Friday, January 30, 2009

BUST's portrait of Amber Tamblyn

This is a really pretty magazine cover. Amber Tamblyn looks like she's got a secret. Upon a closer look at her mouth I notice that the make up person drew Tamblyn's lipstick WAY outside of her actual lip line. I realize this is supposed to make her lips look fuller -- but I think it's weird.

I didn't expect BUST, the magazine "for women with something to get off their chests" to use such a standard women's magazine style for this article. The traditional "what is the subject wearing" always makes me mad and I thought BUST would be above it, but I was wrong....
Tamblyn returns, tossing her bag on the floor, shedding her long, hooded sweater, and unwrapping a color scarf from around her neck. She's wearing black leggings, black boots, and a big gray T-shirt that says "Write Bloody" over a bird-on-a-typewriter graphic. I notice her black-painted fingernails as she whips her long brown hair back into a messy ponytail...
Oh author Lisa Butterworth, why oh why is it necessary to include such details. I know, I know, you're painting a picture, but it's become such a cliche.

And it's also a cliche for a young starlet, like Tamblyn, to be involved with a man 20 years her senior (David Cross) and luck for us, readers, Butterworth doesn't gush over it. She does, however, do some namedropping...letting us be aware that Tamblyn isn't only best friends with her Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants costar, Alexis Bledel, she's also friends with the likes of Tilda Swinton, Amy Poehler, and Parker Posey! This proves she is mature beyond her years.

What really got my goat in reading this article was this ridiculous photo taken by Michael Lavine. What a dumb pose to put Tamblyn in. Who in their right mind would wear too-big-for-them high heels while standing on a piano bench? And tapping the keys with their toes? Fetish-much? And what the hell is she looking at? Ug. it annoys me. The dress is really cute, too, but the pose ruins it for me. Thanks a lot, Lavine.

My first Tamblyn experience was when she was on General Hospital. The summer before I went away to college I saw her wearing these cute little pedal pushers on the show. They were gray, straight legged and a little form fitting. They ended right below her knees. No one was wearing capris at the time and I was going to bust the trend out on New England. I found a stretchy pair of severely bell bottomed jeans at TJ Maxx and had my grandmother cut them off below my knees and turn them into pants. She then turned the bell bottoms into a too-cute skirt that fit my teenage body perfectly.

I wore the pants to a party and everyone kept looking at me and saying "ARG!" like a pirate. Apparently Maine wasn't ready for the trend. I felt silly and didn't wear them again. The skirt, however, got a different reaction all together....

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree with you on so many levels:

1. Lipliner drawn outside the actual lip is ridiculous, not to mention obvious.
2. This story reminds me of what one of my journalism professors used to call "Meeting Sharon Stone in a hotel lobby" ledes. She said every magazine article about Sharon Stone opens up with a description of how the actress enters the lobby, what's she's wearing, and what food she orders. It's very formulaic and, unfortunately, ubiquitous.
3. Never, ever feel silly for introducing fashion concepts to Mainers. People need their horizons expanded!

himalhimalaya said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

um- amber tamblyn sucks... you may have just wasted a valuable portion of your life reading an article on her. ugh.