I am already convinced for a variety of reasons that my generation is full of "Peter Pans" or boys who refuse to grow up, but I'm also wondering if the our quest for youth has led us to become a generation of Lolitas? Due to the marvels of plastic surgery Hollywood never seems to age and it's also ironic how women get cast as mothers as actors only a few years their junior (Angelina Jolie in Alexander). Are we led to believe that men are only attracted to the very young and juvenile (are men led to believe that is beauty?)?
Further, has this preoccupation with adolescence manifested itself in our garments? While some designers are shifting back towards a more mature look (Marc Jacobs and he was largely criticized for his clothing as "aging" the models), the new buzz designer Erin Fetherson perpetuates the young, "Lolita" look. Her petal hemmed skirts are sickly sweet and don't get me started on the implications of her commercial for Target (see Dreamecho's post).
While Fetherson is an easy target for visualizing what I believe is the "look," she is by no means alone or to blame. When we don our empire-waisted baby doll dresses or extravagant bubble hem pieces that not only don't highlight womanly curves but downright discourage and mask them, what message are we sending about the ideal of beauty?
Where are the curvy beauty icons of yore? Why is my style inspiration and beauty idol supposedly a naive child? A worldly female figure has more advice to offer and a more scintillating wardrobe. I am hardly a worldly woman, but as a female about to turn twenty-one (official adulthood) and someone who tends to be taken for far younger than they actually are, this is a very trying rumination. While I am acquiring more freedoms, rights, and responsibilities, how do I reconcile this with a world of fashion that idolizes the body of prepubescence and the ruffles of childhood?
In the end I suppose I must focus on the collections that embody how I would prefer to present myself, rather than those that only serve to irritate me.
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