[Beauty Overheard] Oscar de la Renta Wants You to Take It Off

Or so he told the crowd at the French Institute Alliance Francaise in New York earlier this week (via Fashionista):

[Beauty Overheard] Well, that Didn’t Last Long.

Hey, remember this post, where we talked about how Emma Watson was so psyched to ditch the Hermione school girl hair for her adorable pixie cut?

And we voted and pretty much all unanimously agreed that she was better off this way?

Well someone lost the ballot box. Because Jezebel reports that Emma is already growing her hair back out:

“If I want to keep acting then it’s more flexible for me to have it longer for different roles, it’s quite a specific cut. I’m kind of looking forward to getting to a cute little bob stage.”

And this is making me think.

[Beauty Overheard] This Gisele Business

So last week, this happened:

[Brazilian supermodel] Gisele claims she refuses to use the product because of all the chemicals they contain to absorb UVA and UVB light.

‘I cannot put this poison on my skin,’ the 30-year-old said. ‘I do not use anything synthetic.’

As a compromise, Bundchen claims she only exposes herself to the sun before 8am when it is still too weak to do any damage.

Dermatologists and sunscreen manufacturers everywhere went wild and Gisele’s publicist scurried to do damage control.

Gisele would never say not to use sunscreen because she has had family members who have had skin cancer. She simply stated that her all-natural skin-care line does not have SPF because there is not an all natural SPF available.

But then, No More Dirty Looks noticed that over on Gisele’s blog, she’s still telling it like it is. Well, sorta.

[Beauty Overheard] Seth Rogen Wants to Be Fat Again

Seth Rogen communes with his Comic-Con fan base, in 2007 and post-weight-loss in 2010.

After losing 30 pounds to play “The Green Hornet,” Seth Rogen has this to say:

I think for chubby guys, I was their guy so they were like, ‘I can be chubby. Seth Rogen’s chubby, so who cares.’ But now I’m not so chubby anymore. So now they’re like, ‘I have to lose weight.’ I’ve let them down. I’ve blatantly sold out. It’s only for money.

Now y’all know that I am all about people being happy with their bodies and think you can be healthy at any size. And sure, it’s great how Seth was out there as a role model for schlubby guys everywhere, in a “hey, it’s okay, have another buffalo wing, you can totally still find love” kind of way.

But I am super irritated about this.

[Beauty Overheard] Just So Raven.

Former Cosby Show prodigy/Disney Channel princess Raven-Symoné is all grown up and dealing with the classic teen-star-loses-baby-fat drama (as faced by Hillary Duff, Sarah Michelle Gellar and so many others before her). But I am loving her very atypical reaction, as reported by About-Face.

[Beauty Overheard] Jennifer Aniston Hated The Rachel. (But That’s Not What This Post Is About.)

You might expect me to be weighing in on The Rachel Debate, because it’s all over the interweb that Jennifer Aniston told Allure, “How do I say this? I think it was the ugliest haircut I’ve ever seen.”

Not so interested. I’ve always like Aniston, and I’m sympathetic (especially in the midst of my Six Items challenge) to how being restricted to One Key Look can get old, but she sounds a wee bit childish complaining about the hairstyle that made her an international celebrity. I think there are plenty of folks out there who would be willing to sport a trend-blazing, if awkwardly layered haircut in exchange for $1 million per week or whatever insane amount she was earning by the end of “Friends.”

So moving right along. Because the Beauty Overheard quote I really want to share with you today is FAR more awesome. It’s from Regina Benjamin, MD and Surgeon General of the United States, who is pictured above and also famous for founding a health clinic to serve uninsured, poor families in rural Louisiana. And I found it in one of those New York Times Magazine “Questions For…” columns where Deborah Solomon is always mean to everybody for no apparent reason.

[Beauty Overheard] Tom Ford Wants Fat People to Take Their Clothes Off

This tummy belongs to Yarnivore, who shot this self-portrait as a way of facing up to her biggest body anxiety. Love. (Used per Flickr’s Creative Commons License.)

So, former Gucci designer/fashion mogul Tom Ford wants fat people to take their clothes off.

And actually, I agree. Sort of. Wait! I’ll tell you why in a second. First, here’s Tom (via Jezebel and Contact Music):

I spend most of my time at home naked. You know, most people actually look better nude. We are all one harmonious colour, with a symmetry and an innate elegance. Fat women almost always look better without the constraint and lumpy pinching of clothes, all the straps and elastic squeezing and sucking.

As devoted readers know, a side effect of ten months in beauty school for me was twenty extra pounds. And as I’ve been working on accepting where I am with all of that, I’ve noticed that I feel WAY better about my body when I see it in the buff, than when I actually have to get dressed and go places in it. When you’re naked, curves look fabulous. When you’re wearing jeans that are two sizes too small, all you can think about is muffin top.

And then, if you’re me, you have to spend all this time thinking about why you’re reacting negatively to the muffin top and why you think you have to fit into this culturally ordained hourglass thing, when, let’s face it, most of the women you’ve descended from were a bit more apple-y and so — itsjustafactnojudgment — you were born without a waist. It gets exhausting.

The main solution, as I have just discovered, is to get over yourself, go out and buy jeans that actually fit. (Plus jeggings! Yes, I am so rocking that trend. The flip side of the no-waist thing is, you do have legs.)

Wearing clothes that fit is far more practical than walking around naked all the time. Especially now when it’s snowing and 12 degrees outside. And so I am a little ticked off that Mr. Ford feels nudity is our best option, since, hello, he’s a clothing designer! Just whose fault is it that fat women are saddled with all that lumpy pinching clothing anyway? Hmmph.

Plus, I get super annoyed when fashion magazines decide to be all open-minded and show women of different sizes, but only if they’re all naked. Because again. There are many hours in the day when, no matter what your weight, you have to put clothes on your body so as to avoid arrest, frost bite.

But I also know — after hearing countless clients apologize to me for the sight of their naked bodies at Beauty U — that there are so many of people (of all sizes) who are not at all comfortable with themselves sans clothing. And that makes me sad, because if you can’t stand yourself in your birthday suit, how are any number of beautiful, even well-fitting clothes ever going to be enough to make you happy? That means clothes have become something to hide behind — when they should be icing on the (oh very tasty!) cake.

Thoughts? How does your body image change when you dress or undress?

PS. More on fat: This heart-breaking essay on Salon. The idiot New York Times ballet critic is taken to task by Salon and Dances With Fat. And this guy legitimately prefers fat chicks, what of it?

[Beauty Overheard] Emma Watson, Free from Hermione’s Reign of Terror

Truth? I have never read a Harry Potter book or seen a “Harry Potter” movie from start to finish. I’m pretty sure the rest of my family has joined a support group over it (“Loving Your Non-HP-Loving Child” or some such), but there it is. And I wanted to be sure to admit my ignorance before we get started today, because I would like to discuss one Emma Watson, with her adorable new pixie cut!

Here’s what she told WWD about it (via New York Mag’s The Cut blog, where you can see said haircut pictured because I have copyright issues to consider here).

[Beauty Overheard] Should We Regulate Photoshop in Youth-Directed Media?

Considering Rachel Leigh Cook is best known for playing the we-hid-her-hotness-under-glasses lead in She’s All That, I am loving this quote from her, via Jezebel:

Nothing that you see is real, even if you look at what looks like a candid photo of someone, anything can be done. It is false advertising and false advertising is a crime so why isn’t this a crime? I’m just up in arms about it. People need to know that there are actual lenses that are put on cameras that make people stretched out. If you saw these actors in person, you wouldn’t even recognize them as the people you see on TV. It’s just all a complete illusion and maybe it should be viewed as art, the way that art isn’t real. The way that a picture of a rose can be beautiful, but it’s not a real rose.

Cook made this speech at last week’s Healthy Media for Youth Summit, organized in Washington DC by our friends the Girl Scouts, who are continuing their push for the Healthy Media for Youth Act, which I wrote about earlier this month over on Lemondrop. She also said:

[Beauty Overheard] Teri Hatcher Moves Forehead, Squints Eyes

I’m apparently on a bit of an “older actress” theme with these at the moment.