1 : an artist's, tailor's, or dressmaker's lay figure; also : a form representing the human figure used especially for displaying
2 : one employed to model clothing
from left to right: Barbie, Mannequin, Eugenia Mandzhieva
If you observe the definitions given above, I wonder if designers would prefer the brain functioning of one def along with the living convenience of the other. It's occurred to me that designers could just use mannequins (non-english definition) but, 1.) it takes a lot of time to change the clothes and reposition a mannequin. 2.) As showcased by Old Navy, campaigns attempting to personify mannequins kind of...are not fun.
not fun
At the same time, it would be nice to have a medium that didn't complain about low BMIs and self starvation. Something's gotta give, seriously.
I grew up in a time where if you were a supermodel, you were either featured or mentioned in a music video by either Ru Paul or George Michael. Yes. The awesome glamazon models of the 90s!
I don't know what is was that made those models bigger than their 5' 10" frames, but I feel that the quality of being "untouchable" worked in everyone's favor. I'm thinking that trends were a bigger deal then as well, and skinny was not quite as trendy then as it is today. These days, I think most people have figured out that proportion is the name of the game and if you're not tall, you can always be skinny. And this is where all hell breaks loose.
About a week ago, I was intrigued by a few articles (NY Daily News, New York Times) claiming that Coco Rocha had become a part of fashion's fat camp of models. Though at first incensed (hey, I'm a size 2-4 and about 8 inches short than her), I decided to resort to a more reliable source for the real breakdown: Coco Rocha's blog - O H S O C O C O: My Uncensored Point of View
- aside -
It's times like these that I truly appreciate blogs. Where else could I get an uncensored version of a models opinion other than her blog? On an even more far fetching note - I happen to like a Korean band called SHINee that I wouldn't be able to keep up with if it wasn't for blogs writing about them given that everything else is in Korean - a deep thank you - keep on blogging!
- end -
Needless to say, I much preferred Coco's version to the articles embedded with the elements to make someone angry at the fashion world. I'll admit, it brought me back to 2006 where Italy banned size zero models and Spain required a healthy 18 BMI for their models after the deaths of Ana Carolina Reston and Luisel Ramos. And now the sample size is at zero (0) again. Guilt is never in vogue for that long.
While talking with Pumpkin about it, he commented that he feels some of the things in the fashion world are f***ed up, but that his friend (who was a design major) commented that models may look the way the do so as to not distract from the clothes. Really? Walking hangers essentially. A designer could send down their clothes on hangers and perhaps a conveyor belt of mannequins, it would be cheaper and cost effective, but they don't. The only reason I can think of is that it takes away from the art. I think, in my idealism, I'm trying to get across that there is value in fashion models. That they're not there just to be hangers, but part of the overall artwork. Maybe a model will only be around for one season, but they had a part in completing someone's piece that otherwise would have been substandard. The world already respects the art, but we should also respect the aspects that make it possible.
I grew up in a time where if you were a supermodel, you were either featured or mentioned in a music video by either Ru Paul or George Michael. Yes. The awesome glamazon models of the 90s!
I don't know what is was that made those models bigger than their 5' 10" frames, but I feel that the quality of being "untouchable" worked in everyone's favor. I'm thinking that trends were a bigger deal then as well, and skinny was not quite as trendy then as it is today. These days, I think most people have figured out that proportion is the name of the game and if you're not tall, you can always be skinny. And this is where all hell breaks loose.
About a week ago, I was intrigued by a few articles (NY Daily News, New York Times) claiming that Coco Rocha had become a part of fashion's fat camp of models. Though at first incensed (hey, I'm a size 2-4 and about 8 inches short than her), I decided to resort to a more reliable source for the real breakdown: Coco Rocha's blog - O H S O C O C O: My Uncensored Point of View
- aside -
It's times like these that I truly appreciate blogs. Where else could I get an uncensored version of a models opinion other than her blog? On an even more far fetching note - I happen to like a Korean band called SHINee that I wouldn't be able to keep up with if it wasn't for blogs writing about them given that everything else is in Korean - a deep thank you - keep on blogging!
- end -
Needless to say, I much preferred Coco's version to the articles embedded with the elements to make someone angry at the fashion world. I'll admit, it brought me back to 2006 where Italy banned size zero models and Spain required a healthy 18 BMI for their models after the deaths of Ana Carolina Reston and Luisel Ramos. And now the sample size is at zero (0) again. Guilt is never in vogue for that long.
While talking with Pumpkin about it, he commented that he feels some of the things in the fashion world are f***ed up, but that his friend (who was a design major) commented that models may look the way the do so as to not distract from the clothes. Really? Walking hangers essentially. A designer could send down their clothes on hangers and perhaps a conveyor belt of mannequins, it would be cheaper and cost effective, but they don't. The only reason I can think of is that it takes away from the art. I think, in my idealism, I'm trying to get across that there is value in fashion models. That they're not there just to be hangers, but part of the overall artwork. Maybe a model will only be around for one season, but they had a part in completing someone's piece that otherwise would have been substandard. The world already respects the art, but we should also respect the aspects that make it possible.
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