Wtfoffers This article is brought to you by Ozempic® and Heroin™.
I was recently watching recent footage from the fforme show and was really struck by how the models were getting thinner, although this is not news. To be clear, I am not against any particular model’s body type or even body type. in particular (It’s not just them, it’s also because I know almost nothing about the brand). Rather, I’m writing this article to warn you about changes in the industry and, with it, changes in our culture.
If you had looked at past models, you would never have been able to tell that it wasn’t thin enough. At some point, it really seems like do not have This is a problem where brands think “our clothes look best on thin bodies” (a common idea, but not enough to explain what we’re seeing) or “thin models sell clothes because people think they’re hot” (simple capitalist greed, bad but understandable), but it’s not either of those things, it’s “thinness for thinness’ sake.” One-upmanship. Who has the thinnest model? The old idea that models can’t be thin enough. That’s the worst.
We’ve been here before. “Heroin Chic”
First, models are making it difficult for themselves to compete. They are self-medicating with everything from GLP-1 to heroin to coke and developing eating disorders (I can’t tell you how many TV specials I’ve seen warning on this subject). It is not an isolated case of labor abuse, and we are not in a position to catch someone telling another to lose weight, but it may simply be communities and markets responding to collective forces of change. Casting agent’s perspective. (The “male gaze” or the “gaze” in general is not what influencers are referring to these days.)
And of course it’s bad for us as a society. You’ve probably heard stories of girls growing up with horrible self-images because of the models they saw in magazines. Eating disorders, body dysmorphia, and depression are endemic to billions of people, all because a few brands decided it was okay on a whim.
We were fixing it. In 2017, LVMH and Kering banned models under a certain size and also banned models under the age of 16 from appearing in adult clothing. Before the coronavirus outbreak, brands were using plus-size models and models of various body types. That expression is powerful. it helps people. It makes the world a better place. But there weren’t that many plus-size models walking the runway, so when a few got sick or intentionally refrained from traveling in the middle of a pandemic, most brands decided they didn’t need such representation.
But they just stopped caring about representation. Dolce & Gabbana managed to cast 100 men for the show, One by one It was white. It’s difficult no matter how hard you try, isn’t it? There’s no way that happened by chance. This is not known, but these two had a terrible relationship for a long time. They are shameless and have never faced any real consequences for their blatant bigotry. So why should designers pretend to care about the well-being of their models or society as a whole?
The representative is not dead. In a sense, it’s thriving. Small brands are still looking for different body types to highlight. Big brands sometimes do it with smaller campaigns. Now, I’m having a hard time thinking of examples that connect you off the top of my head… Heh, that’s weird, I think it’s kind of unusual. Runway fashion is, in many ways, a peak dripping with ideas and aesthetics, and here it is again.
But in this rat race, people see being thin as some kind of accomplishment…which isn’t good for anyone. May God have mercy on this industry. And Karl Lagerfeld is shit.
