Wendy Brandes Jewelry Blog

Never Is the Next New Thing

Surprise!

by

I didn’t expect this, but my Marie Claire essay is now available online. I hope you peeps who bought the magazine won’t be demanding a refund. You did get an extra photo in the print version. Maybe that counts for something.

I will give you two more photos here. When we did the shoot for the story, I started out with my favorite faux-ny tail hairstyle. But after the test Polaroids, I was deemed to look “too Asian,” especially in the green dress. I want to make it clear that this was only a problem because I’m not Asian. It is TOTALLY cool for Asian people to look Asian in Marie Claire.

Here are the Polaroids (via photographer Anna Wolf):

I think the dress looks better here than in the photo that ran.
I like this one because I look a little smiley.
But they wanted me to be very serious to match the story.

I want to mention one final thing regarding the story itself. If you scour teh Internets for information on my late business partner, you might notice an age discrepancy between my story and other references. Like many women — and more and more men — my late partner was known to be “imprecise” about her age. A family member told me that she was 52, so that was the age I used, rather than my partner’s preference, which was 50. Personally, I don’t believe in rounding down. If you say you’re younger than you are, people think you aged really badly and they’re all like, “Holy meth face, Batman!” The trick is to round up and then people say, “You look so young!” That’s why I’m going to start telling everyone I’m 60. Just play along with it, bitches. Just play along.

NOTE: If you are a new reader who is wondering what the hell is going on here, read this post for the 411.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Hi Wendy- I JUST read your essay in Marie Claire when I was on a plane flying back to Boston. It was a very nice piece, plus I feel a little celebrity shocked knowing that we read each others blogs!!! Your picture looked gorgeous btw 🙂

  2. Jesus christ superstar comment overload!!

    Congrats wendy. Im going to find this marie claire at the library soon!

  3. Shoeaddict – you’re right. I’m 60!
    Sonja – Thank you.
    Sister – I do believe the makeup artist used a lipstick from her kit and I have no idea what it was! I’m going to start doing some red lipstick posts though.
    PAD – Yeah, I didn’t like that part either.
    Suze – I always feared that a certain actress would be found dead with my Medici ring in the vicinity of her nose, but thankfully she seem to be doing much better. Well, thankfully for her. But I would have gotten a lot of press.
    Anna, thanks!
    Sister, I’m sure Suze’s ass is worthy of a blog.
    Julie, thanks!
    Eli, LOL!!

  4. I’d do that too.

    “I’m 70”

    “WOW you’ve aged nicely”

    “why thank you”

  5. Loved the essay, thanks for sharing your story. I was intrigued by the title-“Secrets and Lies.” My mind wandered all over the place wondering what it could be about: was your partner an embezzler? Meth addict? Drug dealer? Cross-dresser secretly in love with you? But clearly I was headed in the way wrong direction on that whole train of thought.

    Well-written and I love reading your blog, too. Thanks, WendyB!

  6. LOL @ “cross-dresser secretly in love with you.” I can’t say I would’ve chosen that headline myself, Becky. I’d say there were more secrets than lies.

  7. you look AMAZING for 60! you don’t look a day over 32! ;P
    i came across this randomly and was so excited for you (not due to the subject matter but for getting the piece run!) congrats!