Today, I came across the term “achingly cool” three times. The first time, it was applied to these striped shoes. I don’t think I’ve ever heard it before, but like “effortlessly chic” I think it’s a description that label’s the user an idiot.
Why “achingly?” It never hurts me when something is cool. Is it supposed to connote yearning? Do you yearn so much to own these shoes that it causes an ache?
What about “traumatizingly cool?” Or “gut-wrenchingly cool?” I don’t like these fucking adverbs! Make them go away! I was looking for a photo of the grotesquely stylish Daphne Guinness wearing her spiked Gareth Pugh outfit when I found it at Grazia. Sure enough, she was described as achingly cool.
This photo makes me want to kill someone. It is everything I hate about hipster fashion and the cult of celebrity. This woman could wrap herself in toilet paper and everyone would fall over screaming in envy. Ten years ago she was just a normal billionaire’s wife. She is the Lady Gaga of socialites.
There must be someone else in the public eye who is more insanely rad than Daphne! Whose style do you admire, and what term would best describe it?
How does she sit down in that thing?
I admire the style of people with no money who make the effort to get dressed everyday and enjoy themselves in the hum drum of life. I see them on the train/tube/bus. I see lots of dull outfits and people who need help but in general I see people who try.
I admire the style of everyone who makes an effort and recently I met Mrs Bossa in Manchester and she had the best pleated skirt ever. I would describe the admiration I felt was tinged with envy.
Carine Roitfeld and Tom Ford can do no wrong.
Also, I think Keith Richards is a GOD, and his style is thus DIVINE.
Also, I’m heavily influenced by Marlene Dietrich.
Agree with Ms Make Do – when I see someone else being a kind of cool I’m not and/or will never be, I ache. Well, perhaps not ache. Such items are perhaps covetously cool. Vomit-inducing envy cool. Small minded petty jealousness cool. I have enough already but this makes me want to consume more MORE MORE cool. Totally, adverbially, cool. Actually, I think the problem here is use of the word cool. So uncool. Can’t we just say something is aching? Those shoes, they are totally aching!!
Daphne needs some carbs. She’s Diana Mitford’s grand daughter. You can tell I think. It’s the cheekbones.
“Achingly Cool” is up there with “Visionary” and “Challenging the Paradigm” when it comes to Nonsensical Fashion Phrases.
I give you permission to kill anyone who uses the expression, in the most grotesque way possible. http://wendybrandes.com/blog/2008/07/banning-trite/
Separately, I’d like to know why I always have to “rock” a clothing item. Can’t I just fucking wear it?
Is it wrong to hope that Daphne Guiness hurt herself or someone around her with that jumpsuit? Then, she would be painfully cool (still trying to figure out why she has a lace curtain at her waist)
I t
You want to know who is WORSE than Daphne Guiness? Stacy Engman! She is Cunt Central. I first read about her here:
http://fashioneditoratlarge.blogspot.com/2010/07/move-over-daphne.html
…and it made me want to fucking kill someone.
She is inspiringly murderous, insanely ridiculous, radically sick, and a spoiled, vapid whore with no intelligence.
I just went over to Gnarlitude’s site for a peak and she has posted the same picture of DG with the caption:
“She is seriously, mind-blowingly, wonderful!!!”
Damn adverb envy! This girl is so brain-squelchingly rad! And her exclamation marks are so diarrheaously prolific!!!!
(I think I’m getting better– how tourettesously awesome!)
Please do not use the word RAD, EVER. Instead of boobs free blog, this should be a a RAD free blog. I’m counting on you sister.
Please include thrifted. and vintage in that category, I guess we can choose at least an 100 years old mark.
Other phrases/words I do not like: “It’s *great*”; it was *amazing*.”
I would love to own that spiky suit. I have certain people/personal space-related issues, and I feel this outfit could come in useful at times.
You guys are such imaginative haters, and I mean that in a good way. You are dry-heavingly awesome. 😉
Now normally I find Daphne Guiness to give me mind cool cramps. But when I saw this, I realise she’s just got too much money. Not even toe-crampingly chic. Just bad.
Oh look, Gnarlitude has disabled comments too! Which reminds me, I haven’t looked at Jane in a while. What horrors will I discover?
Tori Amos, pre-American Doll Posse. She is freakishly awesome. And I mean that literally. She can be completely weird, but she’s still awesome.
OK so I’ve never used the term achingly cool but I think I may have dropped the odd effortlessly chic now and again. And I hate the phrase ‘shopping you wardrobe’ surely that’s called getting dressed? Not a fan of Daphne, you’re right she’s just a posh Gaga. I admire Tilda Swinton’s style – I’d call it androgyo-tastic
I had to share these!
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Nsrpnx4yygU/TBiNuGZDQiI/AAAAAAAAAoI/f3yrW76bo1E/s1600/iris-schiefferstein.jpg
(at least the ‘aching’ part is right)
p.s. I admire my style, because I get up every morning, put on some clothes, and then go out and do live life like a normal fucking person and no one ever photographs me.
p.s. I admire my style, because I get up every morning, put on some clothes, and then go out and live life like a normal fucking person and no one ever photographs me.
Ann Marie– you are leg-breakingly funny.
I think Vivienne Westwood is shit-selfingly rad. Especially since her interview where she told people to stop buying clothes and wear things until they’re rotten.
Bjork. You know, what I love about her and Viv (yep, we’re on first name terms), and admire the most, is that they don’t follow trends in the same way that most ‘style icons’ nowadays too. This woman, erm, Guinness woman covered in spikes. Is that not just a ball-gagged up version of something Posh Spice would wear? Are all of these very rich people just mimicking each other, trying to up the ‘creative’ ante?
*shrug* there are plenty of outfits that I like on people, plenty of items that I covet on people like Alexa Chung and [insert name of currently everyones’ favourite] but I don’t necessarily think that they’re icons or trend-setters.
I admire people who dress for themselves, and by their own standards. I think it’s an, erm, achingly cool thing to do. (yep, after writing it, it’s a total douche-bag phrase).
ps. Since we’re on the subject of phrases we hate… can people please stop saying “nuff said”? It’s not a valid conversation ender. Ever. It just makes you look like an egotistical douche. If you have to end an argument with ’nuff said’ then you obviously haven’t made enough of a point to stop the other person in their tracks with your brilliance. Nuff said. *puke*
@ RLC:
muahahahaha!
@ annemarie: i read that too. let’s nominate stacy engman for cotw!
Socalite Lada Gaga, hit the nail there Sister.
A really interesting book on one side of SLG family tree is called
Nemesis: The True Story of Aristotle Onassis, Jackie O, and the Love Triangle That Brought Down the Kennedys.
Money and power never seemed to make these clans happy.
I have big respect for the style choices of a blogger:
http://calamityjems-vintage-vaudeville.blogspot.com/
She comes across as a really lush person too.
I would love to be as well turned out as Joan Crawford was, she is my point of reference when doing lady like.
And the designer of the clothes for Flash Gordon AAHHHAAAHHAA! is a king in my eyes, (Danilo Donati)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danilo_Donati
He did the costume design for loads of films
Ever since seeing Barbarella at the age of 5,(costume designers: Jacques Fonteray & Paco Rabanne) dressing as a Sci-Fi slut is my uniform every time for a night on the lash or raving.
My husband just rolls his eyes, but I think he is resigned now.
Berlin Trilogy Bowie was so throat fuckingly ethereal.
Tilda Swinton in “Constantine” was so diabolicly sexy
Axl Rose and his scarf game? cunt twitchingly awesome
@rebecca. Vivienne is indeed as we say in the urban community “that bitch”
grotesquely stylishâ„¢ hahahaha the only thing i like about her was that she used her hard unearned money to buy Isabella Blow’s wardrobe. I always admired Isabella. I would call her Mad Genius.
I’ll always be a big fan of my mom’s beehive-hairdo style era. And well said, Make Do. Every time I see fashion people dressed well I indulge in a “someday, bitches” fantasy, but I rarely think of them as style icons, I just briefly covet their clothing budget. Is Daphne Guinness really going out on a limb in head-to-toe spiked Gareth Pugh?
I am a chronic over-user of the phrase “dope as shit.” It’s embarrassing.
I had a male-coworker refer to my style as “shabby chic” the other day and I wanted to kick him in the shins. That phrase was outdated 10 years ago and still sucks today.
Jackie O always had my favorite style, although I could never pull off anything remotely like it. Way too girly and tailored for me, but I loved it on her.
I really like Charlotte Gainsbourg’s style. It’s simple and it’s not pretentious.
The only people whose style I admire enough to praise with adverb dense adjectives are Catherine Baba and Iris Apfel.
@ Ann – I use dope in a similar way. Don’t be embarrassed. =D
@annemarie – I read about Stacy Engman…I couldn’t get past the ring that was “inspired by the “Sheela na Gig” a pagan symbol of a female gargoyle who uses her vagina to scare away evil spirits.”
She is wearing a gargoyle vag on her finger. iCan’t.
@annemarie – Aaahahahahaha!! You are seizure-inducingly hilarious! You’ve not only made me hate Stacy Engman but I now want to kill the author of the linked piece; both are vomitously awful.
I adore (worship?) Dame Viv and her style! I want to be her when I grow up. I’ve also always wanted to look as fantastic as many Parisian women. That “French chic” is hematoma-ly brilliant. I have several friends who look as though they’ve stepped out of a magazine editorial but wearing second-hand clothing and DIY accessories. My jealousy knows no bounds when it comes to those friends. And, like Make Do, I admire people who make an effort and look brilliant and beautifully put together, without the aid of trust funds or designer labels.
she looks achingly hungry.
I have no style, mostly wouldn’t know it if fell on me, & am not qualified to judge, but I have a few friends whose styles I like, simply because they always look good no matter what they’re doing, and they don’t fuss over it.
About cool, aching or otherwise – I always thought the whole thing about it is that it’s an intrinsic, un-selfconscious confidence that, in the case of fashion (I guess) radiates out to the confident choosing & wearing of clothes. It’s not turned in on itself, doesn’t strain for effect. It often reaches affect, though. But I don’t know….is it possible to be cool and not know? Or would that just be some kind of anomaly? Or is knowing you’re cool part of it? The picture of the spiky outfit makes me think of the old Vincent Price version of “The Fly”, complete with the white head and everything. “Heeeeeelllllp meeeeeee!!” (If you’ve never seen that one, I don’t recommend it. Very seriously creepy, that scene.)
That’s Daphne Guiness? I thought it’s a giant hairy tarantula. Maybe crossed with an Ewok. If it’s Daphne, than she’s gut-wrenching cool.
I prefer Jane Birkin over her daughter, and I hate Catherine Baba. I’ll try to figure out why when I have a moment. I like Dame Westwood because she’s a contrarian.
By the way, Daphne is not “pencil-thin” – she’s “skeletor-thin”. Her arms are skin, bone, and bulging ropy veins. Bleh!
Maybe she aches because those pokey things in her clothes keep, well, poking her.
Daphne Guinness is a fucking idiot, starting with her name and ending with her complete uselessness.
I ache for the day she topples over, breaks a frail malnourished bone and is confined to bed rest for 2 years. then gains her body weight in girl scout cookies, gets lipo, then donates her fat to lip+cheek injection doctors for free. these doctors will then sell her far as “PRIME GOLDEN DAPHNE FAT” and the other non-lady gaga socialites will buy it for thousands- and from the goodness of the injection doctor’s hearts, they will donate the profit to starving children in africa.
then she will be useful.
Fuck off SW you have no idea. Daphne Guinness was well known before she married that rich dude, have you ever heard of Guinness you dumb cunt!!
Daphne Guinness is just an upper class eccentric from a well known eccentric family, read about the Mitford sisters and you will understand where and what she comes from. May give you insight into why she is so odd.
I thought you had some intelligence but I am sad to see you are just another jealous ignorant American. I also think you suffer from NPD which makes you pathological and dangerous to those around you
She just looks really really hungry to me.
Laura – Haha, you are the one who thinks I should be “fatter for my age” and you don’t like my hair either!
annemarie – Og god, I found another picture of that woman where she is COVERED in those vagina-things!
Ariel – YES, Axl Rose was the business, wasn’t he?!?
Rebecca – Viv is shit-selfingly awesome, I could not agree more.
Ann – Shabby Chic?? What a cunt! Tell him that he’s dick-wiltingly stupid.
That outfit is actually legit-ly “achingly cool,” cuz she can impale people on it just by hugging them. Fucking rad!!!
Angelica – It’s impalingly rad!
Homer Simpson hit the nail on the head with “groin-grabbingly good”.
I love Roisin Murphy’s style, she’s fearless (and I mean that literally after seeing her climb a stack of amps in 12 inch stiletto heels), talented and doesn’t take herself too seriously.
Daphne Guinness … I don’t know, too contrived, too forced, too spiky!
Please talk about this idiot in your next post:
thestylishwanderer.com
I am bitter that she was able to just buy ALL of Issy Blow’s stuff. She didnt want it “pieced out” amongst the masses. She wanted it to all stay together.
With her.
So all the people who could have had one great piece now have none, and this money filled, starving wench has it all.
Curated.
And it wont ever be seen again, except in an exhibition that I am sure is coming.
For further profit to her.
UGH
Theresa you made me laugh. Thank you.
Daphne is useless – what is the point of a Daphne Guiness?
Aw, I used to love Daphne Guinness – and then I went to see her give a ‘talk’ (I use the term loosely). She had absolutely nothing to say. She just fidgeted about. It was very awkward. The fashion writer who was beside her just spoke the whole time about how WONDERFUL and IMPORTANT she was while she played with her hands and occassionally murmured ‘…I love Gareth Pugh, incredible’.
Funniest part was, at the end, she couldn’t get up out of her chair in her shoes. She had to be helped to stand like an old lady. It was really hard not to laugh.
Andra – The point is for everyone to drool with envy and talk about her aching coolness. It’s an Emperor’s Clothes type of thing.
Ariel – I totally hear you about Tilda in Constantine. And Laura, I only know Daphne as wearing radically stupid clothes.