Cat Marnell, WSJ.

Cat Marnell is blowing up right now.

She’s a former beauty editor for xoJane. The NYT did an excellent profile on her last month, and many other publications have followed suit. The reason for this is that Cat Marnell is a living, breathing, blogging trainwreck. She writes explicitly about her extensive drug use and sordid past and apologizes for nothing. She’s incredibly compelling, in a guilty-pleasure kind of way.

The internet is divided on Cat’s writing ability, but she has a candor that’s refreshing in an industry that can feel dusty and regurgitated. Today she linked to an article she wrote for xoJane about Fashion Week, and I absolutely love what she has to say on the subject of trend reporting:

[…] in my opinion, beauty backstage at shows are nice to look at but that’s it. They don’t mean anything and there are hundreds of “trends” to be declared every season and they are always the same: bold brows, tawny skin, messy updos, deep side parts, fuschia lips.

Whatever. A makeup artist worked with a fashion designer to create looks that complement the clothes — which do matter — and then the magazines and websites go crazy turning those beauty looks into content which encourages you to buy a zillion  products and recreate the looks yourself.

Don’t you already sort of know what looks good on you?

Now don’t get me wrong: I love beauty, I promote beauty products, makeup, hair, glamour, the fun of being a woman. I’ll teach you all about the genius products that will improve how you look, and sometimes there are new discoveries to share at Fashion Week in this respect.

And I do particularly like the different nail polish looks and believe THOSE start trends (because nail polish is like an accessory; it works on everyone), and once in a while a lipstick fad will start on a runway, but — for the most part, runway beauty is just that: runway beauty. Not an actual trend. Come on!

I’m not going to tell you that ballerina buns are a trend because three shows did ballerina buns this season. Guess what? At least three shows put ballerina buns on their models every season! Just like messy braids, or bronzy skin, or strong brows, or orange lipstick or smoky eyes.

Nor am I going to tell you how to “Get The Look” and replicate the ballerina bun trend from the runway. Google that shit! It’s all over the Internet already! I can’t think of anything more BORING. GOD.

“Google that shit”? I’m pretty sure I say this, like, once a day. And this is exactly what I’m trying to do with this blog: eliminate the chaff; step over the detritus of recycled content and get to the good stuff. I’ve done a couple posts for makeup neophytes, but that’s not going to be the norm here. I want to stay away from the features I skip over in fashion magazines and cover the stuff I want to talk about with my girlfriends.

So that and I really just wanted to say “Google that shit” some more.