More Bangs For My Buck, I Say

(pictures from Kingdom of Style)

I'm not a massive fan of most models . I wasn't fond of the glamazons (Claudia Schiffer, Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista et al- stunning women, but I probably extrapolated my dislike of the clothes of their time into a distaste for the women who wore them) and the Young Aliens (Gemma Ward, Jessica Stam, Lily Cole and co.) of today are beautiful, but so many pairs of wide-open blue eyes made the average fashion magazine circa 2004 start to look a bit like Children of the Corn. But every once in a while, like maybe about once a year, I discover that I really like the way some girl wears the clothes . And for the last year and a bit, the young lady in the pictures above and below is someone whose work I have actually loved looking at. Kate Moss might not have done anything nearly as groundbreaking as what she pulled in the years of her collaboration with Corinne Day, but picking Irina Lazareanu as the model for the editorials in her first post-coke scandal stint as guest editor of Paris Vogue was nothing short of genius. Aside from the slightly kooky appearance (not so much anymore since every post-pubescent female with even the slightest pretensions to a liking of fashion started cogging her hair by cutting in the fringes they'd previously begged their mummies to let them outgrow, but that doesn't mean they have automatic entry to the Good Fringe club*), she's too bloody skinny (someone get a look at her modelling that v. pretty white dress on the Kate Moss for Topshop site, she looks practically childlike there), and she isn't even conventionally pretty, but despite scouring a year's worth of pictures of her in adverts and editorials, the only conclusion I could come to was that she has je ne sais quoi in spades. The quality in question is supposed to be beyond definition, but I wonder if being slightly older than normal (in a field of work where the average age on getting your first break seems to be about fifteen) has something to do with it. Or the fact that, in the only interview of hers that I've ever read, she actually sounds intelligent. I hate to be stereotypical about models, but given that most of them start as young as fourteen (some even younger) and never finish school, they don't often seem like the brightest bulbs in the box. It's no fault of theirs, but having a brain and not hiding it doesn't have to be a bad thing. Oh, and it doesn't hurt that she has hellishly sharp personal style- possibly influenced by Le Moss, but well-dressed girls in my immediate surroundings, no matter what my friend Girlface has to say, are so rare that I'm grateful for the sight of one anywhere. Even if that somewhere happens to be a computer screen. She's still pretty fascinating, though. And any female who manages making an 80s perm (not pictured here) look something other than ridiculous deserves my respect.
So what if I have a soft spot for a well-cut, or more importantly well-worn, jacket? Sue me, I say. And the days of sharp might just be numbered, since Hedi Slimane** quit Dior Homme and a new chap who likes baggies is now captain of the ship.

* previous members of the Good Fringe club-i.e. those who wear/wore it with panache- include Louise Brooks, Amélie Poulain (yes, I know she's fictional and it's actually Audrey Tautou, but still), Jane Birkin, Audrey Hepburn, Marianne Faithfull, Penelope Tree, and Jean Shrimpton. Oh, and Ms L above.
**he of the trousers so skinny, Karl Lagerfeld went on a baby food diet so he could fit into them. Also He Whose Style Icon Was Pete Doherty And Whose Suits Were Worn By Franz Ferdinand and who inspired the style of most halfway-sharp looking boys in the world, musical and real (even if they didn't know it), between 2004 and now.