Chronicles of a Late Bloomer

Did everyone read this yet? Apparently fashion week in Spain is set to look very, very different this year. Organizers at Madrid’s big show are using BMI (by measuring the models’ height and weight) in an apparent attempt to:

. . . project an image of beauty and health, rather than a waif-like, or heroin chic look.

They’ll even have medics on hand the day of the show to weigh and measure, and any designer who doesn’t comply may face legal action. How serious are they? According to a related article, organizers have already turned away 30 women who worked the same shows last year for being too thin.

Madrid’s regional government, which sponsors the show and imposed restrictions, said it did not blame designers and models for anorexia. It said the fashion industry had a responsibility to portray healthy body images.

Is it just me, or does this all seem too good to be true?

It reminds me of a report I heard on NPR yesterday about Kitson suing US Weekly based on a claim that certain of its bags were cropped out of photos of celebrities carrying them. Sure, it sounds frivolous, but lawsuits like this highlight the power of the media, of the fashion industry, and of celebrities.

I mean, let’s take an example. Love her or hate her, Oprah has sure turned her whole empire into what she considers to be a vehicle for good. She recognizes the immense power of her position, and she does her best to make deliberate decisions about it. Today, I’m [pleasantly] amazed to see officials and organizers taking responsibility in Spain, too.

Honestly, though, I can’t say that I’ve ever been all that directly influenced by the supermodel crowd. Indirectly, sure. I do exist in a culture and a society which is saturated with messages about women’s bodies, and I interact daily with people who are consciously and subconsciously influenced by those messages. But, really, I’ve always felt that fashion and supermodels were pretty ridiculous. Even as an actual young waif, my body never approximated theirs, and I can’t say that I ever wanted it to.

When I really think about it, what I always have envied was the way the clothes hung on thin women. An old internet friend of mine, who used to work intimately in the fashion industry in Paris, once wrote an amazing entry about what it was like to hire models for a runway show. She described them as sickly and fragile, bony and awkward. Her theory was that they were hired to look like the clothes hangers that you’d find when shopping for the clothes in a store. She intimated that they were all cranky due to perpetual hunger.

Even still, I will admit that I envy anyone who can carry off even simple articles of clothing like belts, shoes, skirts, and t-shirts.