As fashion lovers, we often peruse images of runway shows and marvel at the beautiful creations. We also might notice that models look nothing like us. In fact, they generally resemble cadavers. And, they never smile. So, we have a really basic question: what is up with that? Why are models so skinny and so sulky-looking?
In the old days, before modern luxury, food was scarce. It was considered beautiful to be plump because weight was associated with wealth and leisure. The skinnier the person, the less food they had. And, therefore, you didn’t want to be them. These days, for people who can actually entertain the thought of buying Balenciaga – food is more after us than we are after it. The result? We’re fatter. And, the equation has switched. Skinny is what we want to be. Skinny is aspirational.
Fine. We get it. But there is a difference between thin – healthy thin – and the scary-skinny figures that populate the couture runways of today. According to Kirstie Clements, former editor-in-chief of Vogue Australia and author of a book on those years called The Vogue Factor, models have become vastly skinnier since the 80’s – when a healthy thin was more the norm.
Reigning 80’s supermodel Cindy Crawford next to one of her present day counterparts-Behati Prinsloo. See the diff?
The reasons for this are complicated. According to Clements, designers know that their clothes look better on skinny models. So, they send samples – the pieces used on the catwalk and for photo sessions – that cannot be worn by women larger than miniscule. Over the years the samples have gotten smaller and smaller as competition becomes more fierce. Designers also know that models should never upstage the clothing. That is why models rarely smile. A thin, miserable, cadaverish-looking woman lets the clothing stand out. Human expression – a smile, for example – exudes personality, which is distracting from the products that need to be sold.
What seems to be the case is that models have had to fit the clothes instead of the clothes fitting the models. And, if models don’t fit the clothes, they don’t work. Which is why Clements reports that during her time at Vogue, she witnessed more and more fashion models diagnosed with eating disorders, placed on hospital drips, collapsing during shoots and eating tissue paper to fill themselves up. And, designers, fashion editors, photographers and agents mostly turned a blind-eye to this practice. Why? To keep a competitive edge.
There has been some movement to change the trend. Vogue’s Anna Wintour made a rule to never photograph girls under 16 years old or with a known eating disorder. France has created laws against allowing catwalk models under a certain weight to work. Yeah, these are good efforts, but they are difficult to enforce. And, the cycle will probably continue. The truth is, until designers realize clothes can actually look good on someone who isn’t a size 0, the look we aspire to will be that of women who are starving.
And that is something to sulk about.
Images courtesy of Pinterest and theguardian.com
