VERA DIFFERENT

 

Funny how even the fairies had 
hairstyles of the day.

"I'll believe it when I see it." You used to hear that phrase a lot back in the day, even when what you were looking at was phony as a P. Diddy apology. The Cottingley Fairies photos fooled plenty of folks in 1917, and not just simpletons, either. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle fell for them like a two-ton sack of flour, and he created Sherlock Holmes, who wasn't fooled by anything. 

Careful, Vera, you'll drown with all
that jewelry.

Today, you can put away the pen, paper and scissors and use software to create "real" photos. This week, Vera Wang (the person, not the wedding dress) posted some shots of herself by a swimming pool in the Hamptons. 

 Not being a dedicated follower of fashion, I would have mistaken her for your typical, emaciated 20-something runway model. But her rabid fans -- the ones who can't afford any Vera Wang product --  couldn't withhold their huzzahs for the 74 year-old designer, with comments like "eternal youth" and "aging backwards" flowing from their gullible mouths (or keyboards). 

She does not look good for 24.

Did I say "gullible"? Let's go with amnesiac. Because surely those same people would have seen unretouched photos of Vera Wang just a couple of weeks earlier at the Met Gala where she looked like a 70-something 

emaciated runway model. Even her real nose is different in real life. And had she not worn sunglasses in the Hamptons, the bags under her eyes would have been scrubbed, erased, and thrown in the closet. 

It's been said -- or maybe I dreamed it up myself -- that people believed in the Cottingley fairies as an escape from World War I. If bad times is what takes for people to believe in obvious frauds, World War III is just around the corner.

I'm not making fun of Vera Wang's appearance. I'm making fun of her phony photos. If we're lucky, we all get old and, if luckier, stay healthy and, even luckier, self-aware. Meaning we don't expect people to believe that we look 50 years younger than we really are. (I'm 68, and if someone thinks I'm 65, it's a good day.) God bless you, Vera Wang, and keep doing what you love. As long as that doesn't include trying to convince the world you aren't 74 years old.

                                                       ***************