One might ask, what does a Lord know about fashion? Apart from wearing an ermine gown once a year at state openings, I have two teenage girls with modeling experience. London fashion week is an economic booster, raking in million of pounds for the economy. It also is a strong source of influence. It states, This is what you should wear: this is what you should look like. This message is powerful, especially to young women. Fashion editors are considered deities, and fashion magazines are regarded as a bible. Some class fashion as art. Textile is one of the most influential of the arts, because we live and spend our lives in it.
But when did the pin-thin look become fashionable? In Victorian times, larger silhouettes were seen as a sign of fortune, health, and prosperity. In the 1960s, a stick thin young girl from London named Twiggy shook the fashion scene. Her thin look quickly personified chic. This style developed into the heroin chic look of the 1980s, which sadly persists today. Presently, most Fashion designers believe that tall, skinny, and non-curvy bodies bring greater appeal to their artwork.
As I understand it, the flow of the fabric when in motion allows the eye to capture the garment, rather than bring attention to a hint of swaying, curvy hips. These designers like the way the clothes hang off the body rather than be interrupted by the shape of a woman’s body. Models are trained to walk and they have coaches who instruct how to stride down the catwalk with confidence. The term Catwalk comes from a cat’s apparent lack of fear of heights. The Catwalk is a walkway so perilous that only a surefooted cat would walk on it. None of the models smile, because designers do not want to show the slightest hint of vulnerability.
Recently, German designer Karl Lagerfeld of Chanel criticized Heidi Klum at 8 stones for being too big for the Catwalk. This year, Vogue UK editor Alexandra Shulman has fought back. She wrote a letter to top designers including Karl Lagerfeld, asking for clothes that fit realistic body types. Shulman made a point that the clothes being sent for photo shoots did not even fit the slimmest of models.
This year, one event at London Fashion Week struck cords with the catwalk audience. Mark Fast, a young designer from Canada, premiered his portfolio of tight knitted dresses worn by three, larger12-14 sized models. By fighting this discrimination against larger models, Fast pulled a fast one.
Medical professionals have been highlighting the dangers of eating disorders and the promotion of these ultra thin bodies for years. We are aware of the dangers of anorexia and bulimia, but that has not stopped promotion of the thin image.
As fashion trends keep changing, hopefully they will prioritize health. The rise in role models for healthy shapes has optimistically risen in the last few years. Dove’s beauty products Self Esteem campaign emphasizes real beauty, real age, and real sizes. This has been supported by some Hollywood entertainers such as Scarlett Johansson. I believe that healthy is the best look. By using women who look like real women, Mark Fast took a step in the right direction.
I think that fashion and its penumbra are very much something a lord should address. I think healthy beauty is important. I deeply appreciate your remarks.
I do think that people nowadays realise models are too thin, and that real girls, those you meet in the street or round town in your life are attractive in their own right, and don’t need to be wisps who seem like a strong breeze would lift them off into the air to parts unknown.
The Fashion industry is just reflecting its own bizarre climate.
Still, some younger girls may take the wrong impression, and I do wish they’d take the hint.
You make a good point. The good news is that John Galliano was using 1940s film noir and Casablanca themes for his latest fashion show for Dior..
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/lifestylevideo/?bcpid=1911416382&bctid=43150900001
The bad news is that unfortunately he did not use 1940s style voluptuous Lauren Bacall types [although she was hardly what could be described as ‘plus size’..] but resorted to the same stick-thin waifs. At least they did look relatively healthy, in contrast to some models at Paris Fashion Week who distinctly give the impression that they are recovering from a bout of swine flu.
They used to call it ‘heroin chic’, but since when has illness looked sexy ?
Bedd Gelert, I’d date the illness=sexy school of thought at least back to the 1800s, when tuberculosis was rife and consumption became an almost fashionable death in Romantic literature and opera (see La Boheme, La Traviata, Camille, and Les Miserables for examples of this phenomenon). The ideal consumption victim of fiction was a thin, pale woman with feverishly bright eyes, who coughed delicately into handkerchiefs and wasted away gradually, finally expiring on a couch surrounded by flowers and weeping admirers — it’s not heroin chic, but there is some precedent for it.
With new drug-resistant strains of TB cropping up more frequently these days, one hopes that this ideal will not make a comeback….
Props to you on writing about a controversial issue, especially since you are a man. Glad to have your concern!
While I wholeheartedly agree that the fashion industry’s laser focus on one very narrow construction of beauty is problematic, I think it’s counterproductive to talk about larger women as “real” women, as if there’s something “fake” about skinny women. It’s just using a different metric to judge women on their appearance, when the problem is women being judged on their appearance at all.
Thank you for the feedback and appreciation. I enjoyed reading the comments.
Frank W. Summers III: It is an issue that I wanted to bring forward. Hearty and healthy is my choice.
ZAROVE: You are right about people becoming more aware. Madrid and Milan have banned models who look unhealthy. It is the vulnerability of young people that causes my concern.
Bedd Gelert: I feel that John Galliano’s models are still too skinny. Young women look at these models and believe that is how they should look. The look of infirmity is unappealing.
Nicole Daryl: This does concern me as a man with two teenage daughters.
SeanH: I agree that judgment on appearance has become an increasing problem. We all have varied attitudes on what looks beautiful, but to promote ill-health is wrong. Large women are as real as women who are petite. I remain uneasy about the promotion of the unhealthy look.
Lord Taylor – I don’t disagree with you, my point was that at least Galliano is moving in the right direction of travel, albeit at nowhere near quickly enough.
This article from today’s Guardian is relevant if rather scary..
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/oct/05/brigitte-german-magazine-bans-models
Developing story..
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8294003.stm?ls
Bedd Gelert: Thank you for sharing the links. It is wonderful news that Brigitte Magazine is taking these steps.