Between Vogue Italia's all black models issue, and the old, chubby models hitting the men's show runways in Milan, it seems the collective fashion powers are finally waking up to the fact that peeps are sick of the homogeneous parade that's presented as ultimate beauty. But are we really? How will we respond if fashion becomes populated with "real" people? Study after study shows that we discriminate against fugly people in our daily lives all the time. Tall men get more love than shorties, pretty, smart people earn more than "plain," smart people. Even ugly defendants are more likely to be convicted than pretty ones. Think we'll respond differently if "normal"-looking people (who aren't celebrities) show up on fashion magazine covers? Magazine editors and designers have bet "no" for years. Ready to prove them wrong? [photo from Giorgio Armani Spring '09 Menswear Collection (l) and Yohji Yamamoto Spring '09 Menswear Collection courtesy of men.style.com]
Comments
People who voted that they want fashion to reflect reality are just voting for what they think should be the norm. But truth be told, we don't want reality thrown in our faces all the time. Fashion is about fantasy -- an ideal. I'm sorry if you start putting middle America -- or middle anywhere -- on the covers, then the fashion industry would crumbble upon itself. (Yeah, a little dramatic). -- cheers
I don't think the guy on the right is unattractive.
Posted by: jojo at June 29, 2008 10:39 AM
Ha! I really think this is the Fashion Industry trying to mock all the drama that they've been given due to size and race issuses. What I would like to point out though, is that they are only doing this with men models--I want to see them do this with females; basically they need to go back to the standards that they had in the 90's it's quite simple.
Good post nana
but we see that the so called "ideal" only seems to reflect white models. now, as a black woman, a skinny white girl stomping down the catwalk isn't ideal to me, fantasy or not. its all about perception
Posted by: ki at July 2, 2008 12:32 AM
I know this is an old post, but it's a good topic.
I think that fashion shows should be an idealistic fantasy, to show the clothes in the best possible way. I agree with the previous poster that an 'ideal' is all about perception. I hate that models are size zero teenaged coathangers. While I don't think models should be average looking people, is it impossible to find attractive people over 120 pounds?
I remember a d&g show from 2006 with these really gorgeous structured corset dresses. The models wearing them were too underdeveloped and underweight to fill out the dresses, so they moved and slipped the whole way down the runway. if the camera angle was right, you could see straight into the top of the dress, which was clearly made for a buxom hourglass figure. It completely wrecked the whole show for me.
A few weeks later I saw Beyonce wearing a dress from the collection. It looked amazing.
Some clothes are designed to be worn by underdevloped and underweight teenagers and they should be modelled by the same. But using models like this as a rule makes no sense. Why shouldn't they want to show the clothes by models with the figures that it would look best on?
Posted by: a at July 5, 2008 8:16 AM
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Posted by: Dagny Taggart at June 29, 2008 9:32 AM