An Asian Surprise in Vanity Fair's Best Dressed List.

[Guest fountainhall]

Don’t know where to put this little tidbit! Vanity Fair, a magazine I always enjoy reading – although only the UK version (the US version is so packed with extra advertising it’s sometimes quite hard on the wrist and lower arm muscles) – since it usually has a knack of making interesting juicy articles out of seemingly quite boring subjects.

 

The September issue due out next week carries this year’s Best-Dressed list. No, sad to say, it seems none of our regular posters has quite made it – no, not even our suave man-about town, Michael. Nor have any of the lovely boys and girls (and boy-girls) whose photos sometimes adorn our threads. (Mind you, I doubt if any of us would hit the Best Undressed Lists either )

 

But rest assured, the rich and famous are handsomely represented with a fair share of royalty (the new Duchess of Cambridge - naturally, but where’s her rather lovely sister, Pippa?), actors (Colin Firth - really?), pop singers (Lady Gaga – of course), sports personalities (Jenson Button, F1 driver – boring) and lots of other celebs.

 

But here’s the odd man out, at least to my eyes. Who’d have thought the King of the tiny Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan would make such a hi-so list? Sure, he’s young and handsome, Thais adore him – he studied at Chiang Mai University for a while – and call him by his intriguing first name, Jigme (well, if that’s an invitation, I’m game, sir – "you'll love my what I can do with your thingumy, Jig!" – although sadly for all Thai ladies and us hopefuls he just got engaged ), and the Bhutanese National Dress is, I suppose, quite fetching to the eye. But I am sure there are oodles of high-so fashionista Thai guys who are much better looking and better dressed.

 

And then I remembered. Vanity Fair did a colour spread and article about Bhutan after the new King’s colourful coronation in 2009. Ah well! Seems to make that list we first have to be featured in the mag. So, we’ll just have to keep waiting for the day when we get that invitation to Elton John's Vanity Fair after-show Oscar party, or jeans and T-shirts (in my case, at least) attract Vanity Fair’s dedicated editors of fashion!

 

Memo to VF editor. Mr Graydon Carter, I love your magazine. Please make sure I get my Oscar party invite soon. I'll fit in with all the other ageing queens there, I assure you. And I'll put on Bhutanese National Costume just for the occasion. Promise!

 

PS: Does Macy's rent these out?

 

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2011/08/revealed-vfs-2011-international-best-dressed-list.html

 

No, folks, unfortunately that's not me in the pic - although I have been told by a confidential source (down, HeyGay) it's not totally unlike me!

 

from a photo by Lynsey Addario

[Guest thaiworthy]

No, folks, unfortunately that's not me in the pic - although I have been told by a confidential source (down, HeyGay) it's not totally unlike me!

You're Asian?

 

Personally, I liked Mr. Blackwell. From Rags to Bitches, his famous list was notorious. He had the same male partner for 60 years and led a very interesting life, arisen from this:

 

Blackwell was born Richard Sylvan Selzer and raised in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn. He was of Jewish descent and grew up in the tenements that housed the “working-poor” immigrant families of the early 20th century. As a child, he claimed he was severely beaten by his stepfather, often resorting to sleeping in the alley beneath his fire escape with a broken bottle he used for protection rather than face further abuse. He only completed the third grade of elementary school. When he was 11, he was the victim of rape by an older man while attending a boys’ camp. He also worked as a prostitute in his early days.

Richard Blackwell

 

Sadly, he died in 2008. He was 86 and actually not a bad-looking man. I'd go so far as to say he might actually have made a good role model for gay people.

 

You can't deny these quotes aren't fabulous and original:

 

Martha Stewart - "dull, dowdy and devastatingly dreary" and consonant: “fabulous fashion independents”, to free verse: Cher – “A million beads/And one overexposed derriere”, and pun: Queen Elizabeth, “Was she the palace Christmas tree, or just a royal clown?” About Wynona Judd - "She looks like Hulk Hogan in sequins." Often, he simply quipped: Martha Stewart – “Dresses like the centerfold for Farmers' Almanac”, and other times combines forms: Dixie Chicks – “They look like a trio of truck stop fashion tragedies/ trapped in a typhoon”

The list spawned a parade of imitators to this day. Vanity Fair, eat your heart out.

[Guest fountainhall]

You're Asian?

Alas, no! I'm from the UK. I don't quite see an Asian choosing as a log-in name a Manor House in the Borders of Scotland or a famous 17th century legal expert, Lord Fountainhall.

 

Mind you, I have lived in Asia for more than half my life. And my long-term (almost wrote "old"!) Chinese friends in Hong Kong all are convinced I was a Chinese in a previous life. So perhaps part of me is now Asian!