The Judgment of Paris Forum - Sodrap, with Kailee & Grace

26th February 2009	#1
Hannah Senior Member Join Date: November 2008 Posts: 408	Sodrap, with Kailee & Grace Spain seems to be emerging as a hotbed of plus-size fashion. Besides the Spanish companies that have been noted here before, I discovered a new one the other day, and its two current campaigns feature Kailee O'Sullivan and the other popular model from the Hughes agency, Grace. That's quite a beginning! Kailee appears in the company's current spring/summer promo. It looks as if they put tanner on her, which is too bad as her naturally fair complexion is so beautiful. But the shots are terrific, as Kailee's always are. Here are a few choice ones. Love the expression here; plus, this is the one picture where they allowed Kailee to look curvy. She's so pretty. Very dramatic pose: Thoughtful. This one is really unique. She looks...troubled. It's an eye-catching pose, and one I've never seen before. The prints are a bit much, but no one can deny that Kailee makes the pictures exciting. She always puts so much passion into her modelling. The rest of the S/S campaign is here (3 pages' worth): http://www.sodrap.com/lib/contenidos.php?secc=23 The pictures with Grace are for the forthcoming Fall/Winter 2009 campaign. Sodrap took advantage of her fair complexion and blonde tresses. The stylist chose lots of pink to go with her look. Grace is adept at sweet expressions. Beautiful, flowing hair here. Endearing expression, and the hat is a nice touch: I like the way her hair is pulled back here, yet still flows. The whole campaign: http://www.sodrap.com/lib/contenidos.php?secc=24 Apparently, although Sodrap is Spanish, it markets throughout Europe. With such exciting model choices, this is a company to watch.

17th May 2009

M. Lopez

Senior Member

Join Date: August 2005

Posts: 575

Re: Sodrap, with Kailee & Grace

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hannah

Spain seems to be emerging as a hotbed of plus-size fashion.

Indeed, in many ways Spain is leading the way when it comes to size celebration.

Kailee's gorgeous campaign for Sodrap in Spain reminded me of an article that talks about how British women (and women generally) can learn a lot from their Spanish counterparts.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukn...-senoritas.html

Some excerpts:

Quote:

UK women can learn from Spanish señoritas

By Maria Alvarez
26 Feb 2008

First their enlightened government banned size-zero models. Now a new survey shows that most women in Spain are happy with their bodies.

I was partly reared in Spain and, believe me, you can visit a Spanish granny, auntie or mother accompanied by the fire brigade and she would see fit to note your weight first. Not because they're size-zero fanatics, but rather the family guardians of health.

Statistics, published last week by the Spanish government...reveal that seven out of 10 Spanish women are satisfied with their bodies. Compared to the measly 2 per cent of British women happy with their shapes, this is astonishing.

How can there be such a huge disparity in body satisfaction between Spanish women and us? After all, the Spanish are subject to the same cult-of-thinness pressures from the media; they spend more time in beauty parlours than the British (it's cheaper there). Yet, aside from the surveys, just watch the body language. Those Spanish girls seem sassier, more assured.

"Think of a Spanish archetype and you immediately leap to the swaggering, buxom Carmen," says Rowan Pelling, the former editor of The Erotic Review. "Think of a British one and it's the plain, modest Jane Eyre. We're too open to self-punishing Puritanism, and the stick-thin ideal is the sexless flipside of that Puritanism."

This self-flagellation is significant, not simply in its role in causing eating disorders but also in its negative implications for psychological health. Of course, Spain is not free of the dangers. Between 5 per cent and 8 per cent of the young female Spanish population is estimated to be suffering from eating disorders.

But, arguably, something else is at work in a larger section of the female populace to counteract self-loathing over there. I think it starts young. My Spanish family was not untypical in its highly vocal cherishing of children. We were all continually called "guapa" (lovely) by everyone.

Back in Britain, at the age of 14, I was studying myself in the school gym mirror one day when friends started singing the Carly Simon song You're So Vain.

I was perplexed by their reaction, then the difference in attitude between the English, who actively discourage self-regard, and the Spanish, who encourage a positive self-image struck me. But given that we develop a sense of ourselves through the gaze of our families first, might not this British familial and cultural censure work against the highly vulnerable female teenager? Might not the benign narcissism instilled by the average Spanish family provide a much-needed defensive ballast?

Aunt Paula's protective streak is not a zillion miles from the attitude of the Spanish government - which banned size-zero models on the catwalk in 2006.

The survey of 10,451 women aged between 12 and 70 referred to above formed part of a government campaign to standardise clothing sizes so that they fit real women, replacing the traditional system with measurements that adhere to the three main body types: the hourglass, the cylinder and the pear.

The government considers this a crucial consumer [and] health...issue, and is working with Spanish chain stores such as Zara and Mango to phase out size-zero mannequins. "We are aiming for a model of healthy beauty," says Angeles Heras, the consumer affairs director of the department of health...

[Spain's] sense of traditional difference is also useful. It's a truism to point out the paradoxes in Spain's cultural legacy: its obsession with death coupled with a light-filled exuberance; its Catholic strictness versus its fiery southern passion.

Velázquez didn't paint his Rokeby Venus in an art-historical vacuum; neither did Goya produce his naked Maja without hinting at the sensuality of the women in his own land...

Catholic Mariolatry, the adoration of the Virgin as saintly mother, had its plus side. ...The very Spanish cult and love of the "mother" combines with southern earthiness. Consequently, Spanish ideals of beauty are more anchored in the real, sensual female body, a body that breeds...

It's an oral, southern culture where a lot of eating and talking gets done around the table, in family groups. Pleasure is the key. For all the pressures, Spanish women are more constitutionally built to like themselves. Aunt Paula and the current government are protecting something rather special. Let's hope they succeed.

The article as a whole has some mixed messages and doesn't comprehend that it is tradition shaping today's politics (the very traditions that the author applauds), rather than the influence of modern ideologies, that enable Spain to have such a size-positive outlook. But the points made above are worth noting, particularly the idea of "benign narcissism" and the positive influence of the traditional family unit.

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