Style By Numbers

The Observer today published an interested article about the ongoing debate over the shrinking size of fashion models. Vogue editor Alexandra Schulman has released a letter to designers placing the blame on them for sending samples in tiny sizes requiring unhealthily thin girls for photo shoots.

Now, excuse me while I step on my soapbox.

It’s no secret to anyone that the face of fashion has changed drastically in the past decade. Editorial is mainstream and there are more and more frail, pail, androgynous girls on the cat walk and in fashion magazines than I remember seeing growing up. Models like Claudia Schiffer, Cindy Crawford, Lauren Hutton, Amber Valetta, Helana Christainsen were all strikingly beautiful, but in a way that seemed attainable to a young girl. They were thin, yes, but not outrageously so.

I agree that models have a unique purpose and must treat their bodies differently than I might. Just as  professional athletes develop muscles and maintain diets to allow their bodies to perform better, so must a model. They must diet, exercise and keep their bodies healthy in order to do their job. I understand that a separate standard is set for models and that tall, leggy, unique women who know how to move their body and walk in particularly artful ways are essential to the fashion industry. But what I don’t understand is how the notion of thinness became so exaggerated and why it seems impossible for the industry to reverse the trend.

According to the article, the Daisy Lowe would have trouble fitting into the minuscule garments submitted by some designers. Now Daisy is incredibly commercially viable, so how have designers’ standards slipped so far below the popular standards. With popularity of independent fashion bloggers increasing and sites like Weardrobe allowing average women to become stylists and models, how long will it be before even the most illusive design houses realise that their cultural relevancy is not absolute.

I have to commend Ms. Schulman for bringing attention to this element of the problem, but after several years of debate the issue is (excuse me for this) wearing thin. Enough of pointing fingers and forming committees to discuss the issue without tangible results. The fashion industry as a whole has created this problem and can very easily fix it. Make larger sample sizes, book healthy models, photograph them and voila, we’ll be ready to usher in a whole new concept of beauty at the close of this decade.

And I now exit my soapbox.