When 'skinny' is out
MANILA, Philippines - Six months af-ter creative genius Karl Lagerfeld told reporters “Nobody wants to see round women” in response to criticism over skinny models at European Fashion Week, four designers led a fashion coup of sorts by casting models outside the “sample-size-zero-only norm” at the recently concluded Paris, Milan and London Fashion Weeks 2010.
Marc Jacobs, the designer of Louis Vuitton, broke ranks by casting models of various shapes, ages and ethnic backgrounds to walk the runway of the ready-to-wear LV fall collection. He commissioned Laetitia Casta, a popular French model in the ’90s to open the show in Paris; joining her were Victoria’s Secret’s curvy “angels” Adriana Lima (a new mom) and Alessandra Ambrosio, both famous for strutting the Victoria’s Secret catwalk, not the Fashion Week runways.
In a further move away from the under-aged, rail-thin runway model stereotype, Marc Jacobs got Elle Macpherson, the Australian supermodel iconic for her numerous Sports Illustrated (SI) covers, to close the Louis Vuitton show. Appearing on the catwalk as well was another SI cover-girl veteran, Israeli beauty Bar Refaeli (on-and-off girlfriend of Leonardo DiCaprio).
Another Paris-based designer, Giles Deacon, hired two other Victoria’s Secret “angels,” Rose Huntington-Whitely and new mother Karolina Kurkova for his show. Sharing the catwalk with them were Coco Rocha, a model who’s been dubbed “overweight,” ’90s supermodels Carmen Kaas and Angela Lindvall.
Across the English Channel, British designer Mark Fast challenged the size 0 model obsession by integrating three size 12 and 14 models into his show, walking alongside thinner models wearing his figure-hugging knitwear outfits. Over at Milan Fashion Week, Lara Stone, the poster child for “curvy” models, shared the Prada runway with two other “angels,” Miranda Kerr, a 26-year-old Australian beauty, and Dutch model Doutzen Kroes.
While sexy lingerie models hardly represent regular women, seeing them on the runway alongside older and more womanly-shaped models is a big departure from the traditional catwalk model stereotype, a move the fashion industry hopes to sustain in the long-term.
During a backstage interview, Marc Jacobs told reporters that designers often speak about how they design for women and yet don’t use models older than 20 to walk the runways. So this time he decided “to set out a variety of sexy women — younger, older, thin, voluptuous, from every ethnic background” on the catwalk to signify his decision to “walk the talk,” so to speak.
Amanda May, Fast’s creative director, said that after two members of their design team quit over the use of larger models, “The decision to use fuller girls is something we have been talking about. There’s an idea that only thin and slender women are able to wear Mark’s dresses and he wanted to combat that. We wanted women to know they didn’t have to be a size 0 to wear a Mark Fast dress — curvier women can look even better in them.” _Sarah Watkinson, founder of 12+ UK, a modeling agency for fuller-figured women, lauded Fast for his decision to use her models; she said, “Mark has been passionate about using larger women and really wanted to show they can look great in his dresses. Every time I think things are progressing, they end up going back to how they’ve always been. I hope this has sparked lasting changes.”
Spaniards say ‘No Mas’ while italians say ‘Basta’
Ironically, the movement to challenge and change the status quo concerning catwalk model size did not start in the major fashion capitals of the world. In 2007, several models were banned from participating in Madrid Fashion Week for falling below the minimum Body Mass Index (BMI) requirement of 18 percent. BMI is the index calculation of body fat against body muscles based on the height and weight of a person; healthy women have a BMI between 18 and 25 percent. This new standard of identifying underweight models was sparked by the death of a super-thin model shortly after stepping offstage during a South American fashion show in 2006. Since then Italy has joined Spain in adopting the mandatory weight guidelines to address what is widely known but not often discussed: the prevalence of eating disorders among models.
New York’s Council of Fashion Designers in America (CFDA), which chose to take voluntary measures to promote nutritional and emotional counseling instead, is now taking a stronger stance; this season several models were red-flagged and removed from the runway, according to CFDA president Diane Von Furstenberg. The models were advised to focus on eating and living well. The council also held a panel discussion prior to NY Fashion Week on body-image issues entitled “The Beauty of Health: Resizing the Sample Size”; guest speakers were designer Zac Posen, model Doutzen Kroes and casting agent James Scully. The panel agreed that the trend of casting prepubescent and skeletal models needs to change, but will only succeed if the whole fashion industry unites. Big, influential figures in the industry like Karl Lagerfeld, a strong size 0 proponent, still have to come around to the ideas they are propagating, but they believe changes are inevitable. The panel discussed whether increasing the size of the sample garments from zero to four for fashion shows and photo shoots will result in healthier models. While they all agree this is a positive step towards addressing the problem, they realize that the size issue brings up another issue that needs to be tackled. “You can’t address the sample size 0 without addressing age,” said David Bonnouvier, head of DNA Models NY.
The ‘Kate Moss Syndrome’ Of The ’90s
Apparently, the CFDA has guidelines that recommend models under the age of 16 be kept out of fashion shows and models below 18 be done with fittings and photo shoots by midnight; but since adhering to the guidelines is again voluntary, it has been pretty much ignored. The current youth domination began when runway preference moved from the bombshell Brazilian looks of Gisele Bündchen to the angular waif-like look of Eastern bloc models like Natalia Vodianova, this year’s Kamiseta ad campaign endorser. Designer Zac Posen traces the obsession back to the ’90s when Kate Moss exploded onto the fashion scene and took the modeling world by storm with her perfect waif-like figure, small frame with small bust and hips, measuring no more than 33 inches.
Moss, who was discovered in 1988 at the age of 14 and started modeling professionally when she was 15, is the epitome of the waif and heroin chic. Zac Posen believes they have “created a droid-like mold” and asks fellow designers, fashion editors, stylists and casting agents, including buyers, whether they are going to turn on the girls they currently “love” once they start growing breasts and turn 18. According to casting agent Scully, young models today resort to “doing terribly dangerous things” to fight off nature and postpone the development of their bodies into more womanly figures.
“Why use 15- to 16-year-old girls to sell clothes to women in their 30s and upwards?” asks a fashion editor. “It doesn’t even make good business sense,” she adds.
Doutzen Kroes, the Dutch model who was part of the panel discussion, expressed her love for runway work but claims her career as a catwalk model came to a virtual standstill when she could no longer fit into the sample size and became “too big.” But rather than taking the usual “I will starve myself route” or taking diuretics to bring the weight down, she made a conscious decision to take her modeling career in a different direction when she turned 22. Luckily, she has found support among clients she now works with. “When you don’t eat, you get grumpy, you don’t feel good. So how can you have joy in what you’re doing?” Doutzen exclaims.
Unlike her, though, many young, new girls don’t have the luxury of changing directions because they come from poor countries, are completely dependent on their agents and are utterly clueless at making the right decisions because of their youth. She is hopeful that the new efforts of the fashion industry and her choice to have a healthy lifestyle with a body to match will set an example for the new models and create opportunities for them in the future.
If the most recent shows are a sign of things to come, then there is hope; the models were noticeably healthier and older, with a sportier look. The “angels” who appeared in the show were between 25 and 29 years of age: Carmen Kaas, Angela Lindvall and Laetitia Casta are in their 30s; Elle Macpherson is 46 and Dutch model Lara Stone, who is turning out to be the unofficial ambassadress of “healthy” models, is 27.
As I See It
When I used to model in the ’80s and early ’90s, we never had to contend with weight problems, let alone eating disorders. Anorexia and bulimia were words that did not exist in model lingo; they were conditions that did not affect our industry. There was no such thing as a sample dress or a sample size 0, for that matter. By some miracle, barring some minor alterations, we all fit into the clothes we were assigned to wear. Models had no casting agents or modeling agencies; we represented ourselves and negotiated rates loosely as a group. We were not labeled “waifs” or “full-figured,” we were just mestiza or morena and no one seemed to mind that we came in all shapes and sizes.
Times have changed and clearly there is a pressing problem plaguing the fashion industry, not just in the US but everywhere else — one that sends a dangerous message to women, especially young girls, about beauty and body image. Like it or not, models are admired and looked up to; teenagers and women of all ages look to fashion for inspiration and direction, so it is imperative that everyone involved in the fashion industry work towards shattering this unrealistic, unhealthy body image obsession and start getting real. Now, more than ever, with the pervasive influence of the Internet and the inevitable dominance of the digital age, it is crucial for those with the influence and power to help define the true and accessible meaning of beauty, one that transcends age, physical appearance and race.
