This 'wonderful' industry we are being led in to.

I am a great fan of the fashion designer Giles Deacon, and how he spoke out about women being asked to aspire to a completely unrealistic ideal of beauty. Women nowadays are portrayed in the industry as being stick thin, having the most amazing jawline, flawless skin, which in my eyes, nobody is naturally like that, unless you are put on a harsh diet and full of implants. It makes girls extremely insecure. The new generation is being brought up with front cover images of girls looking like barbie dolls. Having to read every other page about the 'amazing' new diet will make you loose 5 stone in a week, causing them to have eating disorders and feeling so insecure that they can't leave their house.
The Sunday Telegraph recently announced that fashion magazines are now manipulating images of skinny models to make them look fuller figured. I mean WHAT? What do they want us to look like?
One minute they are advertising how we should be looking like a Victorias Secret model, yet on every corner there is a new fast food store opening, or a new advert on the TV of a flawless skinned, tanned stick thin model eating a huge chocolate bar. Its crazy.

One thing i am a fan of is Madrid Fashion Week, when in 2006 they became the first catwalk to ban skinny models. Although this was after the death of the 22 year old model Luisel Ramos died after reportedly living off lettuce and diet coke before a runway. I am lucky enough to have lived in Madrid for 5 years, and also being able to sit front row of a few of the catwalks, and i am ashamed that Madrid Fashion week is not out there. It disgusts me that people could say “who knew little Madrid even had a fashion week, darling?” All you hear about is London, Paris and Milan, where they claimed that the 'all out ban' was too extreme and their size 0 models could stay. Size 0 is the equivalent to a british size 4, a 31.5 inch bust, a 23 inch waist and a 34 inch hips. The average size of a british 8 year old has a waist of 22 inches. It sickens me.

There is such a huge debate of how the right size of model should be, but it amazes me how the minds of top designers in this industry are-

Valentino - “If you put it on a girl and she’s a little heavy, not every dress looks sensational.”

Karl Lagerfeld-  “These are fat mummies who sit with a bag of potato chips in front of the television saying that thin models are ugly,” in the world of fashion, it’s all about “dreams and illusions, and no one wants to see round women.”

As you can tell, i could write about this for hours. I love looking at debates on the internet, however, as you can see i have my own opinions, which many people may not agree with. Personal image is portrayed in all my final images, calling out insecurity and fear of what others think.

References-

• http://onthisdayinfashion.com/?p=5234 - 'Madrid becomes the first fashion week to say no to skinny' - Sep 9th 2010, Cody Bay. Seen 29/10/13
• http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1540595/Fashion-leaders-refuse-to-ban-size-zero-models.html - 'Fashion leaders refuse to ban size 0 models' - 26 Jan 2006, David Derbyshire. Seen 1/12/13