If it’s bright enough, tight enough or eye-poppingly printed enough, odds are it’ll work on any figure. Crystal Renn, model and author of Hungry, and Jacquelyn Jablonski, spring’s new star, show off the season’s most sizzling looks
Photography by Terry Richardson; Styling by Mel Ottenberg
In case you are interested, the models’ measurements are as follows:
Crystal Renn: 5’9″…36-31-41
On first glance, I thought they did this shoot with only Crystal – then photoshopped her skinny to create the left photo – I honestly didn’t think they were 2 different people at first!
It’s interesting to note that they are both the same height – but to me, Crystal looks shorter. I guess the skinnier you are, the taller you look. But it’s just an optical illusions! (Is it just me? Maybe it’s just me.) Plus, Crystal’s bust size is only 4″ larger than Jacquleyn’s….but her waist AND hips are 7″ larger. Strangely, she doesn’t look it – in fact, she just looks proportionately larger overall, not just larger in the waist/hip area.
I think they both look pretty smokin’ and high-fashion…and for me, it also took a moment to realize that the two girls are two different sizes since everything else is so similar in the shoot.
One of the reasons why Crystal Renn is so successful as a “plus-size” model is that she is proportionately plus-size…i.e., her weight is distributed throughout her body evenly and isn’t bunched up in one place (unlike the majority of us when we gain weight…most gain it in a couple places, not evenly throughout) and this, I think, visually makes her appealing. (I think that the human attraction to symmetry and proportion trumps the human attraction to skinniness every time.) She looks toned and fabulous & I’m not saying she is fat or anything – she just looks a little larger overall than the model on the left.
I can’t wait for her book, Hungry: A Young Model’s Story of Appetite, Ambition and the Ultimate Embrace of Curves
So what do we all think? (I think it licks the Glamour Magazine November 2009 Issue plus-sized model spread into a cocked hat, personally.) High-fashion vs. nakedness?? More please!
-Carly J. Cais
hey carly!
i got your giveaway package today; thank you so much.
and happy belated birthday 🙂
gorgeous darling
love your blog, love the inspiration
keep it up, i love coming by and seeing what beauty you have to show
thanks for sharing as always
and thanks for the sweet comments
-cma
COSMICaroline.blogspot.com
Nice!! I like both…
I've always been a fan of fuller-figured models. There's a great site with many images of Crystal and other plus-size models here:
http://www.judgmentofparis.com/
They're all gorgeous.
The site's forum also has thought-provoking discussions about body image and the media.
I've seen this spread in a few places. Visually, I love it. It's beautiful. The styling is so well done that initially I also thought these were images of the same woman, one being photoshopped. There's a wonderful mirror-mirror playfulness going on. The poses have an energy that reflects the clothing. And utilizing both models not only adds interest, but shows the strength of the designs.
However, culturally something about it just doesn't sit right with me. Having these 2 models next to each other just begs for comparison by the viewer — one is “right” and the other is “wrong.” I've seen evidence of this in comments elsewhere. All that serves to do is continue to polarize the view of what beauty is, perpetuating the wack belief that there is only one singular answer. I feel as though the concept flies, but the execution is just a step off — enough to leave me feeling uneasy about the V spread rather than excited.
Then there's the weirdness of Crystal Renn being classified as “plus sized” in this industry. I'm 5'8″ and when I'm at my heaviest my measurements are almost identical to Renn's. That puts me at a whopping size 8. What is classified as a women's small-to-medium. Hardly venturing anywhere near the actual plus size range.
So a size 8 or 10 model advertising “plus size” clothing isn't really any more realistic or empowering than a size 0 or 2 model advertising “regular” size clothing. Which is no slight against Renn or any other plus-size model, just noting that when you put it in perspective it's really no big win (no pun intended).
E an O: That is a very interesting, in-depth, and thought-provoking reaction. It's true that this spread invites comparison – as many of us when first seeing it thought it was the same person – just photoshopped in order to instigate discussion of the differences. Indeed, I too find the classifications in the modeling industry to be bizarre. Despite the “vanity-sizing” system we have on the racks, Crystal Renn is still not “plus-sized” by any means. (She's the same perhaps unattainable proportions for many plus-sized women as the skinny-minnie models are for those of “average” weight and build.) But it's also interesting that in photographs people truly look bigger than they really are – one reason why models are getting skinnier and skinnier: in order to look even slightly slim in photos. Another reason may be an extreme backlash to the “average size” of Americans nowadays – the larger we get in general, the more we idolize women who appear “controlled” and “thin.” I personally think that if extremes like morbid obesity did not exist – or if the average size of the American woman was, say, a size 8 as opposed to a size 12 – then the other ends of the scale (sickly-thin models, anorexia and eating disorders prevalent in the modeling industry as a method for the models to stay severely underweight, an obsession with who thinnest celebrity of the week is etc.) would also be far less pervasive than they are. I believe that once we start shrugging our shoulders and saying it's okay for people to be 300 pounds with BMIs around 40 and 35% bf – we are also encouraging an obsession with the other extreme, and neither is healthy for us in the long run – both personally and as a society. The question is: would it indeed be a “big win” for V Magazine to do a photoshoot featuring a person who is say, 200-300 lbs? (Not a bodybuilder/athlete – I mean someone who is that weight not because of muscle weight.) Is that something we all want to see in a high-fashion magazine and laud as a grand step forward?
Crystal Renn looks beautiful, proportionate, healthy, and sexy with her body size as it is now! What I want to know is if people [women] in general actually do want to see heavier/heftier women modeling high fashions (like, say, Beth Ditto or Gabby Sidibe) or if they'd prefer to see unattainable slenderness portrayed in magazines.
Thank you for your comment!
xoxo
Carly
No problem Harriet! Hope you like the top!:-)
And thanks for the b-day wishes!
CMA: Thank you for stopping by, Caroline! Always glad to see you here – your blog is such a gorgeous inspiration!
Fashion Nicotine: So do I!:-)
google_account: A very interesting and thought-provoking website! Do you find it interesting that those women most successful in the “plus-sized” modeling industry all tend to have faces that are “chiseled” and could appear on someone with a much-slimmer body? (I.e, despite the size of the women's bodies, none have double chins, hanging jowls etc. – whereas the average woman on the street who may have the same body proportions also carries more weight in the face than these “models”) Why do you think this is?
Thank you for your comments!
xoxo
Carly
Carly,
Thanks for taking the time to read and reply to my comment. Sheesh, I didn't realize how long that was until it posted. 😉 This will no doubt be long as well, since it's impossible to address such a complex subject in just a few lines. 🙂
I don't think the idolization of thin women is anything new, nor the association of thin as a sign of wealth or control. The problem I see is the degree to which this has developed. And it's no longer just about thin, it's about wholly impossible figures that can't be achieved without dangerous dieting and/or surgery. So we've gone from admiring those who are genetically gifted to be naturally thin and beautiful, to forcing even those individuals to an ever more unrealistic extremes.
I don't think thin-worship has anything to do with the obesity statistics, in existed long before that. In fact, I think the supposedly increasing size of the American waistline is one of the contributing factors in the backlash *against* unhealthily thin and ridiculously young models. Women are saying they resent being told that a size 0 is beautiful when the majority of women with disposable income are adults in the size 10-16 range. The population aging is also a contributing factor here (typically people get larger as they get older), but I'm trying to keep this short. 🙂
To suggest that we should have unhealthy 300lb women as (role) models is jumping way, way, way overboard IMO. Pushing things to the far extremes in that manner tends to prevent the opportunity for actual discussion. 🙂 My point was more that the fashion industry (as well as the entertainment industry) have been inching toward an unrealistic ideal that is dangerous on many levels: physically, socially, emotionally. I'd like to see a more realistic representation of women as models (say a size 4 instead of a size 0; a size 12 instead of a size 8 for plus size), that doesn't mean *every* body type should be a model.
Fashion is aspirational, always has been. Whether it's editorial or advertising, the audience is meant to project themselves into the setting or the clothing, with the idea that if they bought that item they too would be beautiful, sexy, young, rich, stylish, happy. Aspiration is a key root of advertising. As such, fashion often sells using the best of the best, so to speak — individuals who represent an ideal of beauty. So of course a minidress looks more alluring when worn by a model with 4ft long legs, than it does on a model who is 5ft tall.
These are ads after all, not documentaries. However, that doesn't mean that some semblance of reality shouldn't enter the equation. For example, when a celebrity or model has been photoshopped to the point that it displays an image that is literally impossible for the human body to achieve, things have gone to far IMO. When models who are already thing are being driven to smaller and smaller sizes, things are no longer in the realm of reality.
It seems more and more people desire a return to some element of reality, which is why “regular people” are being used more and more in campaigns (such as American Apparel and many of the youth-oriented or t-shirt clothing lines). I also notice more and more people voicing a desire for *variety* in models — more ethnic diversity, a wider range of shapes. This is just an extension of a desire for some reality IMO, with consumers no longer being able to even step into the aspirational realm because there's no element of reality left they can even connect with.
E an O: Thank you for your long and thoughtful reply.
I agree with many of the points you made; indeed for the past 20 years thinness (=self-control, =wealth) has been espoused by the modeling/fashion industry. I also agree that it has become especially extreme and reflecting very little of reality as of late – and there is a strong backlash against this by the ever-more-vocal (thanks to the internet!) female population who are refusing to be bullied any more.
Do you think that the rampant obsession/promulgation of super-thin women in magazines/ads/the silver screen in the past 10 yrs or so is entirely unrelated to our ever-expanding [and aging] waistlines, though?
(On another note, to bring another facet into plat…I found the discussion on projectrungay's blog about this spread particularly interesting; re: the de-sexualization of the person wearing the clothes when there's very little butt/hips/boobs to look at – and how “hoochified” an outfit becomes with a model who is curvier.)
I dislike that these magazines throw a woman in their pages who is not 5'11″, 16 years old, and 105 lbs., and then spend weeks congratulating themselves on how forward-thinking they are…then they're back to same old, same old with the next issue. Vogue's “Size Issue”, Glamour's November Issue – I mean, who are they kidding?
But you are very right – fashion is also aspirational – and although I too would like to see fashion models above a size 0 – I still want my fashion to maintain that sort of aspirational status where the models are slim, proportioned, toned etc. “Real girls” in fashion like on lookbook.nu or American Apparel ads are also visually arresting – but in a different way. I definitely think there is room in fashion for both – as well as a variety of sizes/races what have you. A slightly/marginally attainable body as opposed to completely unattainable save for drugs/severe illness/starvation.
But having written that, I also don't think we need to swing the other direction either. It seems though, as of late, there is not only a backlash but a trend moving in the opposite direction – for instance, Marie Claire with their “Big Girl in a Skinny World” article series written by an aspiring stylist who is 5'2″ and 220 lbs. (BMI=40.2, meeting the clinical definition of morbidly obese). This makes me very uncomfortable for different reasons.
I agree there is very little reality in fashion magazines/on the runway anymore. That's what the blogosphere/internet has become, I feel – a place where style photos/candids of good-looking people, [mostly] unretouched by photoshop, can be accessed. There is a very distinct dichotomy now between the two.
The question is how to balance “aspirational” with “realistic;” where the line should be drawn – how to define too much or too thin or whatever. The industry chose BMI in Spain to ban certain models from the catwalk for instance.
Me, I think it's not a number – more what it looks like – if it looks photoshopped to hell (like that W Mag Demi Moore cover) – it is; if it looks too thin – it is. Completely subjective; and I don't think beauty or reality can or should be defined by numbers – it's more an emotional reaction – and the current decision-makers have a predilection for very thin, very young, very photoshopped, and very Caucasian, which definitely isn't reflective of the diversity of people. Consumers are demanding change – and reality to a varying degree – it's just a question of whether this will happen in baby steps and not wild swings in the opposite direction, and what the final outcome will be.
Thank you for your follow-up comment!
xoxo
Carly
Now if only the fashion industry would realize that the average height of a woman in the US is 5'4″. I would rather see regular women not stick thin models who only have 10% body fat. I am definitely not hating, but I am 5'2″ and weigh 165, and would like to see someone my size modeling on the runway or in a magazine for once.
BTW… I am totally new to the blog scene and I read my first blog a couple weeks ago, and I love it!!
Carly,
Thanks so much for the opportunity to discuss this intriguing spread and the issues it raises. You've brought up some good points to ponder. 🙂
Sorry E and O – I went on bit of a rant there!:-) I too have been pondering this spread since, the general size of models (and their shrinking!), issues of weight and self-esteem and the fashion industry in general. It's interesting that in pondering these things and examining my gut reactions I also uncover my own biases and shortcomings of opinion. Thank YOU for adding to the discussion!:-)
xoxox
Carly
Am i the only one who noticed the plus size model strikes the same pose with much better pose and looks generally better
I came accross your blog! Awsome! I cant believe I missed this blog for so long.