The Anti Room

Who needs or wants to know about the inner workings of other people’s relationships? About the minor detail of their lives? We may not need to know but we certainly want to know about some couples. Often the stormier the pairing, the more drawn we are to the drama. Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath, for [...]

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When I was little and we got the giggles in ballet class, the teacher told one of the big girls off for saying we had laughed so hard that we “literally hosed ourselves”. We hadn’t, obviously. But then we hadn’t had sex, been pregnant, given birth to children, or had hysterectomies yet either. Nowadays, one [...]

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After months of neutrals and too much black, strong colour blocking is all over collections for the spring and summer.  Although some folks turn sniffy over the trend of pairing a combination of elementary hues, I’ll maintain the old standby that if it’s on my body, it matches.  Those standard LBDs paint you right into the background or [...]

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Nevermind the fact that a gay man who claims a gypsy mother would find little favour with the Hitler he professes to love, that there was plenty of room on those cattle cars for folks who weren’t Jewish.  John Galliano’s rabid anti-Semitic outburst was a vehicle to attack women for being ‘ugly.’ Galliano’s point as a man who made millions in fashion was the [...]

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A recent Guardian feature asked a number of fashionistas if the comfortable high heel, ‘the holy grail of fashion’ really exists. Oddly, many of the respondents agreed that it does, though there was little consensus as to who actually makes this mythical item. The article featured a bewildering number of shoe designers nominated for the [...]

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Boardwalk Empire didn’t live up to the hype or the recent round of awards in our house.  We stopped watching after a few episodes because it was one of those productions that seemed too familiar and therefore lacklustre.  It didn’t help that whenever Michael Pitt appeared onscreen I wanted to glass him for unaccountable reasons [...]

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Your wedding day. The happiest day of your life. The day when everyone can be relied upon to swallow their actual thoughts upon watching you flounce down the aisle looking for all the world like an escaped loo roll holder (remember these?) and instead murmur, ‘The bride! So gorgeous’. Except, sometimes, it doesn’t happen like [...]

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“every day, every hour, every minute and every second, somewhere in the world, women – irrespective of race, colour or religion – are being subjected to violence and abuse”. When I was just a child my father extended the hand of friendship to a woman he knew only slightly; a customer who regularly came into [...]

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Hurrah! We’ve just had another annual tits ‘n ass fest previously known as Halloween, and it was like Kentucky Fried Chicken out there, with all those breasts and thighs. French maids, slutty vampires, busty pirates, micro-minied milkmaids, pussy in boots, all available on a street near you, probably goosebumped but bobbing merrily, and not for [...]

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In a recent episode of the greatest show on TV (Mad Men of course), Don Draper’s daughter Sally cut her long blonde hair one night when Don had left her with a babysitter. A furious Don sacked the hapless babysitter as soon as he clapped eyes on the resulting hair atrocity. His reaction was mild [...]

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