I agree pretty well completely with rstuart here. As a man, I've always been underwhelmed by high fashion and all the bullsh!t that goes with it. However, the same doesn't apply to those women to whom I've been close, who have all displayed some fascination with haute couture - even if only to reject it.

It's a chick thing, I guess - just kidding! :)

'But anorexia isn't "caused by men" and, as you point out'

Everything is men's fault. We dare to be attracted to women, so any method women use to be more attractive to men, no matter how misguided, is our fault. The Fake Boobs, the Fake tan, the waxing, the starving, the wasting of money on clothes and cosmetics... all our fault. We're objectifiers!

Joan Collins summed it up rather well:

"I dress for women,
I undress for men."

Now THAT post, Foxy, more or less deserves a 'Lester Moore' award.

rstuart: "You ask what we guys think of it but really its irrelevant."
Sorry, I meant "guys" as in "people", not men particularly. I was just throwing it open to the room.

CJ: "It's a chick thing, I guess - just kidding! :)"
Oh, but it *is* a chick thing. Fashion is a rarefied, feminised world. I regularly go out with my husband and regularly go out with my girlfriends, and dress differently for both. With my husband, I basically try to look as sexy as I can without looking like I'm trying. With my girlfriends, I put together an outfit. I experiment. We are all professionals, and yet most of us (not all — I have mates with zero interest) spend some part of the evening discussing what we're wearing. We use high fashion as our inspiration, then buy cheaply from eBay or op shops. Better a good vintage fabric than a knock-off from Target. We like craft. Meanwhile, my husband is like Wendy Cope's lover in her poem "My Lover": "For when I ask if this necklace is all right he replies, 'Yes, if no means looking at three others.'"

There's also no doubt in my mind that the desire/pressure to be really thin is essentially female. I've put on weight at different times in my life and the sole reason I want to get back to a size ten is so I can enjoy clothes. Men seem to be pretty happy with women's bodies as long as one is in proportion and has a bit of t&a, but it's clothes that demand thinness.

Which does seem to tally with Joan Collins' take on things, Foxy.

I guess I'm trying to unravel the relationship women have with the fashion industry. In thinking about it, I realise that I make a big distinction between creativity and mainstream fashion slavery. That I find icky. Everything the girls on Big Brother wear makes me sigh with despair.

Dear Forrest,

I'll take the award, Thanks.

(You grow up the day you have your
first real laugh at yourself).

"Here lies Lester Moore
4 slugs from a 44.
No Les, no more..."

Dear Veronika,

I wouldn't worry too much about women and fashion.
As Oscar Wilde said:

"It's only the shallow people who do not judge
by appearances."