Here we go again. Victoria Beckham is being slated all over the press for using very slim models to show her latest collection on the runway at New York Fashion Week. The same press that’s been lauding Lane Bryant for featuring larger models (who are also derided as being ‘unhealthy’ by many) is calling Posh out for glorifying skinny and influencing young girls into wanting to look skeletal.
To me, the models aren’t skeletal. Yes, they are thin, but also tall and very young. That could be their natural body shape in exactly the way Tess Holliday is short and fat! I think once we get into the territory of fat and skinny shaming, we need to start taking a long hard look at ourselves and tell ourselves to just STOP IT.
Just as there’s no way you can tell from looking at a plus size woman whether she’s healthy, eats her greens and goes to the gym, you have NO idea what the inner health of a thin model is. They may exist on lettuce and Evian or they might have the metabolism of a working horse that makes weight gain impossible. I know people who even in their forties find it impossible to put on any weight, despite liking chips and boozy nights out just as much as the next girl who gains weight if she smells a fry up. It means NOTHING.
Let’s be honest, too, most of the time the skinny and fat shaming is about women, not men. And it’s about how they look to us, and not a concern for their health. Shoot me, but I quite like Victoria’s latest collection. I think the models are attractive and I think they suit the clothes. Also, a lot of the designs have quite a bit of structure to them, and this means the samples will be harder to make for plus sizes.
The runway shows are all samples, there aren’t usually any plus sizes unless the designers are plus size brands or usually make them. It’s a fact of life that it’s easier to design clothes to look good on thin, bump and curve free bodies because they hang better and the models’ bodies don’t get in the way of the gasps of admiration when the fashion elite see them.
Most high fashion designers won’t design for anything other than slim women because that’s just how it is. They certainly won’t use them on the catwalk unless they are trying to make a point. There is more diversity edging in and that’s a good thing, because we’re not all built to be catwalk models. But the endless ‘fat models are unhealthy’ and ‘skinny models are unhealthy’ is starting to get really tedious now.
What do you think? Were Vicky B’s models too thin? Or to be expected for a New York runway?