shannonsays.com

Spring Racing Carnival

I saw this over at Gaping Void (=cool place to visit) and it reminded me that it is Spring Racing Carnival time here in Melbourne;

The Spring Racing Carnival is exactly like that! If you are lucky enough to go along to any of the races; you'll experience a unique sort of Mardi Gras party atmosphere. Expect to see lots of colour, excitment and beautiful people. Of course there is also the usual assortment of posers, tossers, wankers, quasi racing aficionado's and other trendy-types wearing fuzzy hats with too many peacock feathers.

They are great to look at; just don't expect much conversation beyond seedy pick up lines or slurred requests for more champagne.

And then there are the celebrities and their fancy corporate marquee's. It's the same every year, B-Grade celebrities emerge from their winter hibernation and head straight to the free booze and parties at these VIP "tents" at the race track. And then they'll spend the whole carnival clammering over one another to have their fake tanned heads and crazy, impractical fashions featured in the social pages...

Maybe Hugh has been to the Melbourne Cup?

Enter the Lawn Bowlers from Australia

OK, so I am hardly a fashion guru. In fact if those clowns from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy showed up on my doorstep I really wouldn't be that surprised. BUT, I do know that the Australian Olympians looked ridiculous at the Athens Games opening ceremony.

Look:

What is that they are wearing you ask? Well, the team uniform featured lurid bright green jackets with lines, (supposedly the stars of the southern cross), worn over the top of a white singlet/ tank top. Matched (?) with stone colored pants and a yellow belt. And shoes? They looked just like trusty Dunlop Volleys, but were Nike sneakers with bright, fluro yellow soles. Oh, and of course they all had a white backpack.

It sounds like a dogs breakfast doesn't it? Apparently the uniform was designed to be "smart casual", modern, laid-back and sporty, but they looked more like Chevy Chase during his National Lampoon Vacation era. Or as one observer noted, that we had sent a team of lawn bowlers to the Olympics.

Why do we need to be gimmicky anyway? What is wrong with wearing something more formal on such occasions? To me the whole "casual lifestyle" thing is a cop-out. Surely that doesn't mean we can't look slick and stylish when we attend a world event?

Girls, ugg-boots belong at home

I am hardly a fashion guru. Far from it. But I think I have a bit of an idea about what looks good, and what looks crap on people.

And ugg-boots look crap on people. Once upon a time, these fluffy lambswool boots were worn exlusively in the privacy of ones home, usually by women whilst they vacuumed, dusted or tend to some other domestic duty. But apparently not anymore.

I was out at a bar last night and lost count of all the young female types who used these oversized fluffy boots as an accompaniment to their short skirts and tight tops. I don't know why they think such a combination works.

But what would I know? Apparently the likes of super model Kate Moss, pneumatic Pamela Anderson and Sex In the City star Sarah Jessica-Parker have been stomping around- outside their Beverly Hills mansions-in ugg boots.

As a consequence they are, supposedly, sexy. And now poor, young, impressionable girls think that they can walk down the street or go to a bar wearing ugg boots and not be laughed at.

Well I am laughing at you. Out loud.

Sexy trend setters? Nope, just sad fashion victims.