"We need fashion to catch up to women of size" - Velvet d'Amour

steven meisel for vogue italia

Much has been written about this month’s Vogue Italia cover story of three plus sized models: Americans Tara Lynn and Candice Huffine and Australian Robyn Lawley. Frockwriter covered the story here. Above and below is the remainder of the accompanying fashion editorial. This edition has been hailed as a watershed moment in the body image debate by some, including Australian commentator Mia Freedman, the chair of Australia’s National Body Image Advisory Group, who noted: “Huzzah! An Australian size 14 is on the cover of Italian Vogue”. Others weren't quite so perky. “Topless plus size women equals empowerment?” asked womens’ advocate Melinda Tankard Reist. Some suggested the move was tokenistic. While others lamented the fact that the women had been photographed semi-nude in lingerie, which only served to reinforce, they noted, the sexualised cliché of larger women and porn. What says plus size icon Velvet d’Amour? 

Regular readers of my various blogs would know that Velvet is an American actor, model – and latterly, photographer - who lives in Paris. 

We first met after the Jean Paul Gaultier Spring/Summer 2007 show in Paris in October 2006, in which Velvet walked alongside Gemma Ward and other "straight"-sized models, generating headlines around the world. Gaultier's casting appeared to be a direct nod to fashion's latest skinny model debate, that had been sparked in August that year by the eating disorder-related death of Uruguayan model Luisel Ramos, which was swiftly followed by the deaths of two other South American models, including her sister Eliana. Velvet had previously walked for John Galliano. 

Here are the interviews I did with Velvet at smh.com.au and later at news.com.au. In the latter, which generated quite some heated (and at times abusive) commentary, Velvet talked about the flak she has copped from the plus size industry, which has always considered her far too big for its ranks. 

Here is her take on Vogue Italia's June issue, body diversity in high fashion imagery and the commonly-espoused theory that fashion's embrace of larger women encourages obesity:

maya guez via anna scholz

First off, congrats to your Aussie sister Robyn for scoring some great work of late. She and the models featured are definite beauties!

There is certainly a lot of talk about the Italian Vogue shoot. Mainstream folk seem to take offence to the fact that the models included are even deemed PLUS, when they are more ‘average’ size women, and others discuss a sense of exploitation, a lack of actual ‘fashion’, and then the inevitable health debate, while many are quite simply thrilled by it.

The way I see it is, that we need fashion to catch up to women of size, in order to make a stunning FASHION orientated editorial. If you were to take the average Vogue Italia editorial, and attempt to dress these same models in the clothes, best of luck to the stylist to find their size.

As to a sense of exploitation, or ‘soft porn’ feel, my sense is that our minds have been programmed via mainstream fashion to question FLESH. Fleshy, curvy women have been relegated to men’s magazines, whilst edgy editorial fashion in particular, has been inundating us with imagery glorifying adolescence (sometimes using models even as young as 13); the standard sample size forces the use of more skeletal models; and the opening of the Eastern bloc countries (where women are naturally quite delicately slender) caused an influx of lanky lovelies to grace the pages of our magazines and thus it’s really quite normal that the curves here are deemed as more risqué. We have been fed a steady diet of rail thin, white, tall, Youth for the most part. Thus instead of delving further into what Beauty means to us as individuals, the tendency is not to question authority. And VOGUE is certainly the pinnacle of authority when it comes to Fashion.

Yet were we to take what is the essence of the true meaning of FASHION in all likelihood it encompasses and revels in Change, in decadence, in obscurity versus ordinary, in risk-taking. While fashion beckons followers and innovation creates fashion, it’s those who deviate from accepted norms who create so much of our fashion from the get go. Fashion is innovative, tumultuous and it’s not meant to stagnate. Sameness is born of the dependence fashion magazines have on advertisers, who tend to be the very last people to take risk (due to the amount of money involved). It is this unlikely marriage of two opposing yet dependant components which has stagnated the blossoming of fashion, and in turn, its’ muses.

I have always been drawn to Steven Meisel’s photography and find these images equally stunning, though not particularly controversial in my opinion. I have stated on my own model portfolio (on the Model Mayhem website),
 

I'd say a good 99.999% of the artists interested in working with me wanna get me naked, not that I blame them, lol

It is quite the odd dichotomy that as a society, fat is viewed with derision, yet should one go out on a limb and include a genuinely voluptuous model, 9 times out of 10 they will do so by harkening back to the Renaissance. Rubens and the like, are seemingly our only reference point for a larger body.

Given I shoot as well, and certainly have photographed my fair share of nudes of all shapes and sizes, I understand the drive.

Were Herb Ritts to come back to life, I'd greet the boy starker’s.

I have posed nude for photographers like Daniele + Iango, Rancinan and in the film AVIDA, etc. thus I do not dismiss all tasteful nude propositions, but my main reason for modeling is in fact, as a political statement; that we need to diversify modern standards of beauty. If we continually marry the fat body with nude classics, then we are hardly creating a revolution. It's too easy in a sense, one gets a 'different' look and perhaps is praised for such, but if you really want to be revolutionary, then why not do a FASHION shoot with a bigger body versus pulling out the old Botticelli standard? 

As to the continuing Health debate, many a comment revolves around the message sent by using a woman of ‘size’, some stating the models are ‘obese’ and unhealthy, others fearful it will encourage people to be fat. The concept that fashion magazines are a reference guide of health to their viewers, seems only rarely pertinent on occasion, when we witness an exceptionally thin model, and inevitably whenever we possibly include a slightly curvy model. The reality that cultural pressures are one of the factors involved in eating disorders cannot be dismissed, though the notion that someone leafing through a magazine witnessing a plus size model has a sudden urge to down several thousand pizzas in the hopes of gaining a few pounds, is rather laughable at best. Were the inclusion of plus size models to spur viewers to gain weight, the inverse of that logic would mean (given the dearth of rail thin models in magazines), that the entire world would be emaciated, versus fat.

Time and again the issue of health is touted as a pertinent reason for the near total exclusion of fat women in modern media. Yet let’s have a look at who we utterly deify in popular culture, without questioning for a second their physical or mental health. Then ask yourself just how legitimate an argument it is to impose upon plus size models the responsibility of being the poster children for bonne santé, when we have no clue as to any model’s state of health when looking at her dancing through the pages of a magazine. Au contraire, we are well aware that a great number of popular actors, models, dancers, rock groups etc that inundate media have dabbled in drugs, drink,etc. And rather than scoff at them with derision and judgment, we fete them on a daily basis.

Avoiding fat people isn’t about health, it’s about Cool and un-cool.

My take on Cool is Diversity.

I don’t look to fashion magazines for advice on health, I look at them for fashion. We need to start looking beyond the simplistic and dig deeper. If you want to have a health debate, then let’s tackle mental health, which is the stimulus, more often than not, affecting s one’s physical health. If we start to include a major cross-section of our society within the revered pages of fashion magazines, fat women, emaciated women, women of colour, aging women, differently-abled women, small women, you name it - then we can turn the tide against the overwhelming sense so many women suffer from not being able to live up to this exceedingly stringent, highly unattainable beauty ethic we currently subscribe to.

- Velvet d'Amour 

 

all B/W images: steven meisel for vogue italia june 2011

Beth Ditto backstage at Jean Paul Gaultier - Spring/Summer 2011

jean paul gaultier SS11 backstage/steve wood

Jean Paul Gaultier is no stranger to runway diversity, having sent arguably the world's most high profile plus size model, American Crystal Renn, down his Spring/Summer 2006 runway in October 2005. The following year, plus-sized Paris-based American actor Velvet d'Amour made her Gaultier appearance (here is the interview I did with her at the time). Yesterday Gaultier upped the plus size ante by having no less than three plus size models on his Spring/Summer 2011 runway in Paris: Renn, Marquita Pring and Beth Ditto, the frontwoman of US indie rock outfit Gossip, who opened the show and later delivered an a cappella performance. A photographer mate, the inimitable Steve Wood, just zipped me these backstage shots of Ditto with Gaultier and some other members of his show cast, including Sasha Pivovarova and Eliza Cummins (but no sign of former Gaultier face Tallulah Morton, who is in Paris at the moment).  

Check WWD for images of the entire collection: a madcap mish-mash of  leather biker jackets, piped blazers and hotpants; Black Rats-like ruched leggings; harem pants in Gaultier's trademark sailor stripes; deconstructed trenches; one very Abba-worthy white jumpsuit and 3D graphic prints - the latter a cute take on the digital print uber trend. 

Reviews keep referring to Joan Jett as an influence for the spiky glam mullet wigs, but to frockwriter's eye they have early 70s Ziggy Stardust written all over them - with the collection's pagoda shoulders, jumpsuits and unitards echoing Bowie's Kansai Yamamoto costumes during the same period. 

With the New York Dolls popping up as muses for Marc Jacobs' own Seventies-nosed collection, we look forward to seeing the forthcoming fashion editorials that this season inspires.   

all images: supplied to frockwriter by steve wood

Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent and others reportedly to offer plus size clothing at Saks Fifth Avenue, while France launches a plus size manifesto

karl lagerfeld for V via models.com

It’s been interesting tracking the story of plus sized designer clothing over the past two years. In March 2008, at Fully Chic, we incurred the wrath of some plus-sized consumers after reporting that although Target Australia made up to a size 16 in its Stella McCartney collection in 2007, so much size 16 merch was left on the sales racks Target stopped at a 14 when it came to producing its next collab with Zac Posen. Several weeks later we reported that Australian designer Leona Edmiston was doubling her size range to a 24 – but only in her online boutique. The story triggered a heated debate amongst those who lauded Edmiston's pioneering efforts - and those who claimed the move was “normalising obesity". Last year, Today Tonight took size 16 Melbourne blogger Hayley Hughes undercover into Melbourne’s Chapel Street. She found virtually no merchandise over size 12. Eighteen designers and retailers refused to discuss with the program why fashion's high end actively discriminates against larger consumers by ignoring them, with insiders citing concerns the issue was "bad for their image". So it was with some surprise that we spotted what could be the best-kept secret in the fashion business: a report that Saks Fifth Avenue is about to trial plus sizes from luxury brands including Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, Dolce e Gabbana and Fendi on its New York designer womenswear floor.

New York retail blog Racked reports:

“Saks Fifth Avenue is about to become the only major retailer in the city to carry plus-sized womenswear by names like Chanel and Dolce & Gabbana. Coming very soon to the department store's super high-end third floor, fall and winter plus-sized pieces will be mixed right in with existing stock—most of which would formerly have only been available in sizes ranging to a 10. Stock will reach size 14 (Australian size 18) across the board, and in some cases—depending on the brand—will go up to a size 20 (Australian size 24)".

The story also mentions the brands Akris, Armani, Carolina Herrera, Escada, Donna Karan, St. John, Oscar de la Renta, Max Mara, Valentino, Michael Kors, Yves Saint Laurent, Alexander McQueen and Roberto Cavalli.

The plus-size pieces will be one-offs, reports Racked, adding that if the trial is successful it may be rolled out to other stores.

No sources are cited beyond the Saks website, which makes no reference to the initiative. Due to the time difference, it was difficult to track down anyone who could throw further light on the matter. Frockwriter is waiting to hear back from Saks Fifth Avenue, Chanel USA and the Yves Saint Laurent, Dolce e Gabbana and Fendi head offices.
 
Chanel Australia knew nothing about it. 

UPDATE 28/07: A full business day later and no response from any of the above. Nor does there appear to be any comment from either Saks or any of the brands reportedly involved in the plus size trial in the deluge of coverage that has since ensued on this story. This is not surprising, given my experience with October's Today Tonight story and even the Leona Edmiston story two years ago. After doubling her size range to 24 in her online boutique, Edmiston declined all interviews. Sources indicated this was out of fear of being branded "a plus size designer". Fashion companies may be warming to the idea of going after the fat dollar, but they still seem to think there's a stigma attached to it. 
 
Coincidentally, Chanel recently cast plus size model Crystal Renn in its Cruise 2011 show. 

In January, Chanel creative director Karl Lagerfeld also shot plus size burlesque artist Miss Dirty Martini for V Magazine’s Size issue (above), one of a raft of recent fashion titles that have been dedicated to larger sizes. They include ELLE Spéciale Rondes and Vogue Curvy.

Curiously, Lagerfeld's V Size issue shoot followed a matter of months after he derided efforts by German magazine Brigitte to use “ordinary, realistic” women rather than professional models as “absurd”, adding that the world of fashion is about "dreams and illusions.... noone wants to see round women" and describing those leading the chorus of disapproval against skinny models as:

"fat mummies sitting with their bags of crisps in front of the television."

The Saks Fifth Avenue story coincides with news of the launch of a "Manifesto for the Visibility of Plus Size Fashion" by online French magazine Ma Grande Taille.

Citing data published by the French Institute of Textiles and Clothing, which indicates that more than 40percent of the French population wear plus size clothes, the manifesto boasts over 1000 signatories including plus size model Johanna Dray and celebrity Velvet d’Amour. 

I first interviewed d'Amour in Paris in October 2006, after she walked in Jean Paul Gaultier's Spring/Summer 2007 show - and then again in 2008. At 130kgs, d'Amour has been considered too big for even the plus-size modelling industry. 

“My hope is that it [the manifesto] would indeed make a difference - if nothing else it details what we look to change- inclusion, particularly in fashion” she told frockwriter, adding that the biggest buzz in the plus-size industry at the moment is the controversy over Renn's alleged weight loss.

"Personally I think if we were allowed more then ONE HUMAN BEING to represent our entire chubby populace then we wouldn't be so entirely focused on her. Given her anorexic issues in the past, it cant be easy for her to have everyone and their second cousin demonizing her for fluctuation. She is not the one who books models for mags. I think the question is less about Crystal, and more about the fact that while we are globally millions strong, we have, more or less, just one individual who has made her way into the mainstream magazines. Her weight fluctuations are dramatic, and they are all her own. As I have always been on the far extreme end of ‘plus’ modeling, people would equally debate my status as a ‘plus’ model, stating I was a “bbw”, not a plus model.

“We need to push for media inclusion, so that all shapes and sizes etc ‘belong’. When the media excludes us to such an extreme, magazines like PLUS are what get started. Models make their own way, and people who haven’t the ‘right’ to be considered a ‘plus’ model, or a straight size model, etc pick up the camera and start their own revolution. If we can use the frustration our exodus encites in a positive manner, then there will be no stopping us, and there will be so many damn fat models getting thin and thin models getting fat, that we wont have time to debate it, because we will be on the way to our next shooting ;o)".

On June 27th, the Australian federal government's National Body Image Advisory Group unveiled its Voluntary Industry Code of Conduct on Body Image. The code's  industry recommendations include using a greater diversity of body shapes in the promotion of fashion and the need for retailers to embrace a wider range of sizes to better reflect consumer demand.