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Kate Upton scored a solo editorial in Vogue. That's a coup for any model, but perhaps especially so for a model whose curvy physique and propensity for posing in swimwear has led some in the world of high fashion to give her some side-eye. (And some in the world of, well, not-so-high fashion, too: c.f. that time Victoria's Secret's casting director said publicly of Upton, "She's like a footballer's wife, with the too-blond hair and that kind of face that anyone with enough money can go out and buy.")

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I'm conflicted, personally, about Vogue's embrace of Upton. For one thing, it's a transparent move to avoid criticism for promoting a body type that cannot be healthily achieved by most people by hiring someone who is just ever-so-slightly beyond those parameters. Woop-di-fucking-do.


SAnd to that end, Kate Upton is a conventionally attractive blonde, blue-eyed white woman with ginormous boobs. Her kind of beauty pretty much wins at everything in Western culture already. Does she really need to win at high fashion, too? High fashion is like the one thing that weird-looking girls with big noses and funny knees get to win at. Can't she just take her bikini calendars and her hang-outs with Uncle Terry and her endorsements and her millions of dollars and let us have our tiny, edgy, bubble?
SOn the other hand: it's not like American Vogue has ever gone much for the "interesting" looking models, anyway. That's just not their aesthetic. In conclusion: shrug?

The New Girl [Visual Optimism]