Fash Mob »

• Nudity, magazines and plus-size models

  May 21, 2012 @ 7:30 am | by Rosemary Mac Cabe

  

  Candice Huffine, a plus-size model with Ford, is on the cover of the latest issue of S Moda, in, well, nothing. It’s not a particularly great departure for the plus-size genre; in the past few years we’ve seen several plus-sized models be “embraced” by the mainstream fashion press, but their access to the annals of fashion magazines has been largely restricted to burlesque, boudoir-esque shoots with the women wearing very little or, more often than not, nothing at all. What’s it all about?

  

  There’s no doubt that Huffine looks adorable, but the fact that the emphasis in most of these shots is on her, rather than the clothing – which, when it exists, resembles several items one could pick up in one’s local American Apparel, rather than the high-end fashions usually sported by the more diminutive clothes horses. It seems that high fashion can only accept the larger lady if her body is in the spotlight. While “regular” models are there to show off the clothes, with minimal attention given to their own bodies – a great example of this is the fact that Vogue regularly exposes nipples in its editorials, but never at the expense of the couture’s limelight – plus-sized models’ bodies need to be discussed, lest they become the proverbial elephant on the page.

  

  The other issue here is that – and this may be a subject of personal opinion – the clothes don’t actually look good. S Moda, as a plus-sized woman, I will tell you that it’s not all that difficult to find flattering clothing. Oversized knits are not our friends – and black peep-toe pumps? How much more pedestrian can we get? It’s as if the team at S Moda was forced into featuring Huffine – I’d imagine their discussion went a little like this. “So, we have to do the plus-sized model?” “Yeah.” “What’ll we dress her in?” “Who cares? Let’s do a nude shot, a few underwear shots and for the rest of it … nyeh. She won’t be able to sell the clothes anyway.”

  

  I’m not a campaigner for plus-sized models – nor am I a purist when it comes to editorials. I would love to see women of all shapes and sizes represented on the pages of the high-end glossies I spend my hard-earned salary on, and I would imagine that advertisers would like that too, especially if a recent study, that showed that people are not more likely to buy clothes modelled by ultra skinny models, is anything to go by.

  

  More than anything else, I would like models to appear healthy and happy – there is something almost impersonal about a model seen on the shiny pages of magazine print that reminds me of thoroughbred horses. I want them hale and hearty, shiny and nourished, but I don’t want them divided into two very distinct tracts: the ultra-thin super and the novelty plus-size, who can only be viewed in terms of her sexuality and “womanliness”.

  

  What do you think? Please, share your thoughts below – but let’s not allow this to descend into a discussion about how skinny = bad and real women = plus size. We’re all real women and whatever our body shapes are, they’re ours; women’s bodies are no one’s properties but their own. I just wish that the fashion world would take that on board.

  

  P.S. If you fancy seeing what I have to say about dressing bodies of all shapes, check out this week’s Xposé on TV3 at 6pm or on 3E at 6.30pm.

• Gisele Bundchen shows us what’s what on French Vogue

  May 16, 2012 @ 10:30 am | by Rosemary Mac Cabe

  

  What better way to launch your health initiative than with a photograph of Gisele Bundchen’s butt cheeks? If that’s not body inspiration, I don’t know what is . . .

• Affairs of the stomach

  May 8, 2012 @ 3:30 pm | by Rosemary Mac Cabe

  

  (I know, more Anna Selezneva – I think this is the internet’s “she’s not anorexic” proof photograph.)

  Last week, I made the decision to cut wheat and dairy out of my diet, for a combination of reasons. Firstly, I want to look just like Miley Cyrus. Miley cut gluten out of her diet and lost loads of weight, although I’m quite suspicious about all of these “Miley at the gym” photographs that have been cropping up. If I’m going to cut out an entire food group, I don’t want to have to exercise, too.

  Secondly, I suffer from IBS (which my mother thinks, because it’s not in her Home of Today book, is a made-up ailment), with the result that I spend a lot more time than I think I oughta clutching my stomach or generally feeling unwell, even if I’m not being quite so dramatic as to clutch publicly. Various doctors, allergists, acupuncturists (I know) and so on have recommended that I give up wheat and dairy, but I was always a bit lazy and / or unwilling. What is life without bread and cheese? My Parisian self doesn’t want this Orwellian future, devoid of bread and joy. Still, the time came to give it a try, and in the name of health and experimentation and tenuous links between fashion and aesthetics (ahem), I thought I would share what I have learned, namely:

  1. Almond milk is quite nice, if, by quite nice, I mean, you can’t really taste it if you try not to think about what it is you’re eating and don’t put too much of it on your cereal.

  2. It is difficult to find cereal without wheat in it. I have resorted to granola from Superquinn (which, I believe, does the best range of obscure, slightly pretentious healthfoods), porridge made with water and eggs, having not quite made up my mind as to whether or not they are a dairy product.

  3. Breakfast is the most important, and tricky, meal of the day. Get that right and I honestly believe you (or I, in this case) are laughing.

  4. When you’re cutting out such obvious and easy-to-get food groups, you’re going to need snacks. I am currently on a smoked almonds kick, because I know that if I got caught short, I’d go for a croissant. I’m also eating a lot more fruit, which can only be a good thing. Fruit is so portable – so handy! Who knew?

  5. Eating out is difficult, and you feel like a totally w*nker. (That asterisk is for you, mother.) I never wanted to be the one going, “sorry, but is there dairy in that?” I always wanted to be the one to go, “sorry, I’m actually coeliac” which is, I feel, a far better excuse for being a picky eater than “I read this article about how Miley Cyrus cut out gluten and I thought I’d do it too only with wheat and dairy – now can I just have the salmon darn?” Embarrassing.

  6. I’ve ended up eating a lot of rice. And a lot of dark chocolate. These are potentially not good results of my new “health” kick, but, y’know, at least I’m not eating crispy white rolls.

  7. Going to Superquinn for healthfoods is hard, because then you will have to pass through the crispy white roll aisle.

  8. Desserts are a no-go. Even if you find a flourless cake, it will have butter in it. I suspect sorbet would be my friend, if anyone ever served it any more. Damn the passing of time, why can’t it be the 1980s again, so we could just eat sorbet and melon with Parma ham?

  So that’s it. Eight lessons so far. I’ll keep you updated – and let me know if you have any diet quirks (and how long it will take me to look like Miley). I’m working on a collaboration with Louis Vuitton today (exciting!) so I won’t be online but I’ll be back tomorrow to address any and all of your queries. Adios, kittens!

• Vogue makes commitment to health in beauty

  @ 10:30 am | by Rosemary Mac Cabe

  I suppose you’ve heard about the announcement – that Vogue (all 19 editions of it) has pledged not to use underage, that is, girls under 16, models, nor to use models they believe to have an eating disorder, in an attempt to address the links between fashion and eating disorders.

  

  The Guardian has the full news story here. Though I acknowledge that this is, by and large, a positive step, once again I can’t help but question this “ownership” of women’s bodies . . . but that is a broader question and perhaps not one that can be answered in the context of fashion magazines. I would like to know how they judge which models “appear” to have an eating disorder. Abbey Lee Kershaw, for example? Or what about Sasha Pivovarova? Or even their beloved Karlie Kloss?

• Is this high fashion?

  April 17, 2012 @ 7:30 am | by Rosemary Mac Cabe

  

  This pic of Hanne Gaby Odiele has done the rounds in a serious way since fashion week – apparently we’re meant to admire Hanne’s “killer” personal style and her “enviable” pins, and ignore the fact that she looks like a child dressed up in her mother’s sportswear.

  

  

  I could write platitudes about how fashion needs to take some steps to show women who are women – and, in saying that, I’m not attempting to bash women who are naturally skinny – and stop promoting a body image that is, for 99 per cent of us, unattainable, not to mention harmful in and of itself. But I shall resist the urge and open it up to the floor: do these pictures say “fashion” to you? What do they say?

• The day I made an enemy of American Apparel (welcome to the past)

  March 30, 2012 @ 3:31 pm | by Rosemary Mac Cabe

  

  This is the story of a moment in my not-so-distant past, a moment in which I was blonde and, evidently, a mite more body-confident than I am now. American Apparel had just opened in Dublin, and my idea was  to write a piece – with explanatory photographs, for my sins – to illustrate how to wear their particular brand of bodycon (remember, this was 2009, before bodycon became the teenage uniform of choice) without having their particular brand of body.

  

  In hindsight, this was not the best idea I’ve ever had – and the folks over at American Apparel didn’t seem to think so, either. An insider later told me that the staff in the Westmoreland Street store were slightly irked at my use of their product – most brands will be quite particular about how their items are portrayed, and to have their blend of Brooklyn hipster chic appropriated by a distinctly un-hip, non-Brooklyn burd, well, that wasn’t to their taste.

  Still, even now I’m pleased with how the pages turned out – check ‘em out below, and keep on scrolling for more of the pics, all by Irish Times photographer extraordinaire, Alan Betson.

  

  

  

  (more…)

• Happy Friday, b*tches

  July 22, 2011 @ 12:30 pm | by Rosemary Mac Cabe

  I mean the word b*tches with love, but house style would have us replace vowels that may render a curse word “offensive” with an asterisk. Go figure! In any case, I can’t asterisk out a photograph, so here’s a thought for your Friday – have a f*cking good one.

  

  Via One Girl, No Diet. (If you don’t read, do.)

• The return of the Marilyn Monroe figure, says Debenhams

  February 24, 2011 @ 5:54 pm | by Rosemary Mac Cabe

  I love getting press releases from Debenhams. It’s not like getting press releases from, say, New Look, which are quite regular and contain “in this week” items, which I love because it gives me an easy-to-digest snippet, or press releases from Topshop, which say “we’re doing a collaboration with some random obscure designer for London Fashion Week“, which I also love because, well, it makes me feel that little bit closer to London Fashion Week, innit.

  Debenhams, on the other hand, produces press releases with studies in them. Bless their press department, but they must feel like they’re writing a thesis every couple of days. Sometimes they’ll say things such as, “women like thoughtful gifts above all else” (Valentine’s Day) or “women in their forties are more likely to wear Clarins than any other brand*” (Mother’s Day) or “99.99% of women wear the wrong bra size” (not date-specific).

  

  This week’s ditty is entitled “The return of the Marilyn Monroe figure – definition of female beauty is changing!” I particularly like the exclamation mark, as I feel it lends a jaunty feel to proceedings and actually, loathe as I am to admit it, makes me more likely to read it than were it simply full-stopped. Something fun is going to happen in this email! That’s what I read in that.

  Then: “Ireland’s perception of what an ideal women should look like is changing yet again, says high street store Debenhams.” I love – and no I am not really being sarcastic because I do in fact think this is hilarious – the fact that Debenhams sets itself up as an authority. If Debenhams says it, then by golly it must be true!

  Anyway, this is all well and good but my main issue with this is: why, oh why, do women have to be given an ideal body type? When was it decreed that there is an official line – that women must subscribe to an ideal of beauty, of aesthetics, that our bodies are not our own? Honestly I could go on about it forever, but I strongly object to being given an ideal body, modelled on a celebrity, or a model, or an actor . . . I’m agin it. Bodies come in all shapes and sizes, and handing us an ideal that is “curvier” doesn’t automatically make it more accessible – getting someone else’s body shape is going to be difficult for the 99% of the population that isn’t naturally blessed with it, regardless of what that shape is.

  If you’re agin it too, and you haven’t already, might I suggest you read: The Beauty Myth, by Naomi Wolf; Bodies, by Susie Orbach; Fat is a Feminist Issue, also by Susie Orbach; The Equality Illusion, by Kat Banyard; and The Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer. But don’t get mad at Debenhams; he ain’t heavy, he’s my brother.

  * This one is entirely made up by me.

• Look away if you never want to think about my bikini line

  October 13, 2010 @ 3:03 pm | by Rosemary Mac Cabe

  Around 18 months ago, I made the decision, along with a friend, to go to Thérapie on Dublin’s Molesworth Street to have laser hair removal – the permanent process by which hair is, eh, removed. Thérapie was then doing 80% off laser hair removal courses (an offer it is still doing, and one has to wonder if this is now the standard price for laser hair removal) and it seemed like a sound investment. For the brazilian, which is what I had done (resulting in a landing strip of hair left), Thérapie is currently charging €587, paid in instalments, or €490 if you pay on the day of your initial consultation – for a course of six treatments.

  

  (Kim Kardashian may or may not have a brazilian, but look at her on the cover if W magazine!) (more…)

• “Like a bodybuilder – or any elite athlete”

  March 1, 2010 @ 9:19 am | by Rosemary Mac Cabe

  I linked to Abbey Lee Kershaw’s interview for Today Tonight a few weeks back, but it definitely warrants more discussion, so now that the gods of YouTube have finally put up the video, you can watch it yourselves in its four-minute glory:

  

  “That’s like asking a bodybuilder how they feel about the pressure to be incredibly muscley,” says Kershaw, audibly uncomfortable when asked what she feels about the pressure on models to be not just thin, but very thin. “An elite performer is always put under some sort of extreme pressure that the rest of society might not understand.”

  The weight-in-fashion debate is not necessarily a female one, as there is the same pressure on male models to stay skinny as there is on female; and I’m not talking about Irish modelling, which is an entirely different animal. But there is no doubt in my mind that, as 90% of fashion is consumed and absorbed by women, we are the ones who are most at risk of being affected by fashion’s body image, if it is going to have effects.

  Does fashion promote anorexia? (When searching for Kershaw’s interview, I came across several pro-ana videos, with discussions about wanting to find an “ana buddy”, yearning for the perfect size 00 (one size below 0; an Irish 2, which doesn’t exist). . . Is this a coincidence? Do clothes look better on very thin women than they do on plus sized? (And no, we’re not just talking about Mark Fast.)

  I’d love to get a discussion started about this, and suggestions are more than welcome – we could discuss advertising, product placement in magazines, so-called “health and fitness” articles, catwalk shows . . . the possibilities are endless. Leave your thoughts, recommendations and so on, in the comments.

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