Some bloggers believe images should be free of text, header and other “Noise’. Images alone stand for beauty — pure and simple. In reality, those works also become an excuse for lack of excellence in writing, any degree of scholarship or adding to the value of content. 

One blog where words aren’t required — although they are prolific — is Luxirare, a New York website that merges food and fashion. 

Luxirare is a weekly webzine dedicated to clothing and cuisine. At Luxirare, the typical notion of a seasonal fashion show or seasonal “menu” does not exist. Styles and recipes are presented as individual pieces that do not follow a strict theme but rather a flow of ideas. The Luxirare principle is to use the unique mobility of the internet to develop an enticing, unorthodox presentation.

Food is consumed by mouth and clothing worn on the body, says Luxirare. That makes both intimate experiences. This is a vision I can relate to. The authors write: “The new definition of luxury will not depend on mass production or the “high” price tag. There is no false creation of the “it” item and its corresponding “scarcity” that this item will “sell out”. The new definition of Luxury will not only depend on the quality of materials used, but the time and amount of thinking it takes to create it.”

As a Smart Sensuality woman, I read these words as ‘right on’ — with one huge omission. Luxirare remains a Modern values message, because it wraps items from macaroons to snakeskin envelopes in visual luxury, with no mention of the real circumstances by which this fabulous bit of luxury came to market. 

Smart Sensuality women are increasingly concerned about these topics. The images in Snakeskin Envelopes are exquisite. The process by which a snake is skinned alive to make that bag is not. In its beauty, the pursuit of luxury becomes clinically cold — divorced from the sublime sensual experience of biting into a Ladurée macaroon. 

When one makes mouthwatering beauty out of snake skinning, with no statement of intentions or background mission statement, the image exists as what it is — divorced from the holistic process by which products come to market. Student Kim Preston explores this reality in her “Plastic Pacific” images, inspired by the garbage dump that is becoming the Pacific Ocean. Pretending that Greenpeace was her client for a class project, Preston creates images that engage the viewer in discussion, asking them to use what intellectual horsepower they have left to think independently and question if this garbage floating in the Pacific is really as beautiful as presented. 

The same challenge applies to snake skinning. Read How the Python Makes Its Way to Becoming a Liz Carey Handbag, Thanks to Vogue Magazine on AOC Green.

Bottom line, the delicious visual seduction that is Luxirare creates mouth-watering desire and appreciation for food and clothes that are intimate to us. I adore the style of presentation. Yet, it is a somewhat false seduction in the way that ‘50 Shades of Grey’ is a false seduction — a painful, brutal sexual relationship transformed into a romantic novel read by over 40 million women worldwide. 

Smart Sensuality women see through this ruse.