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Model Crystal Renn On Self-Acceptance, Size, & The Fashion Industry
Oldies But Goodies
New York, 8:23 AM
Sat Nov 14
65 posts in the last 24 hours
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Model Crystal Renn On Self-Acceptance, Size, & The Fashion Industry |
Oldies But Goodies |
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
09/18/09
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It's all about matching the model to the outfit.
09/17/09
... Please?
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09/17/09
If I had any doubts about how good this book would be before, they're gone now. Anything written by someone from Sassy is automatically amazing.
09/17/09
09/17/09
sizes have a lot more to do with body structure than just dieting, and i wish every asshole that thinks it's just a matter of not eating dessert anymore considers this.
09/17/09
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Sizes exist for a reason, and that reason is not to be a measurement of how much you "fail".
09/18/09
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09/17/09
I think wanting to be treated with dignity and respect should be -expected- at any job. This is no different. The status quo should always, always, always be forced to re-evaluate itself, no matter what the field.
So, Crystal is doing things to adjust modeling from within it. I think that's positive, honestly. How else will it change? Why shouldn't it be expected to? What makes this job, or any job for that matter, not subject to scrutiny or change or common courtesy?
09/17/09
But that one woman? I had just flown, at my own expense, across the Atlantic for the privilege of tithing her 50% of whatever I might earn during my stay in her country, and the first thing she had me do was set my suitcase down and stand before her, naked except for a nude mesh thong, jet-lagged and upset. Expecting her to show a modicum of human kindness -- or at least to refrain from using the measuring tape in her hands as a weapon to inflict as much damage to my self-esteem as possible -- was only the most minor, most reasonable, kind of courtesy.
I'm not even sure it rises to the level of "courtesy." It might just be plain professionalism, what I naively expected, from her.
09/17/09
On another note it's disheartening, how weight is still used for/against someone in the hiring process (in any industry). I know someone, (who is a slim size 6-8) who applied and was fully qualified to become an airline stewardess a few years ago. The only problem? She couldn't "comfortably fit" into the "random" chair the offered her to sit in at the interview.
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If the model isn't appealing to the man, who more than likely isn't going to be wearing the clothing, then what is his incentive to be interested in the clothing on the model.
I'm not going to have an abstract interest in fashion, and I buy clothing for the women I see. As such I have an interest in seeing what would look good on the person I am seeing. If you can't give me that, then you are failing a large core of your audience.
You don't have to cater, but you do have to listen.
09/17/09
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09/17/09
I guess I was just Jezebeled. Glad I survived the experience.
09/17/09
09/17/09
@RonMwangaguhunga: No no no, you weren't jezebeled, you were dworkined!
Can you explain why the black view regarding beauty is more nuanced than the white view?
09/17/09
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Of course you did. Words are not fists.
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It IS one dimensional, but that's because it has to be cohesive, not because it's decided that that's what the "beauty standard" should be. I would like to see more diversity on the runway, but more in the sense of racial diversity.
What's shown on the runway (and the bodies that walk down it) shouldn't have anything to do with what men think is hot. It's about a designer showing their clothes. That's it. The models are the "canvas" for them. Ideally, they shouldn't be the standard.
09/17/09
09/17/09
The opinion that someone doesn't find a model hot isn't offensive. The opinion that designers should send what straight men find hot down the runway is.
No one should find empowerment in insulting other body types. Should women on the runway be larger? I don't think so. Should catalog models be more representative of average? Sure.
09/17/09
09/17/09
The way I look at it, designers treat models as a canvas, and the runway is an art show. They want to present their art on as blank a canvas as possible. Tall and slim women present a minimum of lines to compete with the lines, drape, and styling of the clothing. I get that, from an artistic standpoint. It's not really about the body it's about the body -lines-.
However, fashion is not a purely aesthetic art form. It's an applied, functional art. What's on the runway gets translated into the every day with fashion trends. And that has come to be true of the body types we see modeling them. And while I'm not sure everyone expects every woman to look like a model...there is an expectation that we should want to, and strive to, and since most of us can't grow, we can starve.
I do think it would be good for high fashion, as an industry, to become more diverse across the board. If you're a good designer, you should be able to make clothes that look great on anyone. Because, again, it's not an art form that's purely for admiration. It's applied.
That said, real women are women who identify that way. Full stop. Body shape and size are not what defines a "real" woman. I get why people get frustrated, and thin privilege is an obstacle, but "real" women are women at any size or shape. We won't make headway with body diversity by claiming any body type isn't womanly.
09/17/09
I think he's bringing up a really important point here- he's contrasting beauty standards in non-white communities with those in the fashion industry. Which is to say that both the fashion industry and whiteness as a structure are a part of the creation of beauty standards. Clearly race and the fashion industry interplay, clearly beauty standards are very tied up in whiteness. The beauty ideal IS white. Looking at runways and magazines confirms this.
You keep insisting that fashion is supposed to be a fantasy, and not connected to reality. Well, clearly that fantasy is, for so many people, a world that is much whiter than the one we actually live in. Which is one of the many reasons its far from a harmless one.
09/17/09
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Would these men say this shit to a woman in any other circumstance? Because they shouldn't be saying it at all, since they're, you know, talking to another human being. I don't really understand what his "fat ass" comment was meant to accomplish--Crystal Renn's ass was still acceptable by model standards, if she was hired for the shoot right?
Great interview, Jenna. The old man interrupting the interview was sort of sweet.
09/17/09
09/17/09
Crystal Renn is plus size? BS. She is normal size. Size zero is a normal size for a 10 year old girl, not for a woman with boobs, hips and ass.
Maybe closeted pedophiles are running the business?
09/17/09
Also, you might not want to talk about size 0 only being normal for 10 year olds, it makes you sound stupid. Ripping other sizes apart CAN'T be the only way you can feel OK with yourself, yeah?? Please don't project your insecurity onto other women.
And that "pedophile" bull shit is old. REALLY old.
09/17/09
@Gorillab: Crystal Renn is a size 14 I believe, which actually is plus-sized on the rack as well.. That being said, she is absolutely gorgeous. There should not be any such thing as "normal" sized, as we are all built with different figures and comfortable weights. =)
09/17/09
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Speak for yourself. My tits and closet would beg to differ and you don't have to be emaciated or heavy to wear a certain size. Very often it has to do with your body's frame.
09/17/09
09/17/09
I appreciate the part of this post where you that Renn doesn't look very "plus-sized."
The women that are sold as "plus-sized" models are to real plus-sized women what the waifs that walk down the runway are to "normal" sized women - an unattainable ideal.
Maybe I missed the actual number, but by sight I would guess then Renn is a size 12, 14 tops. Hardly what is considered, outside of modeling, to be plus sized. Its more like the average size of women. She must wear the smallest size that Lane Bryant makes, just like the "normal" sized models wear a 0.
Same old shit, new size.
09/17/09
I get that thin privilege is an issue, but the "pedophiles" and "only 10 year olds" thing is just...not helpful. And not true anyway. We're all built differently. We should be able to talk about the need for diversity and body acceptance without putting anyone else's down.
09/17/09
I BET THEY'RE FAKE AMMMURIKUNS!
09/18/09
Let me elaborate that for you. I am not against size 0.
I am against the promotion of the fashion industry of the stick thin figure because it is not realistic. A woman is supposed to be round because that is the work of the female hormone estrogen. Biology says so. It is hurtful towards yourself to fight you nature because some dick says you are fat? You can have a size 0 waist and size 8 breast. Does that make you a freak? No That makes you a woman. Maybe sizing is as bullshit as BMI index. The natural stick thin figures I see are prepubescent girls. Hence my remark about pedophiles. I was not aware it was old. I wonder why people keep having the same conclusion trough time?? The rest of you remarks says more about you that about me.
09/18/09
09/18/09
I have a message for you from Biology: You Lie!