The Middle Eastern aesthetic
Hannibal Gaddafi's Lebanese wife
Are the Mayor of Qormi and other Super One/Labour ‘Berlusca girls’ using Aline Skaf and her like as inspiration?
Or is it just that they have emerged from the same ‘aesthetic culture’?
This photograph is what I mean by ‘the Middle Eastern look’ which is embraced so wholeheartedly by those young Maltese women who seem to think it’s a criminal offence to leave the house without full make-up at the only time of their lives when their skin is perfect, with tortured hair, huge heels and with ‘saxy’ clothes.
The fresh-faced, loose-haired, relaxed-clothes, flat-sandalled European aesthetic is a million miles away. They couldn’t be more different. Essex girls? Manchester girls on a night out? Not really. When they’re not on a night out, they wear jeans and sneakers and no make-up, and leave their hair alone. The mayors of Qormi and their tribe do not.
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” and her like as inspiration? ”
What?
[Daphne – ‘Aline Skaf and her like’ = ‘Aline Skaf and those like her’. Sorry, I forget to write in Maltese English sometimes.]
I admit. My english is not up to standard. I thought it was a mistake, and wanted to point it out before some other websites/blogs that try to compete with this one get a screen shot.
“flat-sandalled” : You should have seen the high heels at a wedding reception I went to recently. Considering that the wedding mass was at noon and I left at 7.00pm when the after-wedding party for the bride/bridegroom friends was starting, it must have been torture for those women.
It was not only the twenty-somethings but also dowagers well past their prime.
Very high stilletto heels and a platform to make the shoes proportionate are back and they seem so ridiculously exaggerated.
I tend to be rather partial to high heels. They allow one to not have to shorten jeans with those horrible home made hems, a very useful tool for us height challenged Maltese.
I actually find them very comfortable, and no Sowerberry i am not one of these people who will not leave the house without a painted face, in fact quite the opposite.
[Daphne – Jeans come in different lengths. You needn’t have a homemade hem. Good thing you brought this up, though – I was just thinking how I’d failed to mention that other horrible look: the way Maltese women treat jeans like trousers and dress them up with stilettos and smart belts and blow-dried hair and lots of make-up. Awful.]
Ghoxrin Punt: I never entered into the merits or demerits of what you call “painted faces”, but now that you have dragged me in, some Maltese women apply make-up that you need a blow-torch to remove.
And in my male ignorance, I thought that jeans and high heels were a no-no even for height challenged Maltese.
What you’ve said about jeans doesn’t apply only to Maltese women . I’ve seen plenty of Italians wearing the “pellicca” on jeans.
[Daphne – That’s actually a good look. Or was, anyway.]
Shorter length jeans and trousers aren’t actually that easy to find. I’m 155 cm tall and struggle to find 30-inch length jeans.
I own a few pairs and because I refuse to go for the homemade hem, the hems are all frayed from walking which isn’t a good look.
The problem with longer length jeans is that you not only have to shorten them but narrow them too. I practically buy all my clothes online except for jeans and trousers which I have to try on.
I had a hard time adapting to flats when I lived abroad and used to have to walk a lot. I refused to wear trainers with suits on the way to work as I found that look appalling.
The idea of carrying my heels in my bag didn’t appeal either. At my height a heel is a must, though for a casual day look I prefer wedges with jeans. I’m not talking stilettos, all my heels are on the thicker side.
I never understood how women could balance on thin heels but my colleagues at work swear that they’re comfortable. I so wish somebody would ban stiletos at work and there’s a return to the traditional court shoe which in my opinion is the only office-appropriate type of heel.
[Daphne – Stilettos are totally inappropriate for the office. They’re considered completely unacceptable in office environments elsewhere in Europe, you’re right about that.]
@ sap. Put a sock in it.
Why should I? I may not be as good as you when it comes to the English language. No need to be offensive.
Looks more like ‘Maltese TV superstar’….Claire Agius (yawn).
You pretty much hit the nail on the head, Daphne. A fresh-faced, “acqua e sapone” look is so much more attractive than that artificial, overworked, plastered-over aesthetic that tells everybody that you’re trying too hard.
[Daphne – You tell ’em, Bubu. Other women rarely believe me when I say that men really hate that look, except perhaps as a very distant observer, say via a camera. My most guy-magnetic girlfriend back in our Saddles days was the one who always came to the bar straight from the shower after a game of squash or a long afternoon of windsurfing, usually in her old shorts or jeans. She practically had to fight them off.]
I totally agree.
In fact in any European city and at international airports one can immediately tell that the Nuxellina type of women are not European – they are usually Moroccan, Turkish. And, yes, Maltese.
I spot them from kilometres away.
The vast majority of girls who embrace this look tend to be short, have generally thick curly impossible hair, and are often either pimply or generally insecure about their facial features… hence the clown make-up, gelled hair, and hooker heels.
well not in this case, saw the Qormi mayor a couple of times (in daylight without wearing make up) She’s a typical mediterranean girl with very particular features. She’s beautiful guys, let’s admit it!
And what about tattoed eyebrows? Disgusting!
Better have a look in the mirror.Mirror mirror on the wall who is the fairest of us all?You got the answer?
Daphne, you’re absolutely right. The thing is, an average European young lady has perfect glowing skin, a peachy complexion (which does not need any make-up), smooth, straight locks (which do not need any blow-dries), toned abs and arms, long legs and a perfectly shaped bust.
[Daphne – Not at all. People with straight hair are in the minority everywhere in Europe; most people actually have wavy or curly hair to some degree. The difference is that outside Malta it not seen as something to be ashamed of. As for the glowing skin – hardly. Pale, washed-out complexions are technically speaking more in ‘need’ of make-up than dark complexions, but most of them don’t bother so we get used to seeing them like that. As for the body – that’s not my observation. You get all shapes and sizes just as you do here in Malta; the difference is in their attitude. Maltese families raise their daughters to be insecure about their appearance. There’s this whole over-grooming thing going on and, at the other extreme, the wrong sort of ‘not bothering’, in the sense that they make no effort at all when they really can’t afford to do that because they weren’t born blessed. It’s the middle road that’s missing: on the one hand you get greasy, messy women in tracksuits and shabby jumpers, and on the other hand you get overdone, overstretched and over-made-up women. Your explanation up here reflects a lot of that attitude: ‘I can’t be seen in my natural state because I look like an Arab and not like a European’. That’s all it boils down to really.]
On the other hand the average Maltese young lady has oily skin, pimples on her chubby cheeks, frizzy dark hair (all over the body it seems, judging from the vast amount of laser hair removing treatments currently being advertised everywhere), wobbly tummy and arms, short legs and largish breasts.
Let’s admit it, il-Maltin koroh. And so they try their hardest to look “European”. But they end up looking more like …no, I won’t say it. The worst thing is when these young ladies start off strutting their stuff at the age of 9, I just can’t bear to see children, girls especially, dressed up like 18 year olds.
[Daphne – Yes, I agree with you there, but not about the Maltese being ugly. The Maltese are not naturally ugly at all; they make themselves ugly, either by trying too hard with the wrong things or going in the opposition direction. And yes, there are few human sights uglier than the parade of hideousness down Republic Street, but how much of that is God-given and how much is self-imposed? The posture, the carriage, the facial expressions, the lack of self-care in the essentials but then so much time and money spent on ruining their hair and putting on fake nails…]
Finally. Someone has spoken out. Il-Maltin koroh.
Allow me to share this – it really happened.
Some weeks ago I had a blow-dry done and then wore stilettos to a morning wedding.
My six-year-old son watched as I walked around getting myself ready. “Mummy, you look normal now, but I don’t like you like this”.
Humph. Myriam, no offence, but that’s all a load of bologna.
Most Maltese women, especially the younger generations, are real stunners, even with being height challenged and all. As Daphne says, the real problem of the Maltese is that we are obsessed with inconsequentials and do not take care of the important stuff.
Of course there’s always the “Zeza ta’ Bubaqra” that tips the scale in the other direction.