Thin Models - Revenge of the Gay Guys

Thin Models - Revenge of the Gay Guys? an article by Lolane

I was dismayed to read in the Herald the other day that former supermodel Cindy Crawford thinks she could not make it in the fashion business today with her curvy figure.
"I would not have become a supermodel in 2009. I look too healthy,” she told an interviewer. “A body like mine with big breasts, normal thighs and toned upper arms is no longer what the industry is looking for.”
Fashion models today are alarmingly thin, stick-like people in serious need of a cheeseburger and large fries. A visitor from outer space, flipping through the pages of typical fashion magazine, might feel compelled to send in the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Humanoids to rescue these poor gals from starvation.




Compare these pictures – Cindy on the left and the model above. We all know who we would rather look like and who is the healthier role model for today’s women. Even if her top is where her belt should be.


So how did it come to this? Why is a size 0 mandatory on the catwalk, when most women are a size 12? Why are curves airbrushed out of fashion images today?

My husband has often said, “It’s the revenge of the gay guys.” Gay men dominate the fashion industry, and by putting their designs on ultra-thin women, they have redefined beauty to fit their own ideal of the fantasy sexual partner – a boy. It sounded plausible, so I Googled “gay men in the fashion industry” and got 827,000 hits.

Several links cite the article, “In Fashion, Who Really Gets Ahead?” published in 2005 in the New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/08/fashion/thursdaystyles/08FASHION.html

Gay men do indeed top the lists. Since 1986, most awards for young talent bestowed by the Council of Fashion Designers of America have gone to men – 29 versus 8 for women, and 20 of those men were openly gay.
Designer Tara Subkoff made waves in the U.S. industry by commenting at a public forum that fashion is a gay man’s profession. She accused Anna Wintour, editor of Vogue of supporting only young gay men.
“Gay men stick together like a band of brothers,” she complained, forming a glass ceiling against the ranks of women designers.

Another fashion blogger was blunter and a tad hostile:
“Why is it that so much of what you wear is influenced by a man? Men don’t know jack about women and gay men especially are tuned out to your needs since nothing about your figure or body satisfies them physically. They’re looking for twigs and berries and all you offer is well, you know what you have to offer.” http://fashionindie.com/stuff-fashion-people-like-21-gay-fashion-designers/

Recently, Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld threw some fuel on the fire, telling a German news magazine, "no one wants to see curvy women."

He said the backlash against skinny models was being fuelled by overweight women who resent being reminded of their weight issues.
"These are fat moms sitting with their bags of chips in front of the TV and saying that thin models are ugly," Lagerfeld said.
Yeah, well, that completely avoids the issue. “Thin” models are not the problem; it’s that “thin” has been taken by the industry to an extreme degree, promoting a pre-pubescent body style and a state of near starvation as the ideal for female beauty.

But let us ignore that for the moment, figuring everyone is entitled to their own opinions, even funny looking old guys who wear high collars, weight lifting gloves and sunglasses indoors. (Didn’t he hear that floppy bows went out with women’s “Power Suits” and padded shoulders when disco died? It is a good bet than when asked the proverbial question, “Who’s hotter: Ginger or Maryann?” Karl responded with “Gilligan.”)

Fortunately, some key industry leaders are pushing for change. A few fashion shows have banned underweight models.
In June, British Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman called on major fashion houses and designers – including old Karl - to end the "size-zero" culture.
The TimesOnline says she wrote to scores of designers in Europe and America, complaining they force magazines to hire models with “jutting bones and no breasts or hips” by supplying them with miniscule, ever-shrinking garments for their photo shoots.

“We have now reached the point where many of the sample sizes don’t comfortably fit even the established star models,” Shulman writes.
Supermodel Erin O’Connor described the editor’s stand as “a huge breakthrough”.
"The fact that Alexandra Shulman with her enormous influence has opened this conversation means that it will have a huge impact,” she said. “It has . . . made it compulsorily relevant that we address this now.”

Locally, we are seeing some small steps as well, with the Air New Zealand Fashion Week 2009 featuring plus size models, and Trinny and Susannah showing us how to choose clothing that flatter a range of figure styles.
Change is coming, and perhaps our daughters and granddaughters will have a better chance at redefining style to suit more types of women – not just the male ideal, gay or straight.

So for all of you out there with daughters or granddaughters interested in fashion design, tell them,

“Go get ‘em, girls: help us find our waist. Make things with darts. Get beyond boho. And for pity’s sake, save us from tent dresses!”

- Lolane