Lily gets a badly timed swipe

life magazine 27th jan 08

Lily Allen.. I have to admit I didn’t really know who she was, meaning that I didn’t place the name with the face with the voice. After looking here up on the interweb the pieces fell into place. So why the interest in Lily Allen? Well it comes from my self imposed exclusion from the influence of “old media”. While staying at my family abode I picked up the paper as it is practically the only time I take a sneaky look at the rags. This time I pick up a copy of the Sunday Independent’s “Life” magazine purely because it’s glossy front page tempted my inside with an alluring photograph of the lovely Lipsett sisters. But before I even got as far as them inside, I was drawn into an article about Lily Allen in what I guess is a regular feature called “In The Style Of..”. Ok so “Life” is the entertainment magazine which comes with the paper and of course this requires a dose of celebrity and fashion. The magazine leads us in with a feature called “Shutterbug (Media Whores)” whereby a two page spread of celebrity photos is littered with apparent humorous blurbs in a deliberate derogatory style about sense of fashion and other such important issues. So I guess I should have been prepared for the bitter rant from stylist guru Liadan Hynes. Her scowl is thinly disguised here:

When fame first arrived, the 20-year-old was if anything, an anti-fashion icon. Her trademark look was almost fancy dress, a sort of ironic take on chavs, and she wore it as a layer of armour. “I know I’m not a typically, pretty skinny, tiny girl” her costume seemed to say, “but I’m in on the joke”

Talk about putting words in someone’s mouth! I personally think she looks very beautiful in both pictures used here and possibly more so in her own style. Also, for the record, to me beauty is neither fat, thin nor in between, it’s in the person, in their imperfections. The obsession with celebrities and with what is in and what is out is a terrible waste of time and it is also a danger to the well being of people in general. So much of what passes as news nowadays revolves around this cult of fashion and celebrity. Note that I am in no way talking here about being fans of music or film and of the reporting on the value and worth the icons of such industries bring to peoples’ lives. I am in particular talking about the type of journalism which is fueled by putting people down who don’t subscribe to the status quo. Of course it is nice too to look one’s best especially when you are in the glare of the paparazzi’s flash but what I don’t understand is the process of deciding what’s hot and what’s not. We all have our personal tastes in style, some of us just blend in, but if somebody steps out with a bit of individual style and breaks the mould without asking permission then be prepared to be either praised or pissed on! It depends on who you are of course as to whether you will be accepted as a trend setter.

lily inset

So at the end of Liadan’s piece she tries to maintain she has a hope for Lilly yet, albeit unconvincingly.

You could accuse her of being a sellout, but that would be churlish. She hasn’t actually lost much weight. Rather, she has shaved off whatever extra flesh lingered on her chin and arms, and toned up a bit. Really, it’s more that she’s tidied herself up, become a little bit more healthy and possibly grown up a bit, in the process finding the confidence to give up being rules by her insecurities. Considering her recent pregnancy announcement, it’s just in the nick of time.

Meow! I felt that whole finishing piece was churlish and quite patronising. Considering I then of course went to find out more about Lily on the web and the first thing I find out was that she had a miscarriage on the 18th of January. This article appeared in “Life” in the 27th of January edition of the Sunday Independent. Ok, so Liadan may not have found out about this until it had went to press, but it was over a week later and you would think she would have done her homework or at least the editor of the magazine would have pulled it. It is unfortunate timing I guess in the printing of this article but this doesn’t excuse the tone it is written in which has become prevailant in today’s society. It seems to me that by “grown up” she means to ‘conform’. That is hardly good advise. Sure we all need to take responsibility for ourselves but we should also be young at heart not just attempt to look young in skin.

Well what do I make of Lily Allen on first impressions? I like her. She is honest, sometimes brutally so whether right or wrong. She is human, full of life and living out loud without having to check in with what is acceptable or tolerable by the status quo. She has got a rebel heart and attracts scorn for her sometimes over the top actions. She makes mistakes, she thinks out loud, she is proud and so she should be. She is in the limelight now, so of course she will have fashion houses looking for her to endorse their threads. But I doubt she would be led into the scenario of being advised on her style as a rule, at least I hope she wouldn’t.

I had heard her music before and it reminded me a bit of Ms. Dynamite. It has a great urban sound with ska and reggae influences and of course a beautiful voice that works on many levels. She can rap, rhyme and harmonise! Her success was largely from doing it her own way and putting out the music she wanted to put out on Myspace. It worked for her and fair play to her. She is all set for a career on the telly too and her charisma will work wonders for her with her new TV show on BBC Three. She might just be Dr. Who’s next sidekick too. She has stardom in the genes too, her mother a film producer and her father the comedian, musician and actor Keith Allen.

So there you have it. I put the pieces together on Lily Allen all because of a terribly written article in the fashion unconscious Life supplement of the Indo! Incidentally Liadan is the in house stylist for the magazine and the spread and article in the pages following about the Lipsett sisters is styled by herself. But I won’t comment about that except to say that the Lipsetts are lovely ladies indeed. Avila, you’ve got my number.. actually you don’t, but if you want it, you’ve got it!

This was an article about bad journalism, in my opinion (more to follow).

My sympathies go out to Lily and those close to her in the light of her recent bad news.