Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Model Citizens

A couple of items from the fashion modeling world in the news this week.


First, from New York Post, something disturbing but hardly surprising, as the fashion industry continues to pay lip service to "healthy" models while requiring a skeletal appearance:

The Council of Fashion Designers of America held an event dubbed "The Beauty of Health: How the Fashion Industry Can Make a Difference" at Milk Studios the other night as part of its awareness program....

People in the industry have been no help, Rocha told WWD's Marc Karimzadeh - "They said, 'You need to lose more weight - the look this year is anorexia, and although we don't want you to be anorexic, we want you to look it.'

"My question is, how do you look anorexic unless you actually are?" - a riddle to which no one had an answer.

I don't know why designers seem so intent on showing their clothes on women who are required to be more emaciated with each passing year. If I were someone who regularly purchased designer clothes, I'd start a boycott of the worst offenders.


Another (slightly) more encouraging item spotted in the LA Times:

"The market for older models has exploded," says Ginni Conquest, co-director of the sophisticated women's division at Wilhelmina Models in New York. (Models who are 25 and older are often referred to as "classic" or "sophisticated.") "It's our fastest-growing area, and it's a first for the industry."...

After all, what middle-aged woman wants to buy moisturizer from a model who's too young to order a martini? Or a cashmere cardigan from a coed? In September, J.Crew will introduce an online section within its Web catalog that features 58-year-old Los Angeles model Pia Gronning...

I'm not dancing in the streets quite yet. On one hand, it's nice to think that companies are targeting our demographic, and understanding that we don't want to be invisible. On the other, it's not like these "older" models will look like many 50-something women we know.
Posted by at 5:00 AM
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17 comments:

  1. But models by definition wouldn't look like the everyday people we know. I don't WANT to look like most people I know. I want to look better. That's the whole thought process, right? Works for me.
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  2. Sad to admit,but if the models were picked up representing the average 50+, the clothes wouldn´t sell so well.
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  3. Do you remember Lear's? I loved seeing women who looked at least 40, and they were way more inspirational than a 16 year old made up to look 22. When I see a dress on an anorexic teenaged model I mentally pad it out to see how it would look on a normal-to-zaftig woman: me.
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  4. wendyb - up to a point, I guess, as long as we don't beat up on ourselves when we don't meet that standard.

    metscan - I'm not suggesting that models need to look "average". I'm just saying that even the 50+ models are taller and thinner than ninety percent of us could ever hope to be, and probably nip/tucked/botoxed/ photoshopped.

    duchesse - yes, I do love seeing 40+ women presented as stylish and attractive.
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  5. OK, so models over 25 are classic and sophistocated and thus "older?" Geez!

    Who does find the anorexic look appealing? Most of the straight men I know do not - they like women thin but not sickly. A healthy athletic build is favored (and let's be honest, you cannot have big boobs and be anorexic, and they do like those). Women sure don't love that look.

    I read the NYT Style section this weekend and went to check out the May December society blog referenced - the writer, a 28 year old "society wife" has a lovely build - strong and athletic and not at all skeletal (like some of the ladies I've seen in the NYT and Vogue, shot at society events in dresses that show how bony they are).

    This also comes to mind - I had a colleague at a prior office who was 65-ish and wealthy (very thin, always wore Neiman Marcus's finest cutting edge fashions). You can be too skeltal after a certain age - and wearing Size 2 or 4 leather jeans or thigh-high S&M boots at that age and weight doesn't get you admiration or compliments (more "mutton dressed as lamb" comments and the nickname "Hot Action" after one day's particularly racy outfit). Dignity is nice too.
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  6. "They said, 'You need to lose more weight - the look this year is anorexia, and although we don't want you to be anorexic, we want you to look it." OK..can someone LOOK anorexic without BEING anorexic? Yes..it's called 'starving the death'(usually from being in a war zone or in a place in the middle of a famine or being someone who is a prisoner of war or in a Nazi death camp). I'm sorry - but as far as I am concerned, the people who are advocating this look are BAD people - they are evil - they are manipulating young people, many of whom are far away from their families and homes and who are many times under the financial pressure to be the family wage earner. The only things they bring to the table at that moment are their youth. their height and a relatively low BMI - they are not rocket scientists; they are many times not well educated or even well read. They are terrorized and manipulated into starving themselves until they either can't do it any longer because they become ill, they move on to something else, or they die. Evil.
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  7. @ Dejapseu: I was recently in India and someone commented how older actresses still have work now including modelling. My guess is it is generational.

    The generation that preceded the current 40+ woman was not as bold and outspoken. So they got confined to the corners. I daresay they also did not have time to take care of themselves and looked prematurely old, if not just their age. Women are in better shape now in many different ways.

    They can also afford much "help" in looking like that too. So surgery etc have legitimacy in the mainstream now.

    I would however think that authenticity and 'relatability' is one of the main points of selling to older women. Just as an ugly model may not inspire people, so do they get put off by Angelina Jolie since they can never look as good in St John's as she does. But a Halle Berry, and a Christy Turlington - who have had no surgery but openly pursue a healthy lifestyle - are less formidable.
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  8. Is it me, or do the vintage models you show look especially tiny? Was it the times? The girdles? The structured quality of the clothes? The airbrushing?

    I do think its pretty funny to see a 20 or 25 year old model in a dress designed for someone much older. It makes me wonder if they're thinking about the demographic they're pitching.
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  9. anon - I don't consider 25 "older" either, but I do see far more 40+ models these days than ever before.

    toby - I'd agree it's a form of evil, certainly misogyny in pure, distilled form.

    shefaly - I think you've hit on what I was getting at; it seems there's a balance between "aspirational" and "relatable" that would inspire women like me (to click the Purchase button, at least). I'm not sure how I feel about cosmetic surgery becoming so mainstream; it's almost come to feel like an expectation. (And why do I get flashbacks to "Logan's Run"?)
    ;-)

    dana - I think people in general used to be smaller, especially those born prior to the mid-20th century, not just thinner but having smaller bone structure as well. (Trying to shop at vintage stores confirmed this for me.) But the girdles/corsets and the clothing construction did their part too.
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  10. There will ALWAYS be a rail thin standard for models, unfortunately. And for the most part, most clothes look better when worn by stick figures. Miss J really hates this fact since she has teh HUGE bazooms, but there it is.

    But, As more women express more of their spending potential in ways they feel more closely represents their tastes adn lifestyles- from movies to fashion- marketing will catch up. At least in some areas.
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  11. most clothes look better when worn by stick figures. Do they have to look like famine victims, though? Sure, tall slender people make better clothes hangers, but why must we be able to count ribs? The supermodels of the 80's were thin, yes, but not emaciated.
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  12. I too am torn between being pleased to see more older models and worrying that we will internalize an expectation that we also can look this good. The problem is that beyond the size-ism and the age-ism is the look-ism, an awkward word, I agree, but the role of visuality and aesthetics in our self-acceptance is powerful. Being identified as a target audience/market that needs to be paid more attention is not necessarily going to make us happier with ourselves as we age, unfortunately. Part of me says "Bring back the power of the crone"!
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  13. I remember when Lauren Hutton used to model for JCrew. That wasn't so long ago. It must have hurt them or they would have kept her on. It will be interesting to see how not having only teens model for them will affect the bottom line.

    I do like to see clothes and makeup on women my age. I am not one to read fashion magazines--but if I did More would be my choice.
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  14. materfamilias - in your usual eloquent way, you've precisely captured the thoughts behind my ambivalence.

    LBR - Lauren Hutton? Really? I missed that. Up until recently I thought J.Crack was pretty much targeting the teens/20's/beach-at-Nantucket market. But lately I think they've been shifting a bit, and I often see women my age shopping in the store.
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  15. I'm all for the 40+ model, of course, but what I worry about is that they are taller and slimmer than the average, and would then only be slightly more useful in conveying an appropriate image.

    One of the worst things I see is a 60+ older woman, decked out in fashions meant for a much younger woman. She may have the figure, and the face, but it just looks wrong. In specific, I am thinking of my 70 year old mil who went to dinner with us in a v-neck, halter, short knit and spandex leopard print dress. She still has a terrific figure but the outfit was sad. No one needed to see her breast from a side view.

    I guess I want to see older models modelling clothes that flatter them by suggesting shape rather than exposing it. Or by dressing it in the trendiest clothes that make it look Norma Desmond is ready for that cameo, Mr. DeMille.
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  16. Materfamilias, isn't it this way anytime humans are presented for commercial purposes? We don't look like movie stars either. Or even like staff in good restaurants. (Well I might occasionally be taken for a hostess :))

    Being nicely formed sells and that's what it's allll about.
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  17. Just wanted to add that we should all have enough self-esteem so that the mere existence of people who might be prettier than we are doesn't throw us into a tailspin. There's always going to be someone prettier, thinner, richer, smarter, taller, more petite, more stylish, more athletic, etc. If someone can't cope with that, s/he has issues that aren't society's problem.
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