Haute couture perplexed me for years. I’m a pragmatist who believes that clothes are tools, and until recently, felt that the utterly unwearable creations that grace the catwalks season after season were both wasteful and weird. I’ll fully admit to knowing absolutely nothing about the history of fashion, as it simply doesn’t interest me: I’d rather experiment on my own than study what’s come before so the cultural significance of HC is lost on me. But I wanted to know why people I respected were enchanted with showcases of clothing that they not only couldn’t afford, but would look preposterous wearing. I asked enc.
And what she said spun my head around. She said:
HC is the one place where the designer can really show him/herself on an intrinsic level, and where the designer's ideas and inspirations manifest themselves in the form of "clothing." Pure theater. Pure floorshow. Pure "Production." … The idea of wearable sculpture, the idea of an inspiration manifesting itself as "clothing" is really, really cool to me.
I don’t like to shop when I have no money. I don’t enjoy looking at items that I have no chance of affording but every chance of coveting. And I don’t have the ability to appreciate a fabulous look on someone else without wanting to emulate it myself. So THIS … this was a fairly foreign and highly intriguing concept to me. The idea that HC is fashion in a vacuum: What designers wish we could wear, but don’t truly expect us to wear. (Not us working stiffs, anyway.) And recasting the bizarre creations plunked onto willing, walking model bodies as “theater” and “wearable sculpture” made it all seem a little less … well, annoying and extravagant. It’s still not my thing: I prefer Lucky to Vogue, DIY to RTW, and catalogs to style.com. But enc's incisive and insightful explanation helped me to understand - at least a little bit - why haute couture is so appealing to so many people.
More recently, a reader mentioned a post from another blog that was troubling her. She’d come across a blogger who was tired of hearing pleas for more normal body shapes on the runway. This woman posited that since tall, thin bodies are the bodies that look best in clothes, then those are the bodies that should be used to display clothes. (Read the post here.)
And because of my previous conversation with enc - a conversation that finally revealed to me the artistic value of haute couture - I made myself pause and think about this before dismissing it completely or becoming enraged. And here’s what I concluded:
On the one hand, it's certainly true that the clothes designed by HC designers hang better on a tall, thin frame. These shows are about form and fit and fabric. They are wearable sculpture. And since fashion SHOWS are, in many ways, a type of theater, might as well use “idealized” human forms to show off designer creations.
On the other:
- Women - especially young women - automatically assume that those models are paragons of beauty meant to be emulated. And then they conclude that, to be successful, beloved, wanted, important, and/or worthy, they must look like those rail-thin girls swathed in Prada. Seeing Anorexic Annie parade around the catwalk DOES have an impact. There is no fashion vacuum.
- HC designers design clothes that hang better on a tall, thin female frame because that is what our collective society has identified as bodily beauty right now. If women my height and size were holding that slot, The Kaiser would be designing clothes that look amazing on ME. This body type is “ideal” because we say it is. And that can change.
- It bothers the FUCK out of me that we allow our public definition of beauty to be so narrow, and that it centers almost entirely around weight. I see beauty – I mean REAL beauty – in practically every woman I meet. And I’m not just saying that to make myself look good: I really do see it, you guys. But I am in the minority. From what I can gather, most folks limit their personal definition of physical beauty to the parameters enforced by Hollywood, the music industry, haute couture …
And if you think that the constant utilization of ultra skinny women – and ultra skinny women ALONE – as models has a negative impact on how we feel about ourselves, what should we do about it? Can we do anything?
Image of supermodel Kang Seung-Hyun courtesy hallyuwood.com.
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44 comments:
All of your points are completely right. it's sickening and very saddening to hear and see what girls my age are saying about themselves. These GORGEOUS girls with some junk in the trunk stress out and have awful esteem because society propels the tinygirl=orgasmorgasm. And if you knew these girls you could cry in frustration with me. Some of the kindest, most loving souls ever have been put down and shunned because of their outer shells. It's so wrong. If someone on the runway could stand up and say "This is me, that is you, love and embrace it, you're not being fairly represented" it'd be so much better. Or even if people as a whole would speak up more, say that they think it's not sexy and try to really change this current mindset.
ahhh, I have to go to school, or I'd write more.
I totally agree with your points. While yes, haute couture is more about art than wearability, there is no reason why designers cannot create art that looks beautiful on larger frames. This pressure to be thin is huge in our culture, and even if we feel happy with our bodies the way they are, we are constantly told that we should not be happy. I think just about every woman I meet is unhappy with her body, even if she is at a perfectly healthy weight.
Anyone see/remember the Project Runway episode where the designers had to design for each other's moms? and one or two of them were larger sizes? (did they do an episode where they had to design for larger sizes? i seem to remember the idea but not the show...) Anyway I do remember this episode, and was surprised at how these clever, talented designers designed the MOST hideous things for the larger-size moms. It was a revelation.... Is it impossible? Can creative people really only design with a stick figure in mind? WHY IS THAT?
Oooh, you're going all complicated on me for a Monday morning! Well, I'm with Enc about the meaning of couture - which I love in the way I would love a sculpture at a gallery I am likely never going to own. Of course, I'm all about finding the nods to it in RTW. There's sport in that for me.
About models: NO DOUBT your average model these days is hideously thin. Like thin to make me feel sick (because I like well-placed actual body fat on people). But I also think we're being bamboozled by the extreme of thinness on the model front and the increasing fatness of much of the rest of the Western population. It's skewing the norms, I feel.
In the end, as I know we agree, health is the watchword. If you are the skinniest thing ever, but healthful, then you are beautiful. If you are "overweight" but healthful, same deal. Oh, and when I say beautiful, I mean - unless you are a vision naturally - you probably have to care about style and how you present no matter who you are :-)
And just to go on at more length... Most clothes "hang best" on slim mannequins - not emaciated but slim - because fat (be it in the form of gorgeous tits or a nice ass or a round tummy etc.) interferes with the standard, currently appreciated drape line. Of course, stylish women of all sizes find ways to make the trends their own regardless. It just takes work. Which is what makes style so coveted.
Do I think emaciated models are bad for young girls? Tough one. I think, for some, yes. But I grew up reading fashion mags (when models were less emaciated, admittedly) and it never made me feel inadequate - even when I weighed more than I do now. And my daughter and I enjoy fashion together. I am careful to remind her that all bodies are beautiful and no one is better than another.
I definitely see both sides... while clothing IS being "modeled" on the individual, it is also to be acknowledged that clothing IS, in fact, to be WORN by PEOPLE. Not just models... so why the designer wouldn't want to put his/her designs on a REAL person is beyond me...
I guess they are also selling the idealistic thought that their designer clothes might make everyone FEEL like they will look as beautiful as that model... not sure.
Great post!
Katie
I love you guys for being so thoughtful and curious and opinionated ... even unbearably early on a Monday morning.
I really appreciate the art of haute couture but for my mental health I have to stay away from the magazines that have the haute couture in them. I will start to innocently flip through Vogue and within minutes I notice I am starting to feel bad about myself, my body and with all that I have. Clearly I need all new cosmetics. I am totally inadequate unless I have the new "it" bag. The feeling of inadequacy can linger for minutes or for much longer after I have shut the book on Vogue, In-style, or whatever bible of desire I have been looking at. This is why I have a firm no fashion mag policy.
Yes I think the narrow definitions of beauty presented in magazines are disturbing. I think such images are beautiful, but it's only one kind of beautiful, and it is damaging for people who are more susceptible to the influence of what they see in the media.
But then I don't think it's fair to blame magazines, it's the whole environment a person grows up in, and where they get their information and guidance from too. Magazines are not real-life, just like we teach kids that fairy tales are not real-life.
I agree with all your points about the negativity of those really, freakishly proportioned model bodies. They aren't women's bodies. But then, high fashion isn't meant to glorify the female form, but fashion in a vacuum. Don't get me started on how that skinny thing probably started with misogynysts. What's the ideal female form? One that looks like an adolescent boy. HUH?
Not that there's anything wrong with women who are naturally that thin, it's just they need to stop telling us that is the only beauty.
Why not have HC that emphasizes our beautiful curves, rather than trying to get everyone narrow and long?
As for the positive qualities of HC... I like how I can look at the runways and see elements or themes I can take away... a historical influence, a unique combination, a new shape, a color or a fabric or a drape. Then I can interpret that, along with what I see in my people watching, and make something that I feel expresses myself... and my short, curvy body.
I will wear skinny jeans, and guess what? I'm not afraid of my butt. I look like a woman, not a little boy, and that is good.
I love HC. And can understand why they use slim models to model clothes. However, terribly thin, anorexic looking models: no. There is a difference between tall & slim - and Anorexic. Just take a look at Victoria Secret models! Most of them are healthy looking with enviable curves, albeit very slim. They are the models who make me wish I were slimmer!
Flicking through magazines/blogs and seeing images of super thin models doesn't affect me anymore. But it did as a teenager. Now I'm older I'm just grateful to be happy & healthy.
I haven't decided what I think yet.... ARGH!
I suppose that having one size for HC is the only practical thing to do, because they need sample sizes. And the smaller that size is, especially with the expensive fabrics they use, the cheaper it is to manufacture. If they went for a curvaceous Monroe-esque figure it would work out more expensive and STILL put immense pressure on young girls without boobs or hips, in the same way that young girls with boobs and hips feel now.
But the issue is when it filters down to celebrity trends, magazines, commercials, everyone considered 'beautiful' is skinny! And I don't think anyone could argue that that's NOT harmful.
And the dilemma comes at the point when,as you say, there is no HC vacuum. It influences and is affected by everything else. So we can't really separate it, and we're stuck in a dead end, as far as I can see!
Honestly, I think it's just easier to design clothes for skinny women than it is for curvier women - you don't need to think about the curves! Imagine how easy it must be to make clothes for a box! Then give the box some legs to walk down the runway, a head for hair and make-up, and maybe some arms too, for filling out sleeves.
They want models that look like nothing. A hanger.
I really don't think that runway models for HC are the problem. I don't watch runway shows that often. I think that the real problem is using only ultra-slim models to advertise clothes for normal people. The stores you and I shop in daily (well, not daily, but you know...) They make clothes in the usual sizes, but only ever show the smallest sizes in their ads. Why is that?
Surely showing how well their clothes fit the real woman on the street would be a far better advertisement of their designers' skill? Anyone can design clothes for a box. I mean, you can sew two rectangles together right?
Good designers can create pieces that flatter the sculpture that is woman. Good stylists can tie the pieces together. That's what I want to see in magazines, on billboards and in stores.
HC can carry on as before, I don't care, if only the companies that are supposed to be marketing to us start using US in their advertising.
I share your mixed feelings about it. The cost of our narrow beauty definition combined with the huge emphasis we place on appearance and mass exposure to idealized images through mass media is enormous and toxic for young girls and women (I'm 38 and I still struggle with it).
On the other hand I love art and all forms of aesthetic expression. The work that hits the cat walks and fashion mags really does have aesthetic and artistic value.
I do think that HC is limiting itself by restricting the body forms it designs for. From a purely artistic perspective, anytime you limit your tool box of creation in some way (particularly if everyone has the same limitations) you are missing innovative ways of expression. Great art often challenges our ideas of beauty and shows us new ways of seeing the world. Same old same old thin models is kind of old and dull.
If HC would get its head out of its ass, I think it would realize that you can make artistic clothes for any figure. My mom is 5'2 and very plump. I picture making artistic creations on her shape. They would certainly be more unique on her apple shape than every single other stick thin fashion art out there.
Great topic to explore. It's hard not to compare ourselves to these amazing and idolized models. I guess you have to remember photoshop, photoshop!
let's not blame all of society, it's a small albeit very powerful, irresponsible portion of the population that suggests rail-thin figures are the ideal beauty. ask any guy right now if he thinks that model is hot, and he will recoil in horror. now, if you showed him a sports illutrated, yeah, he'd say that's hot...although i guess even those models have been getting skinnier over the years and it ain't cool.
I totally adore your posting! It's written so well! Thank you for sharing your toughts!
I have to agree that dressing and creating for a rail thin body would be easier. Like the difference between sewing a straight line or a figure eight - the former has no annoying curves to contend with! One can turn it around that a model's body is sadly almost a "non-body" devoid of "personality" in order to showcase the clothing without any curvy interference.
It took me a long time to learn how to showcase my assets rather than attempt to wear what is in style or what everybody else was wearing. It also took me a long time to stop holding it against my body that it didn't look like a fashion model body.
I think it would be easier for all young women if they were able to see themselves in their role models... but seriously I think the bigger issue is the level of celebrity afforded those whose only claim to fame is their ability to look good in haute couture clothing!
Wow, what a thoughtful and wonderful post Sal. Thank you for taking the time to explore this and make women of all body types feel lovely!
You are awesome!
xo
Melis
People also tend to forget that all these models aren't actually women yet. They're mostly really young girls, overly dressed and made-up. The girl in the picture you have here in this post, for example. Take out the heavy make-up, the red fingernails, the cut-out swimsuit, the seductive expression on her face and the sexual pose and you have just another skinny teenager. It's normal for some teenagers to be really thin at that age. What isn't be normal is staying that way for all our lives. Or trying to when we weren't there in the first place. And most importantly, our always present impulse to compare our body to the model's. She is who she is and we are who we are.
Think of skinny models this way; what else is used to display clothing? Coat hangers.
I have a friend with severe anorexia, so I could also go on for ages about this subject.
I grew up in a weird situation, where I was the skinny kid, and the bigger girls got all the guys. Funnily enough, all the girls were envious of me. That is when I realized that I will never "win", so to speak.
Is it totally geeky for me to pop in and say AGAIN that I completely love the variety of viewpoints and ideas being expressed here? Ach, don't care. Such food for thought, ladies, and I love it all.
I love looking at the haute couture shows for basically the same reasons enc gave you: the artistry of it, the ability of the designer to fully express their vision, (mostly) unconstrained by commercial concerns, and the workmanship-embroidery, fabrics, etc-are extraordinary.
As for super-thin models, I may have been brainwashed by early exposure to fashion magazines and the films of Audrey Hepburn, but I find slightly bony women much more attractive than curvy. Clothes DO hang better on rail-thin models, without breasts and hips to affect the line, but that's not to say larger women can't look attractive too. I just think runway fashion is better suited to the very thin, and despite everyone's calls for more "natural" looking women, skinny sells. How many women would aspire to own the outfit modeled by an overweight, "normal-sized" woman? Vogue isn't supposed to be a reflection of real women, but a fantasy, and one can appreciate the fantasy aspect without being an emaciated teenager (or wanting to be).
I DO worry about the affect of all this on my 6 year old daughter though. At 4 feet tall and 40 lbs, she's quite tiny, but is already hearing lots of talk about weight and dieting and fat (in elementary school) to the point where she asked me if she was at all fat recently. It's such a strange phenomenon to be part of a culture that is obsessed with thinness and at the same time becoming increasingly obese.
Honestly, I don't find most of what I see on the runway attractive. Not because the models aren't beautiful, but because for the catwalk they're made to look practically androgynous. They're very thin and tall, often their hair is pulled back severely, their faces are pale as a ghost, and they're not smiling. Not attractive to me. They don't make me feel bad about myself, because that's not my ideal. Now Victoria's Secret shows, that might do it...
While the ultra-thin look may be the ideal of many women, I'm guessing not all their husbands would agree. Many men prefer some curves! I'm not saying that simply to make myself feel better - I'm thin but not stick-skinny and quite happy as I am.
Also, I don't buy it that clothes hang better on models of that size. Sometimes I feel like that's exactly what they do - hang shapelessly. I don't think it would kill the look if they gained 10 pounds - in fact, to my eye it would sometimes improve it.
I totally agree with your points - I think it's a void argument that clothes hang better on tall, thin bodies - they are constructed that way! To be honest, I rarely look at runway shows and when I do, it's always the clothes - I don't care about the models, what they look like, their lifestyles, what they wear offstage. I don't buy magazines full stop and I don't care about trends or fashion or celebrity so that may be a contributing factor to my apathy about them - I just wish that more girls would stop putting them on a pedestal as columns of perfection.
PS. Yes Joe Cocker was my favourite part in Across the Universe - I swear he sometimes does the Beatles better then The Beatles did!
I agree that clothes look best on tall skinny women because that's who they're designed for. I admit, I get a thrill out of shopping for vintage clothes with my tall skinny friends, since all the fabulous party frocks from the 50s fit my curves better than their angles.
great post Sal...yes, even for Monday! ;)
Enjoying even all the comments posted here...emulate is not a bad word... it's just how we do it...
We are such facinating creature indeed! You have a fabulous week beutiful!!!
you know, when I look at the models on the runways (and I have to admit, when your page loaded just now, I exclaimed, "ew!" when I saw the picture), I can't help but think about the engineering of garments. Why are all our models so rail thin so as to not have any curves? Well, once you add fat to a woman's body, you have unpredictability, right? We all have our curves in different places. I look at the current unhealthy runway standards in part (in PART only) as a way to control the unruly female body and make it more uniform. Easier to design for when the body is uniform, and I really believe that once you add fat to a female body, it could go anywhere; hips, tum, butt, thighs, chest, arms, back, etc. And then designers have to:
a.) pick which body shape they want to design for
b.) find models in that form
both of which are probably more work than going with a uniform stick.
I've been brainwashed. I'm a 5'11" size 2/4 and I feel fat half the time. I'm getting over it. I hate the airbrushed images we are constantly seeing.
at the same time, I love haute couture. I love it because I consider it the "art gallery" of the fashion world. Most of them are not even sold, just made to increase the prestige of the house. It has nothing to do with pragmatism and everything to do with the aesthetic. Plus, it used to be that haute couture was, by definition, HANDmade. So add the "handmade" element and hundreds of hours of skilled labour to this incredible piece of fabric art. And that's something pretty frickin awesome, isn't it?
or maybe that's just me. Personally, I would LOVE to see all the haute couture garments next season on real bodies. I mean, heck, if they probably aren't going to SELL them anyway, why not branch out and try a realistic body for a change?
When I was younger, and wasn't working out, I thought the rail-thin model "ideal" was what I wanted for myself. I hadn't taken any time to investigate what *I* thought "ideal" was. I would have accepted many different definitions of "ideal" at that time.
What's interesting about wanting that "ideal" was, my brain wanted it, but my body said "I don't have that in my DNA!" I fought and struggled to get the model look, but it never stayed long. My body always returned to what it was. Is. The struggles were demoralizing, and they lowered my self-esteem. I didn't know what to do about my warring internal factions.
Eventually, due to a health issue, I started going to the gym. Soon after that, I trained for my job as a Spinning instructor.
After I began working in the fitness profession, my mind changed, and I feel that an athletic physique is beautiful and "ideal." For ME.
As much as I admire the beauty and aesthetic of models, and what they look like in all clothes—including HC—I really prefer some muscle size and tone now. The funny thing is, my body wants to be reasonably muscular, and that physique is in my DNA.
While I'm happy with my shape, it's not all cotton candy rainbows. My "reasonably muscular" "ideal" precludes my being able to wear many of the looks out there, and that hurts sometimes. I can't pull skinny jeans up all the way! ;)
Ultimately, I chose to look the way my DNA says I should look. Ahh, the power of acceptance. And I'm happy with it. It's MY "ideal."
(I think it's funny that I'm quoted here, as I told you before. But I'm thrilled to know our conversations sparked your imagination and added dimension to a post about an issue that's important to you, Sal.)
Be angry.
If clothing is an art form, it's an art that is meant to be worn. Ergo, it should be designed for normal bodies. I could go along with designing for normal FIT bodies or normal YOUNG bodies... but when I read about 18-year-olds of my height (5'11") who are told to starve themselves down to 120 pounds to be models... Sal, I was a depressingly bony adolescent, and I weighed at least 135. Women are biologically supposed to have some fat on our bodies.
Any physical ideal that stops our ability to reproduce should be viewed with extreme suspicion, even if we individually have no particular interest in children. Our bodies have their own self-interest.
My mind is all twisted I tell you. I'm all for full figure models but when I saw models featuring swim suits while showing off their stretchmarked legs with love handles.. I was muttering with words ... it's all twisted..
Yes, I agree. Ideal body shapes are relative. Nothing really "looks best"--it's all in our perceptions.
oh, enc, it's nice to know I'm not alone. I grew up figure skating; I remember being 14 years old, skating about 20-30 hours/week and cross training another 10-15 (and this during the school year!). A friend of mine was a gymnast. She and I used to measure our quads periodically to see how much muscle mass we'd built up.
and now...well. I stay away from skinny jeans, too. Let's just say that it's not even worth TRYING to try them on. I'm just sitting around waiting for them to GO OUT OF STYLE AGAIN, ALREADY!
While having lunch at work with friends a model walked past. She was dressed very fashionable, was very thin and tall, wearing 6 inch heels. She followed a photographer that was two heads smaller. The image that came to mind was one of a thoroughbred racehorse being led from the track. This was an extremely surreal moment, since we work in a research lab at a University, and models I've only seen in magazines or on TV. They must have been doing a photoshoot close by and picked our bathroom for the clothing change. It was fun to watch people walking in there and being completely surprised by seeing a model in there! It is interesting to see how out of place the poor girl looked, and it would be a weird world where everyone would indeed look like that (maybe everyone would try to eat a lot and be shorter...) Nice to get a reality check.
Good article. I know what you mean about going on for days on this topic, because there is so many things inherently wrong with the industry and the images they manipulate through the pages of these fashion rags. I did an article on this topic but referencing Gerren Taylor an ex-supermodel at only 15. This issue is discussed in the documentary movie called "America the Beautiful" (http://www.americathebeautifuldoc.com/)
This is a fascinating topic. Designers produce one sample size for a show. For haute couture, there is only one sample due to expense (a big reason why many socialites are rail skinny: if they fit in the sample they can buy it for less). And the clothes are fit on slender women to show off the shape of the garment. This is traditionally why models have mostly been flat-chested.
Then, in our times, models became celebrities and icons, and suddenly we all want to be Linda Evangelista. And every year they get skinnier. I think these days there are way too many girls who look dangerously thin on the runway.
Great post Sal. The issue is so controversial...
I read what Keeg's Mom wrote and I remember being shocked with that.
But I was a teenager and a young woman with food disorders (and sometimes not well recovered), because I always thought and was told by my "friends" that I didn't fit in the standards mesarues and I wanted to be thin like a model.
I've been there, it's very complicated!!!!
So I totally agree with you.
Thanks for bringing this issue into discussion.
xoxo
I think there is a factor of power here. In so many cultures all over the world, throughout history, woman have had to do all kinds of strange and terrible things to fit into received notions of beauty (foot binding, corsets, arsenic make-up, etc.). I think ultra-skinny models are only the latest manifestation of the enduring view of women as malleable, fetishized objects.
One more thing - Diana's point about PhotoShop is really key, too - there was an insane article in the New Yorker about the amount of re-touch that goes into EVERY PHOTO:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/05/12/080512fa_fact_collins?currentPage=all
I had a hard time empathizing before because I was a self absorbed "beautiful" within standards young woman. After I grew some brains instead of those miss-values my mum stuck in my head without knowing what she was doing, I begun the wonderful adventure of empathy. I have my wonderful husband to thank for teaching me how and guiding me through. Now I'm not that skinny framed girl who didn't bothered to look further and see the world.
I'm saying to myself hc must be like that. Fashion and everything revolving in fashion world has a mesmerizing power on people. It makes them think touching a piece of fashion land could make them beautiful somehow. Being in the fashion constellation (even writing about that, hence so many kissing-blogs saying nothing more than oo, how beautiful, what a gorgeous dress and what I die-for bag, even if it costs the life out of you!) is something magical that could transcend some beauty and gorgeousness onto you. I'm going too far. Let me conclude: beauty is not a standard. Beauty is not fabricated or measured, catwalked or displayed under heavy spotlight. Beauty is your soul's perfect accord, the melody you can dance without knowing how just because it's yours. The magic mirror from the enchanted woods where you see yourself in perfect harmony with every inch of your body and soul. Beauty is your life and what you make of it not some fancy photo shooting from a rigid magazine.
Just saying...
One of the bonuses for me of hanging out in Latin America is that the clothes fit me. At 5'2" I am above average height there, and for some reason the typical shoulder measurement and shoulder to waist measurement are mine ... and the big fashion plus is not being skinny, it is not having a stomach that sticks out. I am always amazed to be told, well, being tall and thin as you are, most styles we have will be good on you.
For awhile, I led a "body image" group at a rehab place. I researched body image and read tons of stuff about how exposure to fashion magazines was key in how girls feel about their own bodies.
In clinics for eating disorders, fashion magazines are forbidden. It's easy to see why.
When you go back 20 or 30 years, it's astonishing how much meatier women were in both fashion mags and as movie and TV stars. Somehow the ideal has taken us from Marilyn Monroe to a stick figure.
Who dictates this ideal...advertisers? Magazine editors? I don't know, but I'm guessing that "feminism" has something to do with it. Maybe allowing women to have freedom and choices was too much for those in charge of the media? Perhaps women are being punished for that freedom with a body ideal that strips them of the freedom to eat and the ability to feel adequate?
A lot of people don't realize that these painfully thin, emaciated looking models are insanely young. I mean, Karlie Kloss for example isn't even 18 yet (I think.). She surely entered the modeling world practically pre-pubescent. A lot of these models are young and have barely begun to biologically evolve so to speak. The "high fashion" world is obsessed with youth, another detrimental message to ALL women, not just the young girls.
I just stumbled onto your blog through dapper kid, and I must say that I enjoy your writing. You've got a great voice.
well, here's the thing i think a lot of us tend to forget: models are needed to wear clothes designers present on a runway (duh), and need to be of a certain size so that it is easier for the designer to quickly tailor the clothes for their shows. this whole "ultra skinny models are ruining women's self esteem in america" is crap; models and the fashion industry aren't glorifying anorexia or an unhealthy lifestyle. what does glorify an unhealthy lifestyle are fast food joints, vending machines, and pretty much anything/everything associated with the modern american lifestyle. why aren't people upset about this? i think too often the media response is to show tidbits here and there about the "life and times" of 'plus-size' models, etc., which is equally inappropriate. why not focus on other things to build girls self esteem besides their bodies? i think we need to stop completely with associating value to body shape altogether; don't say 'oh, you're beautiful whether you're fat or thin', you should be telling your daughter that she is smart, and good at doing xyz. why should other girl's/women's body size and shape affect them?
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