M. Lopez

A couple of news items from Australia indicate how complicated the designer/agency situation is. Anyone who claims that it's all the fault of the designers, and that agencies are not complicit in foisting the anorexic, tanorexic standard on society, is ill informed. Both parties are guilty.

Here, however, is an example of a designer who is adopting a more traditionally feminine aesthetic. Dita von Teese is launching a lingerie line in Australia, and she rejected a host of models whom the agencies offered her, because the girls were too thin.

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/enter...u-1226292963457

The case in a nutshell:


The same article quotes another designer as blaming agencies for offering underweight models:


Partly, of course, this is the usual finger-pointing, with each side blaming the other. The situation underscores the fact that both parties are complicit in perpetuating the toxic emaciated standard. After all, while these designers are right in complaining about straight-size-agency practices, they don't have to book models from these agencies at all. There are plenty of plus-size models at various agencies whom the designers could, and should, be booking instead.

And as for Dita von Teese, while it's wonderful to hear that she turned away 12 models for being too thin, I have to ask - were the girls in the photograph that accompanies the article those whom she turned away, or those whom she kept? They looked extremely, painfully skinny.

Still, there are more reasons for liking Dita von Teese's booking policies. Not only did she turn away models for being too cadaverously thin, but also for being tanned, instead favouring models with fair skin.

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/enter...3-1226292626968

I'd love to see more designers rejecting radioactively tanned models and embracing the beauty of natural skin tones:


Her revulsion mirrors the feelings of most Judgment of Paris readers toward underfed, overtanned models. How wonderful it would be if these decisions, as well as the Dutch model's successful suit against her agency for weight discrimination, would lead to fuller-figured, naturally complexioned girls on the world's runways.

Chad

M. Lopez's point is very interesting, because as it turns out, Dita von Teese did, in fact, book two plus-size models for her show, along with two faux-plus girls.

But the news is not all good. As the Daily Mail reports, there were, in fact, numerous size zeros in the lineup.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbi...o=feeds-newsxml

The regrettable truth:

Also, alas, a few models did exhibit the leathery hides of over-tanning.

On the other hand, kudos to Dita von Teese for booking a few genuine plus-size models. Below is a relatively complete video of the show.

So you don't have to sit through ten minutes of waifs, though, here are the timed appearances of the genuinely curvy girls:

The first appears at 2:15, and then again at 8:15. She definitely has the best walk of the bigger girls and the finest figure, a soft physique that shows sensual commotion as she moves.

The other true plus-size model appears at 4:04.

At 5:23 one sees a faux-plus model. Of the larger girls, she has by far the prettiest facial features.

The model at 5:58 doesn't appear particularly plus-size from the fore view, but when she turns, the camera shows her hinder curves, which attest to her being full-figured.



Frustratingly, though, while all of the skinny models are shown from every angle, with close looks at their reverse-view curves, the camera cuts away from any close back shots of the plus-size models. Evidently, the anti-plus bias pervades the fashion industry on every level. Even when a designer books a full-figured girl, there's no guarantee the camera will film her, or if it does, that all of her footage will be shown.

Furthermore, ironically, even the Daily Mail article linked above only featured the images of the show's underweight girls and failed to publish pictures of the plus-size models. And this was an article that criticized von Teese for booking thin models (!).

Ultimately, while two plus-size models are better than none, this whole situation still indicates how disadvantaged plus-size beauty is when someone tries to tack it on to a show filled with underweight girls.

The runway shows at plus-specific events, like FFFWeek and Brazil's FWPS and last year's Curves in Couture show, are much more fulfilling. There, the models are all genuinely full-figured, and they're happily photographed and filmed from every angle. It's the difference between mere size-tolerance and bona fide size-celebration, and the latter approach makes the plus-exclusive events far preferable to these disappointing "all sizes" ventures.