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Puff-Puff-Pass!

9 years ago by

Puff-Puff-Pass!

I love a #tbt.


My favorites are a childhood memory, or a flashback to the 80s or 90s fashion editorials (I currently can’t get a Vogue Italia shoot by Peter Lindbergh out of my head. Just too good!). One thing keeps coming back, though — cigarettes! I’m not really a smoker, albeit in Paris (when it feels so right, it can’t be wrong), but every editorial I come across from twenty years ago has a girl smoking — even in the movie theatre! In today’s spread, you never see a cigarette. It’s a no-no… a faux pas, really.

I’m not encouraging it (to each their own) but, with the disappearance of smoking in fashion, it seems like the act of doing nothing has taken its place.

What do you think the modern age replacement for smoking should be, in your opinion?

50 comments

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  • I love the look of smoking in a photo. It’s just an old school glam.

    http://hashtagliz.com

  • People looking at each other in the eyes, instead of looking at their phones!

  • Hi Alexia – love that thought. What could be a better replacement than people connecting! xx Brie

  • I think we already have the replacement of smoking, cellphone usage!

    As for smoking, health issues aside, it’s just one of those things that looks fabulous in fantasies (the edge and glamour it gives to people), but it doesn’t really translate to reality, the nasty cigarette smell people who smoke have, kinda ruins any mood. Or is it that smell doesn’t bother other smokers so it is not a turn off for them?

  • Hi Jessica!

    Totally agree – cellphones are the new cigarette!

    xx Brie

  • Agreed! Cell phones for sure. Sadly, there is something so desperate and ADD about chronic cell phone checking (I’m sure I do this myself, so I’m not judging, just saying…) Cigarettes, although shitty, seem so much more laid back by contrast.

  • At least smoking connects people. I’m always a little jealous of how smokers have this excuse to go outside and get some air. I always have the best time and the best conversations outside with the smokers during social gatherings.

  • i so agree with you garance! there is something about these images that allure me. i’m not a smoker myself, but images like above always seem to captivate me. there is a sexy appeal to them but then at at the same time it’s not a healthy decision, but to each their own. thanks for sharing, love you!

  • Nope to ads to smoke. Tobacco causes to many health conditions.

  • Stunning picture!
    What a cool ring too!
    ???
    Jeanne
    http;//fashionmusingsdiary.com

  • Great article ! I’m happy to hear that I’m not the only one who finds smoking beautiful in pictures (even if I don’t smoke myself) ! I don’t know, there is something about it…. :)

  • cell phone looking is the new smoking, for sure.

  • In my opinion there is nothing alluring in smoking, just disgusting odor and health issues afterwards.
    I agree, a cellphone could be a good replacement for smoking.

  • I think food has often become the replacement prop for cigarettes, which has evidently prompted the retaliation of satirical Instagram account @youdidnoteatthat. Perhaps this was driven by the rise in fashion bloggers, who share more than their personal style but also photos of their lives including those of food and travel. It’s hard to say whether copious amounts of doughnuts and macarons being so heavily featured is promoting “health” exactly, but the industry is probably wise to distance itself from smoking given current public opinion.

  • I love to see people reading books.

  • Surprised no one said “eating”…biting into a ripe peach or a luscious fig, what could be more sensual?

  • Phones aside, I think drinking could be, whether it’s a latte, a tiny cup of tea, or a 40 oz beer. It goes along the lines of lifestyle, and could reflect anything from poise to partying in an ad. Maybe I’m just thirsty though!

    Charity
    http://www.lostfoundblog.com

  • MissPimpin December, 11 2014, 5:05 / Reply

    Je ne vois pas pourquoi les gens (surtout à l’étranger) continue d’avoir une image de la parisienne qui fume. Presque plus personne ne le fait …

  • CecileMaki December, 11 2014, 5:35 / Reply

    Not a fan of cigarettes and its smell, but at least, you can talk with your friends while smoking. Much more difficult with a cell phone, even though I quite agree, it’s the new item to have around! Definitely not a glamorous one ;) And who knows, maybe in a few years, somebody will say that it’s bad for the health as well…! Nah, we have to think of something else!! :)

  • I do agree that it can look alluring. I have a friend, a model who makes smoking look really sexy. But then again, anything, for that matter. For me, smoking is something that will stay in old photos as a reminder of past decades and times, I’m glad it’s not being glorifies nowadays.
    But cellphones as the equivalent? I mean, it’s true, but that’s not too chic, is it?

  • I don’t miss it (the very though repulses me); therefore I don’t really need a replacement?

  • Two words: oral fixation- Much hotter than self fixation (cell phones… :)

  • i think a coffee to go is a new cigarette. Not sure about editorials but look at Pinterest. All the ‘fashion’ pins of girls in the streets have a starbucks in them! So ridiculous.

  • Remplacer la clope dans les magazines par un petit miroir de poche entre les mains, serait l’évolution la plus juste !

    http://www.therocamadour.fr

  • They can drink coffee! And there could even have steams in pictures, just like the smoke from cigars…

  • Malheureusement, rien ne peut remplacer la cigarette, à part d’autres accessoires types des années 90 (une sucette, la paille d’un Coca ou même un homme à embrasser). Je trouve que ce serait logique de la remplacer par un accessoire technologique 2014 (smartphone, ipad ou google watch soyons fous!), mais ça n’a vraiment rien de sexy ou de sensuel, une fille qui écrit un SMS, rien à voir avec la fille qui fume la fin de sa cigarette avec délectation, les yeux fermés et la tête penchée en arrière. J’imagine la même photo que dans l’article, la fille sensuelle, etc. mais avec un smartphone à la place de la clope… Et je ris!!

  • The cigarette replacement is definitely coffee.. A la Olsen twins

  • Ooh, I don’t know about smoking vanishing. Paris Vogue ALWAYS has a spread or two feauring the noxious weeds.

  • ever since i don’t smoke, i play with my hair, which is just awful, looks awful, bleh, but I can’t get rid of that habit – hands have to do something, it’s impossible for them to just stay idle. And I, unlike most of the commenters, really love the smell of cigarettes, maybe for sentimental reasons? all the boys i was with smoked.

  • A si seulement on pouvait faire de jolies cigarettes électroniques …

  • ” Moi, je ne fume pas vraiment, enfin sauf quand je suis à Paris parce que ça fait partie de l’ambiance que ça ne peut pas être si mauvais que ça” > suis je la seule que ces mots choquent ?? Fumer n’est certainement pas quelque chose de “cool” et dire ça ce n’est qu’inciter le jeune lectorat. Heureusement que la cigarette a disparu des papiers glacés!

  • Fumer n’a rien de cool, je partage le choc de joana ! Il est grand temps d’en finir avec cette pensee unique. Que ce blog nous fasse des propositions et nous montre autre chose que ces vieux poncifs.

  • Maybe it was Garance Dore who made cigarettes passe 6 years ago with her “The Last Smoke” (Hello Darling) entry on Dec 18, 2008? People are on their phones shopping/bidding/winning NOT smoking. Oh how I dream of a giant “The Last Smoke” illustration to command my living room and me this Holiday when you really want to shop, eat, drink, love and then smoke.

  • Nowadays instead of a cigarette in our hands it’s a phone! One addiction for another ;)

  • Modern age replacements are tablets, android phones and other modern devices, which we hold in our hands all the time :) Though, I must admit, that in my country smoking is still in fashion (unfortunately). You can smoke everywhere, even in the study rooms of the high officials :))

  • Katerina K. December, 12 2014, 5:06 / Reply

    The answer is ‘komboloi’. It is consisting of beads made of bone, amber, pearls, silver, glass, wood etc… Imagine it as a necklace that one can play with. During the old times, it was used for relaxation, as a symbol of social status, as an an??olytic, even as a means to reduce smoking. It can be such an elegant accessory when used from women!

  • Why do you need a replacement?

  • I just love to see cigarettes on photos. Who can forget Pulp Fiction poster with fabulous “Mrs Wallace” smoking on the bed? Reality isn’t that glam- dragon breath! But photos are a fantasy world…
    Ana
    http://www.champagnegirlsabouttown.co.uk

  • Très bonne question… En fait j’adore la cigarette dans les séries mode ou au ciné, ça rajoute vraiment un je-ne-sais-quoi de mystérieux et d’attirant !

    Mais bon, c’est toujours mieux en image qu’en vrai !

    http://www.pardonmyobsession.com/

  • Sadly it is the cell phone.

    Don’t get me wrong I do love mine and I believe I am better than most about it and about communicating in general then most people.
    My husband got his first iPhone recently and I think its now attached to him, amazing.
    Do we remember when we didn’t have any cell phones…

    I feel as if now there is so much I have to read online, just my boys school and local town information its beginning to overtake the things I want to read (like this blog!) so now am I to spend all my time looking at my phone.

    Yes, the “take out” coffee in hand maybe be second!

    I don’t think I ever look sexy smoking. I did like it and do miss it from time to time but better that I am not doing it.

  • Just…you know…have an apple. An apple a day keeps the doctor away. ;)

  • When I was very young, we had the candy cigarettes that I would play with, and mime the glamorous gestures I thought I saw in the movies and advertising of the day. My father smoked and it was just part of our world, but I grew to hate the smoke that was always around our home, and car, yuck! But the women smoking in photos were made to look so attractive. Later observations of gals who smoked were not flattering. When you substitute the cellphones for the cigarettes it sort of goes the same way. Do you think we will all have double chins and wrinkled necks from constantly looking down at our devices?

  • For me, the fact that smoking is known to cause cancer makes it disgusting. Definitely not sexy.

  • POT! it is legal now in so many place and it needs an image update! Chanel rolling paper anyone :) ps i don’t smoke pot…

  • Christina T. December, 16 2014, 3:10 / Reply

    Smoking looks good and unfortubately feels good too.On the other hand, you’re talking to your cell phone and you get brain cancer, it’s one way or another I guess..

  • I agree, sadly it is the phone that we see everywhere in streetstyle pictures already.
    Hands are on the stage again…the gestures are different but already set in our mind as the ones related to smoking.
    Honestly, that’s what girls do today: texting, chatting, posting, browsing.
    Not charming but that’s it and I believe I am one of them…one of my best friend told me when she thinks about me she pictures me with phone in my hand!
    Take out coffee cup has been used a lot too in the shootings, following american celebrity streetstyle pictures.

  • I agree, sadly it is the phone that we see everywhere in streetstyle pictures already.
    Hands are on the stage again…the gestures are different but already set in our mind as the ones related to smoking.
    Honestly, that’s what girls do today: texting, chatting, posting, browsing.
    Not charming but that’s it and I believe I am one of them…one of my best friend told me when she thinks about me she pictures me phone in my hand!
    Take out coffee cup has been used a lot too in the shootings, following american celebrity streetstyle pictures.

  • Seriously, guys ?! Please, thinking that “smoking is so coooool – OMG” or whatever, is just what this industry wanted you to think because, in most countries, tobacco avertising is forbidden. And it has been for years now.
    This kind of pictures is called “indirect advertising” (forbidden too – at least in France ; Evin Law, 10/01/1991 …).
    Malheureusement, en France en tous cas, désolée de vous dire que les séries photos clopes au bec existent toujours (et qu’il faut sans cesse se battre avec cette presse pour qu’elle arrête ainsi de donner envie à tout le monde – et aux plus influençables d’entre nous ! – de fumer).
    Bref, l’attitude ne fait-elle pas tout, sur une photo ? Cette fille aurait un post-it roulé entre les doigts, franchement c’est tout le reste qui importe, et non l’accessoire ?! Un acteur ou un mannequin n’a pas besoin d’une clope pour nous y faire croire … My point of view !

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