26 September - Anorexic & Fashion
Did you see the stuff in the Standard re that Italian company’s posters during Milan’s fashion week? No-anorexia (No.Li.ta)? That’s my mate…. Working for them in Northern Italy and having to shape up her arguments for the press interviews she’s being asked to do etc. I think it’s another no news story, I know some people die of anorexia but it’s hardly cancer from smoking or heart disease is it? And more people die because of what being obese brings on later on in life and nobody sticks huge obese people on posters because the outcry would be too much. Human rights would be invoked and so on. And I’m afraid for once I side with Mr Armani and Messrs Dolce & Gabbana who comment that it’s a psychological disorder that some young girls (and boys) have irrespective of what’s in magazines. It’s like the do violent films inspire violent acts debate, yes in some people, but the majority don’t go out to kill/maim/rape. Why would boys get anorexia when the models to aspire to in magazines are fit and have six packs? There’s no concentration camp chic being peddled in male modelling so explain that one.
I have a close relative who suffered from anorexia from age 15 onward. It categorically had nothing to do with models and magazines and all to do with an almighty dysfunctional relationship with her mother and sister and a desire to control something which only gave her her body as a ‘victim’ she could bend to her will. Sure model agencies tell you to be skinny for shows but I see mostly fat teenagers around on the streets and not that many painfully skinny ones. I have worked in so many places and met/known so many women and their daughters and my mind can’t conjure up any anorexic one apart from my relative. That’s not necessarily a scientific sample I’m offering as I’ve also never known any woman with breast cancer (yet) and statistic say it’s one in however many and I do know however many and more so…
Don’t know what to say. But the model in the Oliviero Toscani poster would be the first one to say she wasn’t starving herself to be picked for a fashion show but because of some other psychic problem. She’s 27 and says she’s been anorexic since age 12 Er… don’t think you’re able to tell you want to be skinny to wear the pretty clothes at that age. She talks about deep family problems she was facing, though doesn’t articulate them, but I can’t yet find her blog so I don’t know any more than that for now.
But it all led to an interesting conversation with my friend in fashion. I told her you better sort out your sizes before you enter this debate fully because your brands don’t offer any clothes above a size 12 and in reality your 12 is a size 10 and so most of my friends can’t get one leg inside the waist of your trousers. She explained that the mannequin that’s used for pinning new styles on is indeed a regular size 8 for example, but by the time the items have been pinned and tucked and pulled this way and that by the designer and get sent for manufacture they have most of the times lost centimetres here and there and so that size 8 on the label is actually a smaller one in reality. This seems to be what top designers do because the reverse is true (in my experience) with cheap clothes and by cheap clothes I’ll gladly include M&S and anything found on the high streets of north London for example. I bought a pair of size 10 office like black trousers and not only are they long in the leg, they are v. roomy on the waist and fall off me even on the ass – which as I have detailed is more Sadie Frost than Sienna Miller and yet there shouldn’t be such a huge difference between a size 8 and a 10. So my theory is that these trousers are in fact almost a 12 and the manufacturer makes the fatter woman feel good by telling you you’re a 10, but when you save up and go to D&G you come crushing down to earth as you won’t fit into their 10. Ever. Their 10 is an 8, their 8 is a 6, their 6 is a 4 and so on.
My fashion friend also offers another explanation that’s to do with body type and not necessarily body fat. She says she has constant arguments with her MD’s because her efforts to break into the north American market are thwarted by the sizes they offer to them. North American gals (and Anglo-saxons in general) are bigger boned than some of their continental European counterparts. They have broader shoulders and backs for example and sizing and just giving them a bigger size is not the solution, it has to be cut different altogether and her bosses just won’t do it so they watch stuff going into Barneys and being returned. Conversely they sell stratospherically well in Japan and I’d say Thailand and similar places where the shapes are leaner. So there you have it. M&S are not lying to me! In fact they do make their petite range for the likes of a continental shaped small woman and their regular lines are for taller, bigger boned girls. Whilst of course D&G being hugely gay (and so are many of the high end fashion designers out there) start off with a mannequin of a woman but they really want to put those nice dresses on a MAN, so they slice off your ass and your chest and give you the smallest boy waist imaginable. If you mess up by buying yourself huge spherical fake tits like Vicky Beckham then you have to wear their jackets just buttoned up with the one button on the waist and everything else hangs out but your shoulders are tiny. You don’t often see female tennis players tucked into a D&G jacket do you? They need whoever designes for the SAS! You can fit any 18 year old BOY into a D&G size 8….
And to go back to anorexia gay Mr Armani and gay Messrs D&G have no idea of what body image hell women go through, though as I said, am with them on the it’s not fashion that makes you starve yourself and even peer pressure is bollox. I never became a pot head despite being surrounded by many… or a coke user later on, despite having it for free if I wanted.
There you go. Is this common knowledge /reasoning or have I discovered sliced bread or am I a fashion writing genius? As for the should we use this model on our posters issue it’s a no brainer. Had you ever heard of No.Li.ta before yesterday? I’d say no, they could afford a few poster sites in Milan but not the world over and now the story of that poster is travelling and being picked up by all media everywhere and hey presto. Not that Oliviero Toscani would admit to it but his desire to highlight some social issues seems to always be done not as an artist/campaigner but as a photographer paid for by a company with products to sell, same as he did with all his Benetton posters for years.
ps just a thought. Why can we not have a better breakdown of sizes/labels? ie. Size 8 for tall and narrow Scandinavians, size 8 waist but with room for huge fake tits at the top, size 8 for Minnesota milk maids (doesn't exist, go back to rack with size 14) and so on?
I have a close relative who suffered from anorexia from age 15 onward. It categorically had nothing to do with models and magazines and all to do with an almighty dysfunctional relationship with her mother and sister and a desire to control something which only gave her her body as a ‘victim’ she could bend to her will. Sure model agencies tell you to be skinny for shows but I see mostly fat teenagers around on the streets and not that many painfully skinny ones. I have worked in so many places and met/known so many women and their daughters and my mind can’t conjure up any anorexic one apart from my relative. That’s not necessarily a scientific sample I’m offering as I’ve also never known any woman with breast cancer (yet) and statistic say it’s one in however many and I do know however many and more so…
Don’t know what to say. But the model in the Oliviero Toscani poster would be the first one to say she wasn’t starving herself to be picked for a fashion show but because of some other psychic problem. She’s 27 and says she’s been anorexic since age 12 Er… don’t think you’re able to tell you want to be skinny to wear the pretty clothes at that age. She talks about deep family problems she was facing, though doesn’t articulate them, but I can’t yet find her blog so I don’t know any more than that for now.
But it all led to an interesting conversation with my friend in fashion. I told her you better sort out your sizes before you enter this debate fully because your brands don’t offer any clothes above a size 12 and in reality your 12 is a size 10 and so most of my friends can’t get one leg inside the waist of your trousers. She explained that the mannequin that’s used for pinning new styles on is indeed a regular size 8 for example, but by the time the items have been pinned and tucked and pulled this way and that by the designer and get sent for manufacture they have most of the times lost centimetres here and there and so that size 8 on the label is actually a smaller one in reality. This seems to be what top designers do because the reverse is true (in my experience) with cheap clothes and by cheap clothes I’ll gladly include M&S and anything found on the high streets of north London for example. I bought a pair of size 10 office like black trousers and not only are they long in the leg, they are v. roomy on the waist and fall off me even on the ass – which as I have detailed is more Sadie Frost than Sienna Miller and yet there shouldn’t be such a huge difference between a size 8 and a 10. So my theory is that these trousers are in fact almost a 12 and the manufacturer makes the fatter woman feel good by telling you you’re a 10, but when you save up and go to D&G you come crushing down to earth as you won’t fit into their 10. Ever. Their 10 is an 8, their 8 is a 6, their 6 is a 4 and so on.
My fashion friend also offers another explanation that’s to do with body type and not necessarily body fat. She says she has constant arguments with her MD’s because her efforts to break into the north American market are thwarted by the sizes they offer to them. North American gals (and Anglo-saxons in general) are bigger boned than some of their continental European counterparts. They have broader shoulders and backs for example and sizing and just giving them a bigger size is not the solution, it has to be cut different altogether and her bosses just won’t do it so they watch stuff going into Barneys and being returned. Conversely they sell stratospherically well in Japan and I’d say Thailand and similar places where the shapes are leaner. So there you have it. M&S are not lying to me! In fact they do make their petite range for the likes of a continental shaped small woman and their regular lines are for taller, bigger boned girls. Whilst of course D&G being hugely gay (and so are many of the high end fashion designers out there) start off with a mannequin of a woman but they really want to put those nice dresses on a MAN, so they slice off your ass and your chest and give you the smallest boy waist imaginable. If you mess up by buying yourself huge spherical fake tits like Vicky Beckham then you have to wear their jackets just buttoned up with the one button on the waist and everything else hangs out but your shoulders are tiny. You don’t often see female tennis players tucked into a D&G jacket do you? They need whoever designes for the SAS! You can fit any 18 year old BOY into a D&G size 8….
And to go back to anorexia gay Mr Armani and gay Messrs D&G have no idea of what body image hell women go through, though as I said, am with them on the it’s not fashion that makes you starve yourself and even peer pressure is bollox. I never became a pot head despite being surrounded by many… or a coke user later on, despite having it for free if I wanted.
There you go. Is this common knowledge /reasoning or have I discovered sliced bread or am I a fashion writing genius? As for the should we use this model on our posters issue it’s a no brainer. Had you ever heard of No.Li.ta before yesterday? I’d say no, they could afford a few poster sites in Milan but not the world over and now the story of that poster is travelling and being picked up by all media everywhere and hey presto. Not that Oliviero Toscani would admit to it but his desire to highlight some social issues seems to always be done not as an artist/campaigner but as a photographer paid for by a company with products to sell, same as he did with all his Benetton posters for years.
ps just a thought. Why can we not have a better breakdown of sizes/labels? ie. Size 8 for tall and narrow Scandinavians, size 8 waist but with room for huge fake tits at the top, size 8 for Minnesota milk maids (doesn't exist, go back to rack with size 14) and so on?
Labels: body fascism, fashion
posted by Lisa Taylor @ 4:28 AM
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