Real women have curves, models don’t
There’s still much talk about having “healthy models” whatever that means, but there’s still a lot of anorexic looking girls on the runway. Most of them are just young, but at one show, the bangle bracelets were big enough to fit up near the elbow or each woman walking down the catwalk. It was made to look like a style choice, but those were regular old bracelets. I don’t know about you, but they fit around my wrist, not near my elbow.
At the Council for Fashion Designers of America booth in the Bryant Park tents there was even a petition to encourage designers to use “healthy,” (does that mean bigger?) models. But a few of us mused about the petition, because the CFDA has already suggested guidelines for models who don’t look like they have an eating disorder and it hasn’t changed anything, so if they really wanted to make it a rule they should just start issuing consequences (such as, you can’t show at fashion week tents) if they want to enforce the guidelines. They don’t exactly need a petition, but it makes them look thoughtful about the issue.
The women pictured protested outside the tents and offered themselves up as models in the future.
Photo by Debra D. Bass | Post-Dispatch
A wayward soul from Las Vegas, Nevada, who now calls St. Louis home and believes that fashion is relative and capricious, but style is always in favor. 
Nothing will change until designers start designing with real women in mind. They use stick figure models because they design stick figure clothes. Then they expect those of us that eat to starve ourselves so that we can buy and wear those clothes. Personally I split my spending money between burgers and whatever fits at Target.
I do not want to offend anyone but I feel like this is getting out of control.
Couture clothes aren’t for everyday, regular life people. It just isn’t. Considering that most fashion lines that are for everyday people, nowadays have lines for bigger than average women. Now couture is interpreted in many different ways, one of the ways is “exclusive custom-fitted”, now that means if you want it, they will get you one in your size, but they aren’t making hundreds of them for everyday women, there for don’t need to have them in “size everyday”. Also, why is it up to bigger women to decide which kind of women are “real”. I am real as it can be. I work everyday, drive a regular car, eat at McDonalds and pay taxes. I weigh a very healthy 121 pounds, making me a size 4 or 5. I do not starve myself, never have I purged or done any drugs. I can actually eat a whole 12oz. steak (with the potatoes) in one sitting. I can admit some of the models may be too small or maybe unhealthy, thats not for you to decide. Personally, I feel as if nobody looked at the chart in their doctors office that compares your height to your weight to see if you are healthy or not. I am tired of the biased look at models and the fashion industry. Fashion is a type of art, you cannot tell an artist what to paint or what to paint it on.
The last thing I want to write is that for “real, healthy women” to always complain about discrimination, what about how you discriminate against littler women. Saying that we are all evil. We pretty much go through the same size struggles as bigger women do, despite the fact that smaller woman are in media more. Nobody hardly ever says anything about smaller women unless its about drugs or an eating disorder. Considering I have neither, what am I suppose to do about my self esteem issues, or finding pants that fit me right? Just deal with it, huh?
With respect to Melaina,
Not all “bigger” women slam “thinner” women. Some of my best friends are size 4 and 6 and could care less what my size is. Blanket generalizatons get everyone nowhere. I smile whenever a “thinner” woman, or even a “larger” woman seems to have to defend herself and her choices–if you feel that you have to defend who you are, are you really that comfortable with yourself? Food for thought, if you will.
That being said–couture is usually fantasy anyway, not reality! How many of us really want to spend $5000 for a shirt with holes in it? Most wouldn’t, even those that can are wary of buying just anything. I am a plus size woman who reads Vogue and the like regularly. They don’t make me go out and want to overeat, nor do they make me want to starve myself. But I see the clothing as just that–clothing. It’s entertainment. But what many people forget is that there ARE higher end/couture designers who do design for larger bodies. Dana Buchman comes to mind first. Carmen Marc Valvo, Givenchy–there are designers out there.
What the argument is, from what I see, and this is just my opinion, is that using women who look like they’re sick, hollow eyes, too many ribs/collar bones sticking out, etc., is unrealistic. Yes, there are naturally thin women in the world and most of the time there’s no argument about them. It’s the women who’s images are unrealistic and are put out there as the one to emulate. There’s a stylist who’s being dropped by actresses because her main thing is “don’t eat.” There’s no benefit from that. And yes, young girls shouldn’t be idolizing models/actresses. But they do and you can’t get away from it. So if they do read/follow them, give them realistic ideals and goals to follow. Reading about the latest diet of water, air and more air is ridiculous. And we wonder why this country has such a high amount of eating disorders.
Be who you are, regardless of your size. If your only source of self-esteem is being able to wear a size 2, then what does that say about what you hold dear?
Alisab