There goes Karl Lagerfeld, running his mouth again.
“No one wants to see curvy women,” Lagerfeld was quoted as saying on the website of news magazine Focus on Sunday.
“You’ve got fat mothers with their bags of chips sitting in front of the television and saying that thin models are ugly,” he added.
The world of fashion is about “dreams and illusions”…
I get that much of Karl’s anti-fat outlook probably has to do with the fact that Karl used to be a fatty. Not only that, when he was a fatty he had ACTUAL FACIAL EXPRESSIONS.
Proof fat people are jolly.
So maybe he’s not some twatty body fascist. Maybe he’s still navigating the body acceptance journey. Poor little dear. Karl, if you need it, there’s a hug waiting for you in my now ample bosom.
I agree with him on one point. Runway shows are, for the most part, about “dreams and illusions”. Even I, from my casual flirting with fashion (read: I look at pictures of fashion shows every so often when avoiding work), can see that the catwalk relies heavily on the theatrical. But I fail to see how this is exclusively the domain of the skinny model.
Crystal Renn in the finale dress for Jean-Paul Gaultier prêt-à-porter S/S06
Johanna Dray for John Galliano, S/S06
Velvet d’Amour for Jean-Paul Gaultier, S/S07
See? Fierce as shit, hips and all.
While runway shows look amazing, they don’t exactly translate to the street very well. Which is where Brigitte comes in.
[Lagerfeld dismissed] as “absurd” the debate prompted by Brigitte magazine which said it would no longer feature professional models on its pages.
Brigitte, one of Germany’s top women’s magazines, said last week it would only publish photographs of “real women” after readers complained they could not identify with the models depicted.
The magazine’s editor-in-chief Andreas Lebert told The Guardian last week that he was sick of having to retouch photos of underweight models.
“For years we have had to use Photoshop to fatten the girls up,” he said. “Especially their thighs and decolletage. But this is disturbing and perverse, and what has it got to do with our real reader?”
He said he would invite German women to put themselves forward as models for the magazine. According to The Guardian he is likely to extend an invitation to Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The magazine will stop using professional models from 2010.
There is a reason why blogs like The Sartorialist and all the fatshion blogs out there are so popular – we want to see how trends translate onto a real body. Professional models take very nice photographs, but someone like me with a body like mine is not exactly inspired to try out, say, the jumpsuit when shown a photo like this:
Carmen Kass in Spanish Vogue, May 2009
But put it on a body like this:
via Fat Girls Like Nice Clothes Too
Or even a body like this:
via Le Blog de Betty
And you’re more likely to get my money.
This is not about banning skinny models from catwalks or only allowing fat(ter) women in magazines. This is about allowing consumers to relate to fashion in a more meaningful way through a wider spectrum of bodies. The validation women will get for their body shapes is just gravy. From a cold, hard, financial standpoint, it makes sense for fashion magazines, advertisers and clothing brands to get on board the Everyday Woman train.
Oh, and Karl?
Article source: Sydney Morning Herald
Picture source: Fat Girls Like Nice Clothes Too!
Picture source: Le Blog de Betty
