Bernell Dorrough
Fashionistas, By Lynn Messina
Red Dress Ink 2003,
288 pages, $12.95
Although the old adage would have you believing to the contrary, you often can, in fact, judge a book by its cover. Enter “Fashionistas” in its perky, pastel little package as a perfect example. With the use of light blues, greens, and heaven forbid, fuchsia on the cover, I was ready to run in the other direction, away from its attempts at being art chic. This novel is only the latest in a growing crop of American chick lit novels inspired by the Brit novels of the same genre. Maybe I should have avoided the pretty wrapping, but I guess I can’t resist the alluring offerings of WU alumni, who seem to write novels faster than rabbits-well, you know. Ms. Messina, WU class of 1994, worked at InStyle before leaving the magazine and writing “Fashionistas” as a diatribe against the celebrity tabloid biz. While her motivations for writing are clear throughout the book, the scathing comments and railing against vapidity not only get old, but actually infect her own writing.
Well, to be fair, it’s really only the first 90 pages of this quick read that make you want to bang yourself over the head with a Chanel bag or some other cute accessory. This is the story of Vig Morgan, an associate editor at the celeb glossy Fashionista, and her involvement in the plot to overthrow the bitch-from-hell boss, editor-in-chief Jane MacNeill. Highly disgusted with her current employment, Vig can’t let a chapter (and they’re short chapters) go by without making some snide, witty comment about how her magazine basically reworks the same celebrity fodder every month by simply shuffling the parade of pretty faces and famous names. Well, when you hate your job and feel that it contributes nothing to society, that’s a real shame, but even such clever complaints as, “it’s aggressively hip and overwhelmingly current and every glossy page drips with beauty, but the nuggets of wisdom it dispenses are gold for fools,” get stale after you’ve heard it fifty times-and that’s a underestimate. This is the first problem with Messina’s work-too much of a good thing.
Thankfully, we are saved from more of Vig’s self-pity by the introduction of the plot to overthrow the evil Jane, which basically sets up the plot for the rest of the book and gives the word fashionista its clever double meaning. Three other editors, including her annoying cubicle neighbor, Allison, come to Vig with the clever idea to dispose Jane, using her as the “linchpin.” Basically, the idea is to sucker Jane into a contest of egos with Marguerite, a new editor on the scene and one of Jane’s old magazine rivals. The plot is refreshingly complex for a chick novel, with the end result producing Jane’s support of a controversial artist, Gavin Marshall, and being fired as a result. Gavin is one of the most intriguing characters in the novel, but we’re introduced to another well before him-with the introduction of Alex Keller, the asshole Events Editor who strikes fear into the hearts of all at Fashionista, the reader is well rewarded for suffering at the hands of Vig and her vacuous coworkers.
So, this book’s about overthrowing a tyrant, right? Well, no, although not to spoil the ending, but Jane emerges triumphant and Marguerite turns out to be an even worse version of Jane. Whoo, big surprise. No, the real point of this book is for Vig to figure out who she is and what she’s doing, with some help from Maya, her friend who’s the only character who can possibly complain more than Vig, and Alex, who turns out to be an editor who leaves all the work to his assistant and studies architecture instead. Finally, the novel becomes interesting due to Messina’s expert attention to friendships. The characters are rather superficial and more than just a little stereotyped, but their interaction and frequent trips to various bars are where the heart of the book is located. The office plot loses less and less of the spotlight, only functioning as an agent to move Vig closer to the promised land. Her Fashionista connections allow her to meet important critics and sell a series of articles to the New York Times, otherwise known as a real journalistic endeavor. This book could basically be called, “Vig Gets a Life,” but I guess that’s not as catchy.
The best scenes of the novel come out of this almost-thirty combination of longing for something better and being terrified of finding whatever that something better is. When she first meets the mysterious Alex, he mistakes her for his new dog walker, and she goes along with it, sighing, “I’ve never sat in the dog run on a breathtaking beautiful day with a handsome man who knows the first rule of good parenting.” This, along with their first date (square-dancing in a church basement), is probably the high point of the novel, as Messina infuses it with both wit and wistfulness. And hey, it happens on page 93, when the book starts getting better. Unfortunately, these scenes are few and far between, and Vig is one of those protagonists we like because we have to. While “Fashionistas” isn’t remarkable fluff, it’s fun for the most part, and a good start for Messina.