I am SO Vogue!

I was flying out to Kansas City late last year on business when I noticed that the December issue of Vogue had a "behind the scenes" article on MOAG - so of course I had to have it. On reading, I noticed that in the Health and Beauty section where they were highlighting some MOAG product tie-in they dropped the term "yuzen" with no explanation, as if everyone is familiar with this term. Then in the actual MOAG article they referred to the setting of the film as "the imaginary city of Miyako". Well, this was just too much for me! When I got back to town I dashed off a snarky letter to the editor (online).

So when I flew out to Minneapolis a couple of weeks ago (yes, Minnesota in February - ugh!!) I again picked up a copy of Vogue and lo and behold, they printed my letter in their March edition!

Here's the text of the email:

LOST IN TRANSLATION
It was amusing to see VOGUE so casually drop the term yuzen [a dyeing technique using rice paste] in the December story "Go East" [by Jane Shin Park, Beauty, Health & Fitness] as if it's a buzzword on everyone's lips, and then 60 pages later refer to the "imaginary city of Miyako" ["The Art of Seduction." by John Powers.] Heads up, ladies! Miyako is the ancient name for the city we now know as Kyoto.

That's fun enough, but they also found it neccessary to print a Clarification:

The term Miyako is another name for the city of Kyoto and also simply means "capital city." While the book Memoirs of a Geisha is set in Kyoto, directory Rob Marshall chose to set the film in "imaginary city of Miyako," touching on the book's original reference but allowing for a less-specific setting.

Uh, yeah - Vogue didn't make a mistake, the director did!

Nice.

BTW, I thought it was enough to point out the discrepancy without burdening them with the etymology of the word "Miyako".