). Expecting little more than a two-dimensional imitation of the magazine, I indiscriminately clicked on one link and then another, mindlessly skimming through photo after photo of beautiful and beautifully-clad women.
And then, amidst pictures of "The Ten Most-Wanted Looks" from Paris, Milan, London and New York, I found the mother lode. Under the misleading category of "Daily Updates" (smack next to the daily horoscopes) was a link called "Fashion Forums." Absentmindedly I clicked the link, not knowing then what I would find.
What I found was the most entertaining, albeit ridiculously shallow, "forum" of anything that I have ever seen. The Vogue fashion forum is less about fashion, and so much more about everything that is odd and scary about our world today.
Broken into five categories ("The Spring 2000 Shows," "The Models," "The Celebrities," "The Trends," and "The Gossip"), the Vogue fashion forums could simply have been lumped into one category called: "Engrossed With Fame and Celebrity or Completely Bitter About The People and Places that I Wish I Were," or something to that effect. The forum essentially consists of the "Bitter" and the "Engrossed" doing battle with one another in hilarious fashion.
One posting in the "The Spring 2000 Shows" category is titled "You are all sad followers of fashion1x" and features feelings and emotions that are not suitable for print here. Responses to this post include such gems as, "Why are you here, you ignorant soul?" and "Excuse me?" (Actually both of these posts were well-written defenses of interest in fashion, but their titles just made me laugh.)
"The Spring 2000 Shows" forum, however, has nothing on the other forums. It seems that "The Models" forum is dedicated solely to the discussion of how thin models should be, with postings such as "Team WAIF responds" and ones that deal with such important issues as "Who do you think will be the female model of the year [at the VH1 Fashion Awards]?" "The Trends" forum is also amusing, and is probably the one to which most people can relate, being that it discusses which trends are worth following and which are just silly. It's actually an interesting one to read just because it makes you realize with what completely different perspectives dedicated followers of fashion can view the fashion scene.
But far and away, the most entertaining and laugh-inspiring posts are on "The Celebrities" and "The Gossip" forums, which just keep the barbs and insults coming. Who are they insulting, exactly? Does "I hate Jennifer Aniston1x She is an ugly bimbo1x" give you any insight? No? How about "Jessica (Sklar) looks like Shoshanna (Lonstein)'s homely sister1x"? And these are just on the celebrity forums. The gossip forums seem to be pretty firmly dedicated to following the every move of New York socialites (with a healthy dose of London and other socialites as well), and feature such choice post-feminist bits as "What about Brooke?? She's totally beautiful and all those girls are better looking than an average American woman or else they wouldn't have rich husbands1x" Mmm, yes. Some of these postings are really, really scary (see the Jennifer Aniston one above ? wow1x), while others are just funny and/or sad. Either way, they should give you a laugh at work or wherever you Web-surf.
