Everyone is just a bit fake. We all have that part of us that we overdo, make larger than life. What if your life was just a big blag? I watched “Inventing Anna” on Netflix, with great enthusiasm and then it got me thinking, we all blag a little right?
Inventing Anna Review in Brief
“Inventing Anna” is a Netflix limited series based on an article written by New York magazine journalist Jessica Pressler about faux German heiress Anna Delvey nee Sorokin. She conned people, hotels, and “friends” out of hundreds of thousands of dollars saying once her trust fund comes through she’ll pay people back. Alas, it never came. She got very close to securing two loans of upwards of $22 million from high-profile banks. She got to know all the right people in all the right places but like all money-hungry fraudsters, she got too big for her little boots. Anna was convicted eventually but it boggles my mind how people trusted her so much?
One thing that truly irritated me throughout the show (it has been noted by many critics) is the accent. According to reports, the real(ish) Anna, approved of Julia Garner’s portrayal of her, even if her voice was a bit deeper. The next irritation was Rachel… she just annoyed me. She was happy to ride along with Anna, go out to all these fancy fan dang doodle places and saw Anna have problems with cards before so why trust her for an all inclusive holiday to Morocco? Staying at a very swanky hotel, La Mamounia, you know it’s not going to be cheap! Another thing, (while I’m on a roll) you should have just checked out, especially if you know you can’t afford it… plus wouldn’t it have made more sense to pay the flower garden place with the business card than to run the risk of having that on the hotel account? On the other hand the show was really entertaining, even though I wanted to strangle Anna and her pouty baby behaviour. The fashion in some spots was amazing and was shot beautifully. Some spots could have been a bit quicker and not so drawn out but overall it was a fantastic show to cosy up in bed on a night to watch.
I don’t trust many people and always hold people with a bit of suspicion, just my nature I guess. Her defence of “I’m trying to make something” annoys me to no end. So is everyone else sweetheart but I can’t blame her for wanting to miss a couple of steps. Some things just take too long!
All Just Wanna Be Big Rockstars
Life is what you make of it but sadly it’s filled with struggles, but what if you can take those small fleeting moments of greatness and magnify them by 1000? And as much as people hate the song and the band, Nickelback captured a lot of rockers feelings in that one song, Rockstar. We all want to live in a big house in the hills, rocking out backstage, old guitars on the wall and dining for free. How do we do it then when we have a shoe string budget or don’t have friends with big bucks?
I find staple items to emphasise my character, my hair is one of my biggest giveaways… apparently. Anna loved clothes and even during her trial, her wardrobe got more attention than her alleged offences. People commented on how sophisticated she looked and was careful about what she wore. So I took a look at myself. I have funky sunglasses like rock stars/celebs, I would love a pair of oversized Celine sunglasses like Anna but I don’t have (instantly to hand) £270/350 to spend on some sunnies which get knocked about in the bottom of my handbag. The point is just because you are wanting to be more doesn’t mean you have to spend a fortune.
It’s the little things that make me feel like a superstar even though I definitely don’t have the income to go with it. To create her own illusion, Anna had to portray herself as a rich heiress but that didn’t mean she had to live it 24/7. She stayed in expensive hotels such as the 11 Howard in Soho Manhattan(a tidy $400 a night-ish), ok, why do that for days at a time? Stay one or two nights and then disappear bunking on the bill. The fact she took the old ladies’ Amex and racked up a huge bill is great, not that I am advocating for theft or fraud but if she wasn’t such a snob bag then things maybe won’t happen to you. I would make sure to make purchases sporadically and not to the amount that she did for it to become suspicious. Yes she didn’t caught until after the fact but still. I wouldn’t blow it all on obvious designer gear. A black Michael Kors shift dress, can look just as good as anyone else’s black shift dress under a coat? So the moral here is, do the expensive things once in a while but to keep it up, you will need to save a little bit of the money or eventually it will come and bite you on your arse!
Dr Phil: Perception is Reality
I blag it everyday. Everyone blags it, especially on social media like Instagram. I fall to that dark side of socials. “Wow, they’re life seems perfect”, “She’s so beautiful”, “They have an amazing life”, but you only see what they allow you to see. Filters, editing, selecting the right light and angle, some posts take hours to generate that picture perfect look. Things can look so perfect through tinted lenses and sadly our phones and eyes have became blind sided by fakery.
Another example is fake designer handbags, we all know they are out there and I am not going to lie, I have two 100% genuine fake Jimmy Choo and Chanel handbags. I bought mine from Marmaris, Turkey when I went on vacation there. Fakes were everywhere you turned. When we were on our staff night out in Leeds, one girl had an Yves Saint Laurent bag and the woman who did our wages said “We’re paying you too much if you can afford a bag like that”. It was a fake, but who’s to say she didn’t work hard and save up for it? Most of what you see is fake in some way shape or form. We all seem to want the best the world has to offer but sadly only a select few can. So sometimes what you see, whether it is fake bags, homes, a jet plane, tits, lips or fingertips, it’s out there for the world to see. People may look at them and say wow, they got it all! Just like Dr Phil says “Perception is reality”.
To sum up everything, just like Anna’s lawyer says: We are all like Anna. We are fake. It’s their perception of you thanks to the illusion you create. I like to get myself dressed up and be a Rockstar in my own way. You don’t always have to have their budget, you just have to blag it babe!
GlamRat 
Hi there. First time reader/commenter here. Loved this post (including and especially the Nickelback reference – we can all pretend they were terrible but there was a reason “Rockstar” was all over radio in 2007/2008).
Like you, I watched Inventing Anna and was AGHAST at how much she got away with while strangely in awe of her ability to convince herself and others of her persona. Do I want to defraud people out of millions of dollars? No. Could we all stand to walk a little taller and with a little more flair without the constant nagging of impostor syndrome and “who do you think you are?!” Absolutely.
Wow! Thank you so much for stopping by and reading my post! I am a big Niceklback fan! Yes Anna got away with so much and didn’t even convince herself about her persona at all! Thank you for following my blog! Means the world to me!