Valentine's Day styling New Look

[littlebilliie]

I received an invitation to view the Valentine Day edit. This looks so strange and the particular images are parodies of women. Is this what we are reduced to in the marketing brains of the high street

www.newlook.com/uk/valentines-day

I don't know why, but advertisers/media people think that the young (who are New Look's main clientele) are really into drag. BBC THREE has been relaunched with a Drag Race spin off as the flagship show, citing they want to attract a new young audience that hitherto hasn't watched BBC. I noticed the Stacey Dooley (aspirational female for the younger generation) ad for Clairol has changed. She used to be backstage with the girls. Now it's almost the same commercial but she is having "coffee with the girls" - i.e. a drag queen.

I've got a 14 year old girl who couldn't be less interested in drag anything.

I thought the video was done by an apprentice team it was that bad.

So bad 🤣🤣🤣

I actually thought the model looked a little uncomfortable in the main picture which is off, because presumably models are good at pretending to feel happy. So if uncomfortable was the best they could get…

Weird images. I've enjoyed some drag in the past and I still like to see males wearing "feminine" styles as long as they are clear they're still male. My fantasy utopia would be a colourful place!

The vicious misogyny of TRAs (not necessarily trans people themselves) has made me view drag differently now. It seems to mostly be comedy that punches down. Which is more like abuse really. I feel sorry for the woman in the picture, I'm concerned the male would be viewing her with utter contempt.

Woke points ticked for New Look I guess? I am an occasional customer. As an hourglass shape I find them fairly good. Much as I said I like males in "feminine" styles, for my own clothes I need retailers that understand my inescapably female body shape. I'm happy to see males model female clothes but it would signify that it wasn't the right shop for my shape.

I noticed the Stacey Dooley (aspirational female for the younger generation) ad for Clairol has changed. She used to be backstage with the girls. Now it's almost the same commercial but she is having "coffee with the girls" - i.e. a drag queen

This baffled me as there was zero need to change the add. The ad clearly wasn't filling it's penis quota.

What's interesting @Whatsnewpussyhat, is the subtle shift of attention in the ad. The original was all about SD being the centre of attention. The remake is all about SD being the centre of attention, save for that scene, where she becomes the onlooker, while the drag queen twirls around. The New Look ad puts the drag queen front and centre, the woman is the foil/"straight man"/onlooker. Advertising is always using. subtle psychology. What is it telling girls/young women in these examples?

Also, the being dressed by a male/clothes fingered while you are wearing them by a male. Subtle break down of boundaries?

I'd be wary of taking styling advice from any man, never mind one that looked like that.

I think it's an indication of how drag, courtesy of endless promotion by the BBC, has embedded itself as being utterly normal and harmless in the minds of the majority of the population. A lesbian friend of mine, not very political or someone with an academic background, works for a housing association that is one of the most woke organisations in the area.

It's taken her a few years to find the words to formulate her thoughts about what's going on, but reading Helen Joyce set her free. She says that Drag Race is the programme that all her straight white woke colleagues talk about endlessly. There were suggestions that for a couple of Teams meetings around Christmas everyone should drag up. It's creating real problems for her at work, because she sees the misognyn and the parody of womanhood and her colleagues think it's funny.

Those images are really creepy, by the way.

@LilithOfEden

What's interesting *@Whatsnewpussyhat*, is the subtle shift of attention in the ad. The original was all about SD being the centre of attention. The remake is all about SD being the centre of attention, save for that scene, where she becomes the onlooker, while the drag queen twirls around. The New Look ad puts the drag queen front and centre, the woman is the foil/"straight man"/onlooker. Advertising is always using. subtle psychology. What is it telling girls/young women in these examples?

Yes, the drag queen dominates that scene. He towers over her. It's very jarring visually.

Why remove "backstage with the girls" though. Probably because that implied female only.

It's like pushing drag is a way of getting young girls and women to accept males in their spaces. Harmless init. Bit of fun.

Comparing the 2 ads, "backstage with the girls" was in a dressing room, so yes, a female only space I presume. But also, the drag queen bit in the second ad looks like a split screen to me, where they have edited in the drag artist against footage of SD holding a coffee cup. So I think that's why they have changed the wording, to shoehorn that bit in with existing footage. And further points to them not thinking that the whole ad needed to be revamped, but that they had to include some virtue-signalling footage/entertainment du jour footage to comply with the way every other advertiser is going.

I'm not a fan of Drag Queens but find this one inoffensive. What I do find offensive is the implication that to 'woman' correctly we need guidance from a man in drag.

@LilithOfEden

I don't know why, but advertisers/media people think that the young (who are New Look's main clientele) are really into drag. BBC THREE has been relaunched with a Drag Race spin off as the flagship show, citing they want to attract a new young audience that hitherto hasn't watched BBC. I noticed the Stacey Dooley (aspirational female for the younger generation) ad for Clairol has changed. She used to be backstage with the girls. Now it's almost the same commercial but she is having "coffee with the girls" - i.e. a drag queen.

I've got a 14 year old girl who couldn't be less interested in drag anything.

I’ve noticed this. The BBC is desperate for the show to be a hit. It’s always the highlighted show on iplayer for me and I never watch anything even remotely like it, so it’s not based on my viewing habits. It seems like a bunch of out of touch ad execs have come up with this campaign thinking drag is cool and edgy, when it’s actually pretty cringe and tacky. It’s about as edgy as seeing an Elvis impersonator.

I will say though, I was pleasantly surprised they didn’t deck her out in tacky valentines lingerie and at least gave her some cosy pyjamas. I hate the racks of polyester red shit around this time of year.

In the spirit of sharing the love and to mark Valentine’s Day and LGBT History Month, (New Look are) donating £1 from every charity gift card purchase of £10 or more to the LGBT Foundation — a charity delivering advice, support and information services to LGBTQIA+ communities

The drag queen Elliie Diamond plugged LGBT history month and yet I've never seen drag artists as part of that 'community'.
Dressing in drag is lumped in here with being trans & LGB; if you are bisexual for instance would you feel represented by a drag queen?
He seems a bit old to be advertising teen fasion as well, it's all a bit jarring.

@Realityisreal

I'm not a fan of Drag Queens but find this one inoffensive. What I do find offensive is the implication that to 'woman' correctly we need guidance from a man in drag.

It is an advert positioned at women. Why is this necessary? It doesn't engage me and I assume most women would feel the same.

New Look-

Look like a scarecrow.

It feels like odd forced teaming, tbh.

Didn't Asda do this recently as well?

@Xoxoxoxoxoxox

In the spirit of sharing the love and to mark Valentine’s Day and LGBT History Month, (New Look are) donating £1 from every charity gift card purchase of £10 or more to the LGBT Foundation — a charity delivering advice, support and information services to LGBTQIA+ communities

The drag queen Elliie Diamond plugged LGBT history month and yet I've never seen drag artists as part of that 'community'.
Dressing in drag is lumped in here with being trans & LGB; if you are bisexual for instance would you feel represented by a drag queen?
He seems a bit old to be advertising teen fasion as well, it's all a bit jarring.

Many lesbians have been extremely uncomfortable for years with the inclusion and frontlining of drag at Pride and Pride-style gatherings. A lot of drag queens are vile to lesbians because we don't conform to stereotypes. It was after a couple of lesbian friends and I were abused by a gaggle of drag queens at Cardiff Mardi Gras about a decade ago that we stopped going. Whereas in the old days all my LGB friends would have the date in their diary and turn out, hardly anyone I know goes now. That's why Pride now seems so dominated by the pups, the leathermen, the drag queens, the men dressed as little girls and so on.

Well I for one am relieved that they’ve got a man centre stage because otherwise how would I know what the requirements are for womanly dressing? It’s also good to have a man to lead all the fun because women don’t know how to be funny and have fun. It’s also helpful to know that while it’s okay for a man to wear a really really short skirt when I abs a woman wear a skirt or dress mine shouldn’t be that short. So it’s great that a man’s be brought in over all. Cheers New Look - I totally want to spend a lot of money with you know. But could you just make sure that when you donate money none of it goes to those boring lesbians who won’t woman right??

Have any of you seen the short-lived Drag Race spinoff Drag U, a makeover show where real women are coached to dress/walk/act like drag queens?

It's pretty revealing - this subculture has an issue with female gender nonconformity based on the way they talk about women, esp. butch lesbians, working women, middle-aged mothers... I think drag can be interesting and it can be art, but in the last 5ish years it's only had negative knock-on effects for actual women.

Sidenote my uni has a drag soc with 'bio queens' ('cis' women who impersonate females, somehow) and this has led to young women literally just stripping/doing burlesque routines in front of friends, strangers, classmates... It is dire.

If it's really important that 'everyone feels comfortable in their own skin and supported', why on earth is Ellie dressed like that?

I've got a 14 year old girl who couldn't be less interested in drag anything.

None of mine are even eldest with many trans friends who seem to change names and pronouns frequently.

Wouldn't stop them or me buying if we saw a perfect item - but doesn't get is through the door either.