Changing the world takes more than just celebrity gestures
Alexandra Shulman’s Notebook
THERE’S a rich irony in Harvey Weinstein’s New York trial starting on the morning after the Golden Globes, the night when the movie industry kicks off the awards season.
It was at those awards two years ago – soon after Weinstein’s abusive behaviour became publicly known – that a group of actresses including Meryl Streep and Reese Witherspoon decreed a black dress code for the night, as a striking visual statement about gender inequality in the film industry.
Fast-forward and the red carpet last Sunday night was as frivolous, overtly sexual and extravagant as ever – with Gwyneth Paltrow appearing in sheer tobaccocoloured tulle showing off her impressive abs and underwear, Scarlett Johansson in plunging scarlet Vera Wang.
Designer frocks and eye-wateringly expensive jewellery were back on show while, despite the launch and work of the Time’s Up and #MeToo movements, there was no sign of a single female nominee for best director.
This month’s Italian Vogue has similarly employed visual messaging, this time to draw attention to the issue of sustainability.
By including only fashion illustration rather than photography in its pages – including the cover – the aim is to focus attention on the huge environmental toll levied in the production of fashion shoots: the international travel, electricity generators, packaging, hire cars, plastics etc.
The use of drawings was a reminder of how wonderful the original illustrated Vogue covers once were.
But if the photo-free issue is to make any real difference, like those black dresses, it needs to be more than gesture politics. Might Italian Vogue look at reducing the number of fashion shoots in all its future issues and making illustration more central?
Having been in the editor’s hotseat myself, I know how hard and complicated that would be.
But if such initiatives are to be more than tokenistic, they need to actually achieve change rather than just being seen to be thinking about it.
Meghan’s proof I’ll lose my son
I’VE long been gripped by Harry and Meghan’s future plans, not because of all the guff about progressive new roles but because, as the mother of a son, I knew that ultimately it would be Meghan, the wife, who would be the determiner of how they would live. And Meghan, it was clear from the very start, was always going to want to be near her mother. Not 5,500 miles away.
Their decision to base themselves half the time in North America has only fuelled my own trepidation about the likelihood, when the time eventually comes, of my twentysomething son’s wife’s family being the dominant factor in their lives – no matter how close he and I are.
After all, if the Royal Family, with all its extraordinary privilege and opportunity, isn’t strong enough to keep Harry in the fold, what hope have most ordinary mums?
Of course, Harry’s mother is no longer alive, and that has undoubtedly played a large part in how this story has played out.
But far more important is the fact that Doria Ragland, Meghan’s impressive LA-based mother, is the leading maternal character in their orbit, whose support and guidance they no doubt find invaluable, especially now they have become parents themselves. I very much doubt that she was kept in the dark as to their plan, unlike his father and grandmother.
The strong bond between Meghan and her mother mirrors that between so many mothers and daughters. The teenage years can test this to the limit as daughters more usually project their frustrations and general vileness at that age towards their mothers rather than fathers. But after that turbulence, the relationship becomes one of deep love, companionship and care.
Sons might adore their mothers but, without wishing to go all Oedipal, this emotion can often provoke a desire for distance as much as for connection.
When another woman comes along, no matter how much he loves his mother, a man will seek separation from that first, allconsuming passion. Even a large geographical one.
I’m absolutely dreading it.
Only woolly tights can save John Lewis
PAULA NICKOLDS, chief executive of John Lewis, is leaving her role. On the few occasions we met, I very much liked her.
Sadly, although not altogether surprisingly, her ideas for improving customer experience, such as sending the staff to have training from actors, failed to stop the company’s continued drop in sales.
Last week, searching its Oxford Street flagship for a pair of grey wool tights, I was directed to the back wall, where a single XL pair in a startling aubergine remained. ‘They’re discounted for clearance,’ was the explanation for the fact that these were neither the colour nor size required.
As we head towards the coldest months of the year, I wouldn’t have thought now is the time to stop stocking wool tights.
John Lewis is not alone, despite conclusive evidence to the contrary, in thinking that July is too late to display summer dresses and January too late for thick knits, but that doesn’t make it any less insane.
Department-store customers shop in real time. They’re not putting their names on waiting lists for the next season’s catwalk collection. Whether they shop in store or online, they want relevant and appealing things they can wear right now.
No amount of in-house ‘experiences’ can trump that.
Heartbreaking face of an international crisis
AS THE US/Iran conflict continues, the sight of five-year-old Gabriella Ratcliffe setting off for her first day of school while her mother Nazanin remains incarcerated in an Iranian jail was a poignant reminder of the very human impact of this international tension.
It’s not just grandstanding power games. This little girl with her pink-framed specs, backpack and lace-up shoes didn’t have her mum there to tell about this monumental day when she got home.
She wouldn’t have had her there even before the assassination of Qasem Soleimani, but her family’s hopes for her release must be in terrifyingly greater jeopardy each day the situation continues.