A few days ago, I was sipping a mug of steaming black coffee, spooning in my morning banana oatmeal, and perusing my Google reader to visit my daily blog reads. Basically, the way I begin each morning.
On this particular occasion, however, I paused while reading one of my fashion favorites, The Sartorialist. If you’re unfamiliar with Scott Schuman’s brilliant photographic eye, his blog is a selection of images, all found on the streets of fashion-forward locales from New York to Europe, where he spots men and women in inspiring attire.
Typically, I’ll linger over one of his photographs when something about the fashion strikes me. On Saturday, I stopped scrolling for an altogether different reason – not only was the image he highlighted not his own, but its subject was not dressed in any stirring manner – she was not, in fact, dressed at all.
I had come across the image before (if you follow pop culture, you likely have as well): it was pulled from the most recent issue of Glamour, where a nude, non-airbrushed photograph of plus-size model Lizzi Miller acted as an accompaniment to an article on body image. I respected what the article had to say, and I appreciated the inclusion of a normal looking woman within the folds of a magazine. But truthfully, I didn’t think much of it. ”Normal” women have appeared in magazines before, and that doesn’t seem to be stopping the hundred other photographs in those issues from lauding models with weights far below the norm. Call me cynical, but I don’t think one image without airbrushing is going to alter the waif-obsession, particularly when that image covered a small fraction of page 194 – hardly a bold statement.
What interested me, however, was Schuman’s take on the media stir. Just as runways and magazines are dominated by skinny, The Sartorialist’s virtual pages often display a similar body type, or lack thereof. And while I adore the stylistic point of view, my healthy voice has to ignore the bodies beneath the clothes, as they are almost never realistic to the majority.
In his post, below Lizzi Miller’s curves, Schuman commented that he does in fact approach older and larger women; however, his requests are often refused, due, he surmises, to “a real suspicion about how the image will be used…[as] there continues to be a growing disconnect between the fashion community and ‘average’ women.”
It’s a good point, and one that sums up my problem with the clamor over the image. Here is a normal woman, proud to show off her naked body in all its imperfections. Truly, I think that spirit is incredible. But the real breakthrough, at least for me, would be for Glamour to exhibit Miller in a high-fashion spread – she is, after all, a clothing model.
I see magazines display gorgeous fashion stories, followed by practical ways to get the look, whether it be on the cheap, in your closet, or for your body shape. Normal-sized women appear on the practical pages, but the art (you know, the editorials whose clothes paint a story) is still governed by the too-thin minority. I have yet to see an artistic spread built around a real woman.
If art is supposed to be a step or two ahead of the mainstream, then we in the majority will never stop chasing thin while our design inspirations stay hopelessly loyal to it. I still want to celebrate high fashion. Like all great artistic disciplines, it goes through eras and movements. I would love to see a bit of reality be its future.
Do you think we’ll ever see high fashion for real women? And if you saw it, how did you feel about the Glamour article and Lizzi Miller’s photograph?
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I love that Glamour featured Lizzi Miller, but I totally agree that if they had actually used her as a fashion model, it might would have had a larger effect.
My cousin actually worked with Scott Shuman. She is an awesome photographer too.
I love the satorilist. amazeing eye, for sure.
I definatly beleive that we will see REAL women on covers. I love the cover.. it was differant, and maybe… well I dont know, it was differant to see! But GOOD.
I certainly see the disconnect between high fashion and “normal”-sized women. This is its own issue altogether. I think the Glamor spread was a great thing, but I agree, one image on one page of one magazine is certainly not going to change the general consensus on size. Good post!
Sad, but I have to agree with your take on this one…this isn’t the first ‘real’ body we’ve seen in one of these magazines, but real bodied women still aren’t making the spreads. She certainly is gorgeous, and has everything to be proud of!
That’s really interesting that most normal women wouldn’t consent to having their pictures taken. I wish we all could accept that clothes can look great us, even if we’re not what we see in the magazines.
I thought the photograph of Lizzi was beautiful and great to see what “real” women look like without clothes and extreme photoshopping, but besides a little bit of sagging skin, she was still a tall, thin, beautiful blonde woman. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s definitely a step in the right direction, but it’s so distressing to see a 5-page spread on “How to Find Jeans That Fit at ANY shape!” and then 5 pages down see “How to Lose 8lbs in a Week!” in any magazine. I definitely agree that it’d be great to see average woman wearing the clothes instead of it being focused on plus-size women only. Most magazines are first to point out that the average woman is a size 12, yet where are all the size 12 (and +) women in their magazines?
Also: why did I read the comments on Glamour’s website?! So sad!
How eloquently stated. While I guess any step, no matter how small, is still progress, it didn’t really strike me. It’s still making a big deal out of her appearance. I would like to see the day that seeing Lizzi in a magazine spread (the ones that typically have dangerously thin models) becomes a normal occurrence, though I suppose that’s too much to expect at this time.
I saw that cover, and was ecstatic abt it, but like you, cynical that it won’t automatically change everything. I think wht you wrote here was SPOT on. It’s a small positive step, but still too tiny for all the years of bad body image that has passed.
i believe there is a chance that we will revert back to “old-fashioned” standards of beauty — just think how women are depicted in art from the Renaissance, for example — they are curvy and voluptuous, and this was a sign of not only beauty but also fertility, an essential aspect of womanhood, one that models of today lack (women are are 5’10″ and 100 pounds most likely do not get their periods and are incapable of conceiving). the only way this will happen is if the obsession with being thing wanes just a bit once people realize how terribly unrealistic and unhealthy this body type is. i’m not quite sure how/ when this will happen, but i have faith that it will!