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Jun 23, 2008 @ 11:02am

Smudges: So Hot Right Now We had a good laugh in the Fashionista office a few weeks ago, when The New York Times declared chipped nails to be trendy, and we were like, "Well shit, then we've been fashionable since fifth grade!"

Now Vogue UK wants to get into the messy makeup act, too, giving us instructions on "how to do Stam's 'starlet - post tearful tantrum' look" as illustrated at left.

For the record, we've never seen or heard Jessica Stam throw a tantrum, but she looks awfully convincing as a girl seething glitter at left.

Vogue UK is awfully stoked to smear their makeup this summer, and it's leading us to think there might be a general and very silly trend going forward:

Has fashion become so accessible that in order to truly seem "in," you have to violate it in the most against-your-instinct ways? Like never washing / brushing your hair, chipping your nails, smearing your eyes... really?

It's an interesting trend to discuss, and an interesting theory to volley, but we won't examine it too much because frankly, our specialty is looking low maintenance. If being messy right now means being fashionable, then we might finally have a shot at that Vogue Best Dressed List... cough, Alexandra Kotur, cough!

posted by guest

Jun 23, 2008 11:04AM

This has always been "in".. given the right place and time.. That's why I look so hot when I accidently leave my make up from the night before.. waking up the next morning with just enough smudge. Smokin'~

Jun 23, 2008 11:05AM

chipped nails trendy...listen up Meredith Melling Burke

Jun 23, 2008 11:16AM

Wait.. but didn't you guys say there was this Editor that in order to intern for her had really strict rules of maintenence like No chipped nails or no undergarments showing?
I personally think those rules are ridiculous but chipped nails? trendy? really?
It's just something that kind of happens, you can't go to the nail salon and get your nails done, then ask the girl to chip it for you.lol

Jun 23, 2008 11:44AM

Looking like a weak, possibly battered, woman doesn't seem so trendy to me. I guess I don't get it.

Jun 23, 2008 12:12PM

From an April 9, 2000 NYT Sunday Styles piece discussing the blondes with roots trend. Seems the trend of trying to seem like you care without caring TOO much (i.e. painting in dark roots) is not that new...

(http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9503E6DE113FF93AA35757C0A9669C8B63&sec=&spon=&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink):

''Maybe the stripes are not so much ironic as vulnerable,'' said Candace Bushnell, who wrote the book on which the ''Sex and the City'' series is based. ''The stripey 'I've got roots and lots of highlights' thing means 'I'm not perfect, I can screw up.' It means, 'I want the fun of blond without the angst of being, you know, double-processed,' which is more common nowadays.

Doug MacIntosh, at the Minardi Salon, explained that some women in search of the roots-and-all look couldn't wait for their hair to grow out on its own. ''People were coming to me asking to have a root put in right away,'' he said. ''They'd seen 'Sex and the City,' or Sharon Stone with her short hair, and they didn't want to wait for their own roots to grow in.''

Jun 23, 2008 1:25PM

haha!
i love chipped nails. i don't purposely chip them but i always like the cuteness of naturally chipped dark nail polish.
and mascara always looks better when slept in. so, i kind of like this trend, but i can see people taking it way too far and it becoming completely ridiculous.

Jun 23, 2008 1:45PM

Am I the only one that finds this really ridiculous?

Not that I never have chipped nails or smudged eyeliner, but the whole idea of making yourself look as unkempt as possible seems a bit trashy.

posted by fashionursta

Jun 23, 2008 5:55PM

So I've always been ahead of the pack! I have always been a little "unkempt" (but not in an I never shower way). I have always felt like an unbroken mare, in a sea of thoroughbreds-imperfect eye makeup, mainly because I'm oily there, nails not perfectly manicured, hair that has a mind of its own. I have had years of feeling like I didn't fit in (I grew up in the late 50s early 60s, when what was stylish then was very different than what is stylish, cool, or hip today. Now, it's so liberating to know that I was ahead of everyone, and my way is "the cool way" after all! And I say that half believing it and half in jest, because I am well past needing to be validated by the cool people. (Although when I got into Studio 54 the 3 times that I went, I felt like I fooled them). And you have to admit that second or third day hair always looks a little better than freshly washed. But not smelly hair. Bad hygiene is never cool.

posted by dumbbrunette5

Jun 24, 2008 5:46AM

i think im way too much of a neat freak to do that. well, i dont mind a bit of mess in my hair (not birds nest messy, but deffinately not blow-out stick straight) but i cant go without washing it, i dont function with not 100% clean hair. and i cant do chipped nails either (but thats not really a problem because i hardly ever wear nail polish)