Talking lipsticks and splitting hairstyles at Fashion Week

It must have been quite a show at Fashion Week, if you’re to believe the writer of this article on Yahoo! Shine. Lots of interesting things to see at the Chris Benz show, like patterns sequins:

Patterns sequins sound intriguing, though I suspect they were actually patterned sequins or patterns and sequins.

What’s more fun than a talking lipstick? Especially when it pays a compliment to a designer’s spring collection:

It’s a common word (at least it should be for anyone writing about fashion), so why did the writer split hair style? Perchance it is just a sloppy slip-up, like the use of where for were and the missing hyphen in the compound adjective low-cut:

God, I’m sorry I wasn’t in New York this week. But reading about the shows on Shine makes up for it. I always get a chuckle from this writer’s coverage. Very entertaining, but not in a good way.

Hairstyle to dress: Your shape is fabulous!

Until a hairstyle can pay a compliment to a dress’ shape, this little tidbit from “The Thread” on Yahoo! Shine is wrong, wrong, wrong:

The wrong word (compliment instead of the correct complement) isn’t the only problem. If you follow the Associated Press style (as Yahoo! supposedly does), the possessive of dress is without the extra S because the word following it begins with an S. (I am not making this up.) And anyone with a second-grade education could spot the misspelled until.

You’d think that in a short blog post, there couldn’t possibly be more errors. You are wrong! Here are two more:

If you’re unsure whether collarbone is one word or two (it’s one), try using clavicle. (Ha! Ha! Like the writer could actually spell that!) And unless you mean “additional long hair,” you need a hyphen in the compound adjective extra-long.

Ooooh, nice formfitting dress

Just who or what was paying a compliment to whom or whatever?

Whatever. This hot mess, with its unnecessary hyphen in formfitting, mismatched quotation marks around the movie title, and misuse of compliment for the correct complement is from Yahoo! Shine.

It’s not complementary

Ask me my opinion about this excerpt from Yahoo! Games and I’d make less-than-complimentary remarks, even if the author were a critically acclaimed writer:

Your body type is hot!

A bathing suit that compliments your body type? That would be hot! But if you want a suit that improves your bikini-wearing appearance, look for one that complements it. Yahoo! Shine’s The Thread gets it wrong here:

It also gets the whole subject-verb agreement thing wrong here:

The subject of the verbs highlights and downplays (which should be highlight and downplay) is options.

Oy! The stress of writing about fashion

Oy! The stress of attending all those shows at New York Fashion Week has affected the writers on Yahoo! Shine. The writer of this blog post doesn’t get off to an auspicious start, what with neglecting to capitalize the very first letter of the very first word:

If you’re a fan of good grammar, then you know that a comma is required after that opening clause and that two independent clauses separated by and also need a comma.

Picky punctuation points? Perhaps. But I don’t think I’m picky to ask: What the heck does this mean?

Or to call out this horrible homophone and lack of agreement between the subject (clothing) and its verb (which should be was):

\

A missing word here, a missing hyphen and comma there, what’s the big deal? And there’s that compliment again:

Compliment does not mean “to go well with or enhance.”  That would be complement.

I think this word is either silk or slick:

And I don’t know how a paid, professional writer doesn’t know the difference between the contraction it’s and the possessive pronoun its:

I must admit, this is a first for me: I’ve never known anyone who did not know the difference between guild (which is like a trade union) and gild:

Or how to spell pharaoh. I can understand not knowing how to spell Ferocia Coutura, but can’t forgive not googling the name before publishing it where it can be seen by dozens, maybe even hundreds, of people.

Oy! Sometimes writing about fashion is only a little less stress than reading about fashion.

Fishing for compliments

If the writer for Yahoo! Shopping was looking for compliments, I suggest he or she look elsewhere. Fishnet stockings may complement a skirt and a capitalized Day would complement Valentine’s, but here are no compliments for these errors:

Your hangers are fierce!

I really can’t think of anything else nice to say about the contents of her closet. But if I wanted to buy something that went well with her wardrobe, I might find an accessory that complemented her clothes. Yahoo! Shopping, on the other hand, suggests you just praise anything in her closet:

Talking dress and capital-less

A blog on Yahoo! omg! paid a few compliments to some ladies on the red carpet:

It’s not the first time that an article of clothing has handed out praise on omg!.  Ms. Hatcher’s dress actually complemented her hair and eyes, and Ms. Hargitay won an Emmy Award.

Peanut butter to chocolate: Your cacao looks fab

Yahoo! TV’s collection of “Second Banana” photos includes captions to complement the pictures, like this one:

Let me offer some complimentary advice: If you’re talking about two things that go well together, then they complement each other. Like peanut butter and chocolate. Peas and carrots. And Stacy and Clinton. Except when Clinton tells Stacy he loves her Jimmy Choos.