One Size Does Not Fit All

I’m not the kind of girl to collect fashion magazines religiously. I’m not the kind of girl that really follows trends (mostly because my bank account wont let me). Hell, just last week I bought a romper in Kensington Market that makes me look like an amish polygamist of some sort. Point is, I don’t take fashion and fashion magazines all that seriously but one issue I take seriously is the representation of women in said magazines.

It seems a model's body mass index drops lower and lower each year. For a long time now, people have promised to hire models that are “healthy with the proper BMI”. I even remember Milan flirting with the idea to ban too skinny models from runways. Hah, like that actually happened! It seems no one can keep their word when it comes to promoting healthy body image in this kind of industry.

It turns out there is a microscopically small portion of designers out there that do give a damn about body image. But we’re far from celebrating with chocolates and champagne just yet.

One designer I've come to respect is Mark Fast. Flipping through a copy of Flare – the one fashion magazine I respect - I repeatedly noticed shout outs and photos of his runway shows that (gasp!) feature some “plus size models”.



I use silly quotations around this term because really, these women don’t really look plus size per se. They just look like the average woman. Stunning. Refreshing.

Then, recently during a segment on Fashion Television, I saw that the Prada Fall 2010 runway show also featured more bum and bosom than Karl Lagerfeld could ever handle!



I will be upfront and say yes Lagerfeld is an “artiste” and all that, but as a decent, compassionate human being I think he sucks. I’ve read quotes from him saying things like “no one wants to see a curvy woman”. No one? I am some one and let me tell you, when I look at runway shows or fashion spreads like every average woman, what sells the garment for me is knowing that it fits beautifully on a natural, curvy body and not a bag of bones. When I see things like this:



I just want to upchuck. I’m sure there’s other women out there that feel the same way as much as I'm sure there are naturally thin women out there that just can't help being that way. Damn it. I know designers use ultra thin models because they claim they don’t want the body to detract from the garment. The clothes have to stand out, not the tits or the ass. But I think they’ve got it all wrong. When I see some alien/pogo stick hydrid walking down the runway, I lose interest in the clothing. It automatically doesn't sell it for me. Such a shame.

I just hope that designers like Mark Fast and fashion labels like Joe Fresh (they opened the latest runway show with the stunning, notable plus size model Crystal Renn) continue to step out the norm and showcase a variety of different body types on the runway. It'll be really refreshing.

To restrain myself from neverending whining, I’ll just quickly add that Crystal Renn shares 1/3 the cover of Glamour’s June issue.



Again, I’m not one for fluffy fashion magazines but this copy is definitely worth buying. I’d like to think that if this cover sells the most copies, Renn and other women like her can be cover girls more often.