When a campaign for Saint Laurent featured Kiki Willem, a painfully thin Dutch model, the U.K.’s Advertising Standards Authority banned the ads. According to Women’s Wear Daily, under the new law, models working in France will need a doctor’s certificate that demonstrates their overall health and shows that their body mass index is “appropriate for the job.” Breaches of the law by models, their agencies, or the clients who hire them can result in six months in prison and a fine of up to 75,000 euros. The French government passed a new law that intends to keep excessively thin models from working in their country. More than 80 percent said they’d spend more on clothing if they had more choices in their size, and nearly 90 percent said they would buy more if they had trendier options.”įrance may fine these designers.
Gunn cites one store’s survey as proof: “Seventy-four percent of plus-size women described shopping in stores as “frustrating” 65 percent said they were “excluded.” (Interestingly, 65 percent of women of all sizes agreed that plus-size women were ignored by the fashion industry.) But the plus-size women surveyed also indicated that they wanted to shop more. More outrage.” The Fashion Industry is Paying for this Obsession with Thinness, Too
After an outcry, the industry responded by putting young teens on the runway, girls who had yet to exit puberty. First it was women so thin that they surely had eating disorders. For decades, designers have trotted models with bodies completely unattainable for most women down the runway. Look at Vogue’s ‘shape issue,’ which is ostensibly a celebration of different body types but does no more than nod to anyone above a size 12. “The industry, from the runway to magazines to advertising, likes subscribing to the mythology it has created of glamour and thinness. “This problem is difficult to change,” Gunn writes. They develop eating disorders to try to attain an impossible goal. Unfortunately, millions of teens believe the lies. Many of these photographs or videos feature air-brushed models that weigh 23% less than the average woman. But the problem is that these ideals are not very realistic. Teens are bombarded with images from television, movies, magazines, and the Internet that show them what their bodies ‘should’ look like. Research proves that the thin celebrities our mainstream media often promotes as standards of female beauty can have a very negative and powerful impact on the teenagers of today.
Many of the world’s most successful supermodels, celebrities, and female movie stars have come forward lately to reveal their struggles with Anorexia, Bulimia, binge eating, and other food-related behavior disorders. How can I dress this shape and not look like a fullback?’ It was a question I’d heard over and over during the tour: Women who were larger than a size 12 always wanted to know, How can I look good, and why do designers ignore me?” This Prejudice Against Larger Women Comes at a High Cost At a Q&A after one event in Nashville in 2010, a woman stood up, took off her jacket and said, with touching candor: ‘Tim, look at me. Our team made a point of retaining models of various sizes, shapes and ages, because one of the missions of the shows was to educate audiences about how they could look their best. In a recent article in the Washington Post, Gunn writes, “When I was chief creative officer for Liz Claiborne Inc., I spent a good amount of time on the road hosting fashion shows highlighting our brands. Why do designers refuse to make clothes to fit American women? It’s a disgrace, says Gunn. Yes, there may be a few token big models, and plus-size model Ashley Graham will debut a line of lingerie for larger women, but these are the exceptions, not the new standards. So why, he asks, must so many young women continue to starve themselves to maintain its unrealistic standards?ĭuring New York City’s Fashion Week, as the world’s top fashion designers unveil their latest collections to the public with much fanfare, once again, the average-sized women of America will be largely be ignored. As Tim Gunn, designer and host of TV’s Project Runway, points out, there’s a lot of money of to be made if the clothing industry offers real clothes for real women.
There has always been a big difference between the average woman and haute couture, but today, when the gap seems wider than ever, very few designers will even entertain the idea of producing a line of plus size fashions. wear a size 16 than a size 6, and the fashion world doesn’t seem to care.
Why Some Designers Don’t Think Beauty Comes in All Sizes