In the 80s and early 90s, the Supermodel made her debut. Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, and Linda Evangelista ruled the catwalk with their tall, slim, and muscular figures. Then came Kate Moss, who changed the face of modeling. Not only was she considered short by fashion standards (5’7″) but she was wafer thin, a significant physical change from the amazonian supermodels from a few years earlier. She ushered in a new look of “heroin chic” where hollowed faces and protruding bones were de rigueur and reflected the mid 90′s obsession with drug culture. Next, Gisele Bundchen and her fellow Victoria’s Secret Angels brought back the sexy supermodel look, albeit a much thinner version. And finally, we land on the current fashion climate. High fashion is still hungry for the razor thin and very tall frame. But there’s a problem: very few women are 5’10″ and can fit into a sample size (generally a very small size 0 or 2). So what’s a modeling agent to do?
According to Slate:
…the clinic had to change when and where patients could take their daily walks around the grounds because girls kept getting approached. One 14-year-old was handed a business card; an agent interviewed another girl who was so emaciated that she had been confined to a wheelchair.It’s a sobering reminder of the human condition: the powerful preying upon the powerless. But it shouldn’t really surprise us – this nearly unattainable body type is represented on fashion runways and in suburban malls. Walk into any retail store and look at the mannequins. Most likely, they’re very tall and extremely thin, wearing size 2 pants with the extra fabric secured by a clip. I’ll admit that when I see a “larger” mannequin, I’m taken aback. Is the store trying to make a point? Did I just walk into a plus-size specialty retailer?
Could this trend reflect our self-loathing and desire to be our physical selves’ polar opposite? If fashion is fantasy, maybe we’re dreaming of a world where our clothes hang rather than cling, where we scour the racks for the smallest size available, and where our friends beg us to eat our food.
Scouting models at eating disorder clinics is despicable, and unfortunately par for the course for the majority of the modeling industry. They continue to show godless indifference to the women (and often girls) who enrich designers and who hawk their wares season after season, sometimes for little to no pay. Maybe this latest scandal is a sign that the modeling industry’s tactics have hit rock bottom. They’ve got nowhere to go but up.
Anyone who has ever watched a season, oh I'm sorry, "cycle" of America's Next Top Model knows that host and mastermind Tyra Banks loves to talk about her curves and her "badonkadonk." Now she is helping to lead the charge against the modeling industry using models that look too-thin and who are underage. But, don't worry, she's doing it in classic ridiculous Banks style.
Earlier this month, the 19 editors of all the international editions of fashion bible Vogue said that they would no longer allow models under 16 or who looked like they had an eating disorder on their pages. It is a big change, and one that Banks has embraced. After all, Banks was doing it before it was cool, even ejecting a contestant on ANTM who looked too thin way back in 2010.
Now, Banks is taking up Vogue's message and has penned an open letter to the industry crying for change. She also went on Good Morning America to help launch her crusade. All of us who know and love Banks see she's doing it the only way she knows how, with stories about herself, her own career, and how she is a source of inspiration for all the models everywhere in the whole, beautiful world. At least she didn't plug her ridiculous book.
Here's a paragraph from her letter, "In my early 20s I
was a size four. But then I started to get curvy. My agency gave my mom
a list of designers that didn’t want to book me in their fashion shows
anymore. In order to continue working, I would’ve had to fight Mother
Nature and get used to depriving myself of nutrition. As my mom wiped
the tears from my face, she said, 'Tyra, you know what we’re going to do
about this? We’re going to go eat pizza.' We sat in a tiny pizzeria in
Milan and strategized about how to turn my curves into a curveball."Banks is trying to inspire young models with one of her silly new words. No, it's not "bootie tooch," it's "flawsome," which is that girls look "awesome" when they embrace their "flaws." (Oh, Tyra. Never change.) It's a good one, but it's no "smize."
The most revolutionary thing about Banks' letter, however, may be her call to form a modeling union. She didn't full-on endorse the Model Alliance, a newly formed trade union for fashion models that is trying to gain traction and fight abuse, but maybe she should have. Maybe what they really need is Banks, with her zany stories and funny slang to help bring the cause to middle America and the young girls who watch the CW. Either way, we can't wait to see how Banks is going to start the revolution on the next cycle of ANTM. I see a Che Guevara fashion shoot in our future.
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