressers Pat, Lisa and Amanda at Hair Salon Xpress Hair, Sunderland, are nodding "Yes, yes it is", others might be considering, or buying, new cheap red hair-dye for some drastic experiments at home. Naturalness is all gone, but fashion is on top as never before.

   

 

Fashion Journalism/ 'Power of Red'

That's what we're going to present in the class during the workshop/lecture for each other tomorrow. Everyone has to present their own, original, (not repetitive!) idea.

 

 I'm going to do my fashion feature focusing on 


 'The Power of Red' let's say. 

The biggest inspiration for this, to be honest, was emerged because of one comment I saw on youtube on rihana's new video 's&m', which was the most popular comment of the day. One woman wrote that rihanna should proud of herself because while she was in hairdressers she heard 3 women wanted rihanna's red hair please'.

For a research I will speak with few hairdressers who may admit that they have noticed that too. (?!) And also with a girl who had dyed her hair for some reason and how she feels about that, what the color changes, how she feels like now (or with a girl who wants that to be done).

However, this will be more 'the think piece' kind of fashion feature I suppose, where a fresh angle, I would say, is not the main thing what I'm going to focus on; where the fresh angle helps to develop some deeper insight to the story. I would put it to Elle, because this magazine often offers 'the think pieces' for a reader, not gossips. 
   I can't wait! Not as much discussion/presentation, as much I can't wait to start writing the whole thing! 

                                                   ♥♥Have a lovely Wednesday!

 

                                                                     with love,
                                                                    Raminta Paukštytė

Guys know how to twist their autumn outfit!

by Raminta Paukštytė 

Have you ever heard about guys buying women’s jeans? Let’s forget modesty, ordinary and minimalism. Let’s base it on a peculiar submission to image.

Who decided it was only the fairer sex who could give so much consideration to style, beauty and appearance?

For man it becomes more and more important to show his ability to be different and wearing women’s jeans is not a statement of being more feminine. It’s an aspiration to reveal his personality in one of the most creative ways – in clothing.

What I decided to do to prove my point was to sacrifice my weekend and go around the streets of Sunderland, idling about to find some guy with a look saying: “I’m fashion!”

I succeed with the task quickly and meet two young fashionistas – Aidan and Jamie – while shopping, which is what Aidan admits he does every week: “I can’t live without that”, he says smiling, while I’m buying a cup of tea for making our conversation more lovely and warm. 

Talking about more serious things, we came into discussion, what fashion industry is like. “It’s an art, but in the moment when you need to pay for it, the art ends and business starts”, - explained Aidan. According to Aidan and Jamie, it’s important to make a right impression of your personality in the way you look: “I wear marks on my jacket and it shows what interests me”, said Jamie.

“For example I don’t wear socks, it says that I don’t like them”, said Aidan.

Suddenly I found out more personal things. They both buy women’s jeans from Primark because they’re skinny and cost only seven pounds.

Guys should try to stand out from the crowd. Fashion is a reflection of personality and it should be executed in which ever way they want. No longer should men be confined to Topman alone and be left looking all the same.

Try something new, take a chance on some skinny jeans from the women’s section.

Originally published here