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10 January 2010

Kudos V Magazine, NYT Fashion and Style

Images from V magazine’s “Size” issue highlighting plus size models.

By RUTH LA FERLA, NYT Style Section Published: January 8, 2010

A FORTHCOMING feature in V, among the more progressive of American fashion magazines, will trot out a parade of flamboyantly curvy models showing off what Bridget Jones, that Everywoman’s heroine, called her “wobbly bits.” But the editors of the February issue of V intend no insult or irony. “Big, little, pint size, plus size — everybody is beautiful,” said Stephen Gan, the magazine’s creative director, “and this issue is out to prove it.” Skip to next paragraph Related Times Topics: Professional Models

The eye-popping centerpiece of the magazine’s “Size” issue features several voluptuous women clad in skimpy swimsuits, bra tops and low-slung jeans. The models flaunt bulging tummies, powerful thighs and fleshy midsections — with love handles intact.

The magazine’s online preview on Models.com was picked up by scores of other Web sites and stirred a raucous debate. Some readers praised the decision to highlight models larger than size 2 as bold. Others castigated the editors as following the lead of more-conservative fashion magazines, which habitually ghettoize a large-size population that ought to be featured in every issue.

Further fanning the argument were those pointing out that plus models tended to measure a size 12 or 14 — hardly representative of the “real” plus-size woman, who typically wears a size 16 or 18.

But many such discussions were rendered moot by a handful of bloggers who simply preferred to look away, citing Karl Lagerfeld’s dictum, “No one wants to see curvy women.” What’s your view?

I'll give my two cents!

Oh, how fierce is this? bring it on...mix fashion up to represent us all...beautiful models be it thinner or curvier. Doesn't this better represent who we are as women in this country? Having women represented only in a prepubescent manner creates a disconnect, a dis-ease of sorts felt by all on a subconscious leve...l, perpetuating low self esteem and body image. Kudos V Magazine...these shots are a huge step in the right direction. Love the lighting, hair, makeup and styling. No excuses, bold statement. Brava!

38 comments

Emme

Jan 12 2010 at 11:42 AM

I just saw this....what are your thoughts gang? Unreal!

www.NYPost.com

Plus-size models are better role models? Fat chance!

Posted: 1:16 AM, January 10, 2010

“A-PLUS” ran the headline of a Post story the other day that cheered a fashion magazine’s decision to run pictures of overweight models. So. Hooray for fatties, right? Or maybe we are expected to praise the magazine’s path-breaking and revolutionary decision to be only the ten thousandth magazine to do a (the singular is apt) spread on fat women.

Back when I worked for a women’s magazine, we’d do the Fat-Is-In cover story every six months. (Surprise! Not that many actresses and models wanted to participate. Emme was to us what Obama’s birth certificate is to Lou Dobbs.) Other stories we’d do every six months: “Inside the Obesity Epidemic,” “Secrets of the Star Who Lost All That Weight” and (in recent years) “Check Out This Chick Who Got Her Stomach Stapled.”

Over at V magazine (Just V? I am reminded of the Woody Allen line, from the story collection “Without Feathers”: “Should I marry W? Not if she won’t tell me the other letters in her name”), the most recent save-the-whales picture layout features a herd — sorry, group! — of semiclad plus-sized models.

The V spread is blissfully meaningless as a trend. The magazine will soon go back to featuring girls built like praying mantises. It’s been about 20 years since glossy magazines first started trying to figure out a way to deal with the larding of America and the issues that weigh down the other side of the scale: feminism, political correctness and skyrocketing sales of pieces of cloth that used to be labeled “pup tents” but now are sold as clothing in the “Real Woman” department, or the “Robust Female” section, or the “Judgment Free Zone,” or whatever the current term is. But in that same 20 years, fashion models have gotten even skinnier.

Surely there must be a way for magazines to sell fat-folk clothes, appease feminists (“James Gandolfini is sexy, so why isn’t Roseanne?”) and express tender tolerance for those who are (as a press release I got the other day put it) “suffering from obesity”?

No. There isn’t. Because fashion magazines are run for the pleasure of upscale advertisers, and advertisers sell aspiration. If you want to sell reality, that’s a completely different and less lucrative advertising category — dubious fat-burning potions, sad little nutri-snacks, grim stretchy exercise belts that harness your gut to the doorknob. Ralph Lauren doesn’t want his ads next to the Thighslammer. And nobody at W or anywhere else wants to descend the social ladder. You know the name of the editor of Vogue. Tell me, who’s the editor of Weight Watcher’s mag?

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/plussizemodelsarebetterrolevAk1fyrBtuapjzdrwxbRuM#ixzz0cKMnh5EO

jrw0112

Jan 19 2010 at 12:44 PM

I just saw your piece w/Kyle Smith on CNN... I am speechless. I'm not sure how you kept yourself so composed with his absolutely insane comments regarding this article. Who is this guy to make these statements/allegations? I was so happy to see that you were the opposition -- thank you for your viewpoint, Emme.

Emmestyle

Kudos V Magazine, NYT Fashion and Style

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