L ifestyles EDITOR NADIM ROBERTS THE VOICE, THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014 5 Cheapest gown In the town H&M’s newly released wedding gown is only $129 By EDMOND LU weden-based clothing retailer Si released a $129 wedding gown to little fanfare at their Pa- cific Centre location on March 17. Van- couver is one of three Canadian cities to carry the dress. There was little signage at the store indicating the dress was available for sale. It was displayed on a rack along with other dresses of a similar style, and nothing indicated that the dress was a wedding gown rather than just another white dress. “Their dress is just a simple cotton dress that they wanted to make a mar- keting splash about,” said Patty Nayel, a wedding dress designer from North Vancouver. “It is not something that will be bought to be worn as a wedding dress any more than the other white dresses that they sell.” This is not the first time H&M has participated in the bridal market, hav- ing released a US$349 gown back in 2006 with fashion design firm Viktor & Rolf. Online wedding magazine TheKnot. com conducted a survey in 2012 of 18,000 brides and found the average cost of a dress in the United States was US$1,121. Price, however, may not be the most important factor when brides-to-be are picking the wardrobe to say “I do” in. “Another thing that came up, sur- prisingly, was if it was wedding-y enough” said Tammy Tsang, who is currently planning for her wedding in August. “My mom was very concerned about the fact that it looked just like a regular dress and not enough like a wedding dress.” According to Tsang, other factors that were important when choosing her wedding dress were the fit, whether the dress suited her wedding venue, how representative it was of her per- sonality, and the price. H&M photo H&M’s new $129 wedding dress. YOUTUBE photo Henri le Chat Noire, whose videos have been viewed online more than 15 million times, will be featured at the Just for Cats film festival. Feline film fest to hit Van The internet’s most famous cats make tt to the big screen By RENEE SUTTON e Just for Cats film festival, fea- turing famous cats from the In- ternet, will be pouncing into Van- couver this August. The festival will be playing at the PNE this summer and will be included in the admission price. The reel will feature about 70 minutes of short films, six-second Vine clips, and well-known cats from the web including Grumpy Cat and Henri le Chat Noir. The Just for Cats film reel was cre- ated by the Walker Art Centre in Min- neapolis, and has been the centre of fundraisers for cat health and shelter programs across North America. The Canadian Federation of Humane Societies (CFHS) is presenting the film, which will tour across Canada after its premier at the Toronto International Film Festival on April 17. Gisele Baxter, an expert in pop cul- ture and sessional lecturer at UBC, said part of the attraction of cat videos is that people anthropomorphize cats. “When you think of the sorts of cats who’ve become famous, it’s usually for . .. some sort of human characteristic in them,” she said. Baxter said advancements in photo- graphic technology and social media have led to an increase in self-publish- ing and the popularity of cat videos. This will be the first national tour for the film reel. Kim Elmslie, communica- tions and advocacy manager for CFHS, said it’s an exciting way to spread an important message about the welfare of cats. According to the BC SPCA website, three times more dogs than cats were reunited with their families in 2013. “We found that cats just weren’t doing so well in Canada... we wanted to do something in the public realm and we wanted to do something fun,” Elmslie said. Langara student Patrick Bull said he didn’t know if he could sit through an hour of cat videos. “It’d be hard to pay for something that you pretty much get for free,” Bull said. Viral cats Nyan Cat Grumpy Cat kitten Keyboard cat 1 2 3 Mom cat hugs 4 5 Surprised kitten 6 The OMG cat 7 Two talking cats 8 Standing cat 9 Maru 10 Stalking cat Source: The Telegraph No make-up selfie stirs debate A new kind of selfie intended to raise money for cancer research has met with widespread controversy By MADELYN FORSYTH new “selfie” campaign that has Jeers posting self-portraits of themselves wearing no makeup has been flooding across social media. This new social media craze has seen a rising number of women posting pictures of themselves wearing no makeup and then nominating their friends to do the same. Cancer Research UK, which did not start the campaign, said the #nomake- upselfie trend had resulted in an un- precedented increase in donations. The spike in donations for cancer re- search has also been noticed in Cana- da. According to the Canadian Cancer Society, online donations to the charity have risen by over 240 per cent since no-makeup selfies started. David Tindall, a UBC associate pro- fessor of sociology, recently published an essay regarding activism in relation to social media and says that human social networks have always instigated trends or fads. “TThe Internet] just speeds things up. So instead of taking days or weeks it takes minutes or hours, [for a trend to get rolling],” Tindall said. “The ju- ry’s still out in some ways, in regards to social media.” Although the no-makup selfies have spread worldwide, not everyone is aware of the true message behind the campaign. SFU student Jessica Pridmore, who posted a no makeup selfie on Facebook, said more should be done for breast cancer. “It’s pretty pointless because not ev- eryone donates before or after they take and post the photo,” Pridmore said. Langara student Carly Kaiser, who hasn’t taken part in the no-makeup challenge, said the challenge could bea good way to raise breast cancer aware- ness but posting a selfie isn’t enough. Writing in the Independent, UK blog- ger Yomi Adegoke believes that the no- makeup selfie trend is simply “narcis- sism masked as charity” and that “de- spite good intentions it’s coming across as smug and self congratulatory.” “You can’t help but wince at the fact uploading a picture of what you actual- ly look like is now being deemed ‘brave,’ especially when being held up against cancer,” Adegoke said. “Why not raise genuine awareness through posting admittedly less-sexy cancer stats and symptoms, as opposed to a slightly blurred picture of your best au naturel benevolent pout?” TWITTER photo Actress Michelle Keegan (photo flipped horizontally)