A number
of things have been on my mind recently, probably due to a number of factors.
The first was my decision to (finally!) buy ‘Lolita’, a book that I’ve been
meaning to read for years and was also one of the only English books I could
actually get hold of in a French bookshop. The second was a conversation that I had with
my friend Hamza, a long conversation about how the media manipulates social
views of beauty and uses certain types of women to sell certain kinds of
products. The third element has just been actually meeting and chatting to
people that have been to model castings and hearing their experiences – for
example, one found that the designer never actually spoke to him personally,
instead using her assistant to communicate despite being in the room, whereas
another girl (undoubtedly one of the most strikingly beautiful girls I know)
was apparently ‘too fat’ for the job – bearing in mind she has a figure that
most women would kill for.
Promo poster for 'Girl Model' |
All this
combined with a great documentary I recently came across (Girl Model, 2011) compelled me to write about the subject in more
detail – I still can’t decide whether I’m writing this to spark debate (it
certainly already has on tumblr) or just to articulate to myself my own
feelings on the matter. Maybe the most important thing to establish is that I
love fashion. As an industry it provides so much – it is creativity, it is
escapism, it is fantasy and it is a tool to make people feel like they’re being
the person they want to be. Editorials, couture, extravagant runways – these are
the things that I love about fashion; the spectacle, the displays of
showmanship and the feeling that you can engineer the ways in which the world
views you via your wardrobe.
However,
the inner mechanics and the real ideologies of the fashion industry are enough
to leave even the most avid fashion fans cold. I am an idealist in the sense
that I don’t particularly think about fashion from a commercial standpoint, at
least in terms of things such as model castings and ad campaigns. For me, my
interest lies more in the clothes than the models themselves, and if I ever do
have a ‘favourite’ model it’s usually due to editorial, meaning that it is a
distorted image as opposed to an achievable goal. I essentially see models as a
canvas – a blank canvas to be painted with lashings of couture and enhanced with
ethereal backdrops. Models are essential in terms of creating fantasy via
editorial, but in that sense they are only as essential as the stylist, the
photographer and the post-production.
Mark Fast S/S 2010 |
I’ve
found recently that just by going on nights out and socialising in general, it’s
difficult to bump into anyone here that a) doesn’t work in fashion and b) doesn’t
want to work in fashion. In a sense it’s a great thing to meet these people (I
know a girl that works at Prada – the rumours are true) but it has made me
question the industry more than ever. Runway models are generally expected to be
5’8 or above but also to fit into size 6 sample sizes; a size that is
unattainable to most except either the genetically blessed or the
less-genetically blessed that exist solely on a diet of black coffee and menthol
cigarettes. The excuse often given is that these women are essentially walking
clothes-hangers – rake-thin mannequins on which the latest collections can hang
exactly, no bumps or Spanx to be seen. Although different designers have
different preferences in terms of models (Yamamoto and Margiela, for example,
are renowned for using street-cast models), designers can rarely get away with
using models above a certain size due to too much attention being put on the
model choice and detracting from the collection. The first examples I can think
of are Mark Fast S/S 2010, Rick Owens S/S 2014 and Issey Miyake’s ‘Octogenarian’ collection, all three of
which have been labelled lazy PR stunts on numerous occasions.
Although
it does bother me to an extent that modelling remains such an unattainable
profession, the most unnerving thing is the use of sexual imagery in fashion.
To clarify, I am all for provocation and (as you all know) am extremely liberal
– one of my favourite photographers (Paolo Roversi), for example, specialises
in nudes, and overt sexualisation is fantastic when done right. The kind of thing
that I am not criticising is, for example, Rihanna being surrounded by
pole-dancers whilst wearing a denim thong in her latest video. Kristen McMenamy’s
XXX-rated shoot with Juergen Teller (I swear I’ve seen her ‘private parts’ in
more detail than I have ever seen my own) remains one of my favourite shoots of
all-time. As one user on Tumblr (maligma) underlined, “Fashion is art in most
cases and not just about practicality. Nudity or revealing cuts are a part of
artistic expression within fashion”. I agree with this statement completely –
Galliano’s transparent chiffon gowns are still one of the most incredible
things I have ever seen on a runway, and Simone Rocha’s use of latex isn’t
practical but certainly is beautiful. The kind of thing I am criticising,
however, is the fact that underage models are (albeit occasionally) part of this
provocation. Ever since Calvin Klein chose a 16-year-old Kate Moss as the
topless face of their denim brand, the lines have become blurred (and NO this
isn’t a pun/ reference to middle-aged man/great big pervert Robin Thicke) in
terms of what is ‘too young’ for fashion.
Models are generally known to start their
careers at a young age. Kate is obviously one example, but even current faces
such as Karlie Kloss, Daphne Groeneveld and Lindsey Wixson are barely out of
their teens yet they have almost a decade of experience in the industry between
them. The obsession with the waif-life ‘gamine’ figure that is always on-trend is
worrying. The kind of pre-pubescent
proportions that are occasionally demanded lead to a number of girls being
coerced into modelling at a young age at the hope of making a career – a trend
which is especially popular amongst Eastern Europe, a weirdly-acceptable form
of human trafficking. Law is still
surprisingly loose around this subject – in general explicit sexualisation is
completely prohibited, but a number of questions are still relevant. For
example, sexualisation doesn’t have to be explicit. If no nipple is shown and
the model is just covering her chest, is this OK? What goes on behind the
scenes is also unknown to a certain extent, and it is worrying to consider how
far a starstruck teenager would go to ‘make it’ in her chosen profession. The
best example of this is alleged sex offender (see just some of the allegations here and here) Terry
Richardson – one of the most respected photographers in the industry, who has
recently been hit with a barrage of publicity for apparently offering to
photograph an unknown model in exchange for a quick fuck.
Once
again, I want to re-iterate my love for the fashion industry, but it sometimes
feels like the love one has for an abusive lover. Or one that disappoints you
but then buys you dinner (or in this case, supplies you with a magnificent
editorial). Of course these kind of backstage rumours are second nature to
every industry, and sexualisation of our culture can actually be useful in
terms of opening dialogue about sex – it shouldn’t be a taboo subject and
nudity should be celebrated, not shamed. But our desensitisation has to have
boundaries; the worrying combination of a conveyor-belt of young, willing models
and experienced yet exploitative industry insiders are starting to mean that we
don’t even recognise a problem when we see it. Self-exploitation, sex in
exchange for power and even body manipulation are all choices to a certain
extent, but it’s important that the people making these decisions are both old
enough and savvy enough to make them for themselves.
Terry Richardson. Being creepy. with Rihanna. |
Great, insightful article. You clearly have a huge knowledge of fashion and I think its interesting you're looking at premature sexualisation with high fashion industries not just the media culture. I'm doing a piece similar to this on my blog that will be up later today at niamh-ruane.blogspot.com I hope you'll check it out and let me know what you think. Thanks
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