Reflection on Image

Weekly frustration with the content (or lack thereof) of the LA Times Image section has compelled me to do a weekly bitch and moan. For their sake, we hope this won't be a long-running tradition but we have a feeling it will be. Without further ado...

This male model takes the bus and carries a backpack. Am I supposed to care?

The top story is on the life and times of male models. They ride the subway (err.."metro"), make around 40 grand a year and have to deal with flight delays. While female models are loved and adored, the male models sleep in dorm-like settings and don't turn heads as they walk the streets. Oh, and again they rely on mass transit. Plus, they carry backpacks!!! (wtf?) Yes, that's it, with all that's happening in fashion and beauty, that's what the Image section's front page article is focused on: how the modeling industry is as backwards as porn in which the women (gasp!) have it better off than the men.

Page two's article is on Barbie and how many LA designers played with their own Barbie as children. One had a pink convertible for her Barbie and another wished she looked like her doll. Fascinating.

Luckily fashion critic Booth Moore saves the section (and earns the expense of traveling to Italy on the paper's dime while the Times is slowly going bankrupt) with her runway report on Milan. The pic of the Jil Sander coat alone made up for the atrocious waste of space that was the male model article.

Page four's shopping article is on how gladiator sandals are yesterday's news and that you should throw them out and buy yourself a pair of huaraches, the kind that were omnipresent in your elementary school days (I had a pink pair). They'll probably be really uncomfortable, especially if yours is a genuine pair from an Olvera Street stall, so use some Dr. Scholl's and Foot Petals because those straps of stiff leather will probably make your feet bleed. Oh and hold the presses! There's a 10% off sale at Oou this week! 10% off?! Wow, what a bargain...

And the last article in the section is on Forever 21's new plus-size line. But before the Image section leaves you for the week, it does want to make sure it pats itself on the back by printing lots of letters in reaction to last week's hard-hitting article on how it's hard to find fashionable clothes when you're overweight.

Apparently the economy hit the beauty industry so hard that there's nothing for Image to report on it. Maybe next Sunday will be better...

Images via, well, Image.