June 2014: An Announcement

I have announcement to make.  Effective immediately, I am dropping my rule that I do not feature women I know personally and have met in person.  

When I started this blog in 2006, this rule was meant to apply to women in my personal life, such as ladyfriends from my writers' group, for example, because I felt including anyone I know would show too much of a personal bias.  How was I to know that I would end up befriending fashion models? :-D

  

One of the articles of faith that led me to establish this blog was to draw attention to the fashion and beauty models of the 1970s and 1980s who may not have had as much name recognition as a Christie Brinkley or a Cheryl Tiegs (neither of whom are on my blog yet, but look for them in the future), or who may not have had any name recognition at all.  Bear in mind that Nancy Dutiel, Lancôme's U.S. spokesmodel from the early eighties, was the first model I ever featured on this blog.  She was not as well-known as Isabella Rossellini, who succeeded her in that position, and compared to Miss Rossellini, her name recognition was next to nil.  Karen Graham was known less by her name than known by the brand she represented - she was known as "the Estée Lauder Woman."  After seeing so many models go without name recognition, I felt a need to correct that situation here.  Catherine Roberts is one such example; though she was ubiquitous in cosmetics ads in the seventies and eighties, she was never known by her name, largely because she rarely did fashion editorials that would have given her a credit. 

When many of these same models discovered this blog, I started connecting with and befriending them through social media.  The problem of showing any models who became personal friends as a result of these connections was obvious.  I tried amending the rule against featuring women I know personally to only pertaining to women I know personally and have met in person, figuring I actually wouldn't meet in person many of the models I connected with.  So how was I to know I'd be doing just that? 

Readers of my Miscellaneous Musings blog know that I have since met many of the models I'd befriended on social media, such as Nancy Donahue, one of the biggest names in modeling from the 1980s.  I've even met models I have since connected with through social media (some of whom haven't been featured on this blog yet).  The simple truth of the matter is, it's impossible to continue this blog and not honor or revisit these women.  They're too important as part of the history of modeling, fashion and beauty to ignore simply because I know them.  Besides, even if I'd never met or connected with Nancy Donahue, for example, I'd still be showing a personal bias by featuring her on my blog - because I'm personally biased toward the opinion that she's beautiful! And to be honest, there are some models I'm connected with through social media that I haven't met in person whom I know as if I have met them in person, thanks to online chatting, so the distinction between anyone whom I've met in person and whom I haven't is meaningless. 

So, this rule is no longer workable. And quite frankly, I'm happy to repeal it.  These fashion models are an important part of this blog, and I've just freed myself to continue including them here.

And with that, I'm now ready to start a whole month of retrospectives . . . of models.  Thanks for tuning in.  It means a lot. :-)