Thursday, August 13, 2009

The Good Witch of Modeling : Kristen McMenamy


When I was young my mom would drop me off at the Groton Library to work on science or history reports. Well at first I'd work on the report, then I'd go look at the books on anarchism or the average array of fashion magazines. The library had pretty decent magazines, and although I agree that a lot of fashion magazine's make everyone feel poor and fat, my experience pouring over Vogue or other high fashion stuff was actually really helpful.

I can't find a good example of what teen magazine girls look liked at this point but picture a 16 year old Maggie Rizer. Teen magazines were horribly annoying with their smiley lip glossy photo spreads and the 'put something on a high shelf and ask him to get it for you' dating advice.

Anyhow, finding magazines that had a more dynamic concept of beauty than the average happy teen magazine actually made me feel a lot better. The fact that something could be kind of dark and off putting and intriguing but beautiful for those reasons was kind of like finding art or other inspired friends....it gave me some hope that there was more to life than the average jr. high experience.
Recently I saw a photo of Kristen McMenamy at the Met gala and thought 'Who's that crazy woman, she's kind of amazing'. Then I realized she was one of the main models I used to love in those magazines back in the mid 90s...

Kristen McMenamy





















Well anyhow, Kristen McMenamy has been popping up again a lot lately. Like some sort of good white witch she's still kind of freaky and ethereal. She's also super busy with ads for Lanvin, shoots in Vogue Italia, and walking the runway for Givenchy. At 42 she's even more unconventional than she was back in the 90s, which is nice cause she still makes growing up look awesome.

1 comment:

Afrodesia said...

Unfortunately for me, she was just bit older & showed up a tad sooner than I did. I just showed a picture of her to my daughter & she asked why I never told her I was on the cover of Vogue.

That's me...a day late & a dollar short ; )