“These woman on the best dressed [lists] are interesting for fashion. They move fashion forward, they’re part of a business and an industry. They’re a component of an industry that is a worldwide thing. It’s a big thing, fashion,” explains digital creative director Sally Singer at the outset of a video interview on the Fusion digital network.
Singer was promoting Vogue’s recently published list of 10 women to watch in 2014, except the “woman” she was most eager to talk about is actually a 14-year-old girl — Kiernan Shipka, the actress who plays Sally Draper on Mad Men.
“[She] always looks young and she looks appropriate and she looks like she’s having fun with the retro nature of the part she plays on TV and with being a young woman,” says Singer. “I think she’s someone whose quirky style is going to evolve over time. She also makes really good choices with new designers. She wears Delpozo, she wears Preen — a lot of labels that are smart and right for now and right for her age group.”
Although it’s true that Shipka is a precocious fashion plate with surprisingly sophisticated taste, it’s always a little odd to see such a young woman glorified as a style icon by the fashion industry. And this isn’t the first time Shipka’s been subject to this kind of drooling treatment by the fashion press. At eleven, her Los Angeles home was photographed for The Coveteur.
I found it equally unsettling when the Urban Outfitters dress Malia Obama wore in the First Family holiday portrait was picked up by fashion outlets as a shopping tip — “Although 15-year-old Malia is more than a decade my junior, I am seriously considering taking a style cue from her and purchasing this dress right now,” wrote one blogger. At least there’s some reticence.
