Thread: Should we need to be size 8 to wear designer clothes?

I read this article in the Metro this morning;
Mark Fast's size 12 models cause a stir at London Fashion Week | InStyle UK

Just wondering what all your opinions are on this issue?

Myself varying from a UK Size 12 to sometimes a 14, I feel annoyed that there are people out there that still continue to think that it's healthy to have size zero models on the catwalk! I understand they are used to show off the clothes and nothing more, but surely a girl who wears an average size could do it just as well? :question:

I'm glad Mark Fast decided to go ahead with having these gorgeous models involved with his catwalk show though! Might be a step forward..

xx

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I've always wondered when size 10 and 12 became 'big'. Not long ago all models were size 10 or 12 because that was the sample size and Kate Moss was causing a riot being a size 8. Now you practically have to shop in outsized stores if you are a size 10 and the standard shops rails are covered in clothes that would have fitted me when i was in primary school.
It's sad that there has to be a big song and dance about using 'bigger' models but hopefully this won't just be a one off, and more designers will use these models and not just for the press coverage it creates for the designer.

Designers started to use the waifs because they make their clothes look good, the camera lens tends to add pounds to whoever is photographed so a size 8 will often look a little larger on paper than in real life, and lets face it making clothes lie flat on someone who looks like an ironing board is a lot easier than doing so on someone who has curves, basically designers are lazy :lol:

I'd love to see more varied sizes of models.

However, I've hit a snag recently as I was looking around for models for some very specific shoots. I WANT girls with some curves, at least enough to fill out a corset to some degree. But they aren't easy to find on the usual model sites unless you go for the very glamour/page 3 look which I didn't want at all.

So as a designer what do I do? Compromise on a model who doesn't give off the image I want or make my samples in more 'model' sizes - i.e. tiny? But then I don't have samples available for a curvier model. It's a bit of a catch 22.

Now granted corsetry is a bit of a different category (although it probably isn't accidental that a few models appear so regularly) but I can understand why designers end up settling on one standard, small, minimal fitting required bodytype. To produce a collection for a show in several sizes wouldn't be feasible so to use any other (non-standard) size model would mean making a commitment from the outset, making a statement. To change things properly would mean raising the average size of models overall. Not a bad thing in my opinion, but I'm not sure it would ever happen. Look at pictures of the top models of the 40s and 50s - they're just a super-slim as many of todays models. So it's a long-held standard to break.

Originally Posted by Crikey Aphrodite

However, I've hit a snag recently as I was looking around for models for some very specific shoots. I WANT girls with some curves, at least enough to fill out a corset to some degree. But they aren't easy to find on the usual model sites unless you go for the very glamour/page 3 look which I didn't want at all.

What kind of sized models are you looking for Aphrodite?

I'm doing a series of TFP shoots with a local photographer on a fairytale theme. We've been looking for girls that look classy and a little other-worldly but can fill a corset out a bit. I don't have set sizes in mind as I'm making the outfits as we go along but the problem we've encountered is beautiful girls who are absolutely straight up and down or curvy girls that look a little too glamour.

We've got models lined up for the next two shoots but we might be doing more after Christmas as it's such a rich theme.

I am a size 0. An American size 0, obviously, so a UK 4, and I often get turned down for modelling work as I am too short.

one view is that it is a closed-off industry to a huge amount of women, where any sort of difference is imidiatly seen as a comodity that can be marketed ('Curvy Models' 'Older Models' 'Disabled Models') as a back-handed attempt at inclusion. But this can go both ways! I ended up leaving a few online agencies as the only work requests I was receiving were "We see you are a size 4 and we would like you for a piece comparing 0 girls to 'real women'" Nice.

Originally Posted by Vendetta Vain

I ended up leaving a few online agencies as the only work requests I was receiving were "We see you are a size 4 and we would like you for a piece comparing 0 girls to 'real women'" Nice.

I always knew you were one of those artificial laboratory-made women that had been genetically modified and grown in a pod!
Seriously though, I think it's really low that the media on the one hand force feed us myriad images of size zero models as though that's the only way it is acceptible to look but then in the same breath criticises these same women for not being 'real women' and play them off agains their larger sisters.
Women find it hard enough to be supportive of eachother without being constantly placed in competition with one another!

Personally, I accept that most designers will only use a certain size because of the logisics of making garment samples and I am more or less ok with that. I do think it's a positive step that Mark Fast used 'larger' girls in his show and I don't think, by what was said in the interview, that it was done cynically. Would I like to see more variety of different types of girls on the catwalk? - Yes, I think it's a positive move. Do I feel like any of these girls represent me or feel more of a connection because they are closer to my body size? Not really. But that's just me, if it makes other people feel more included then that's got to be a good thing,

ooh, me and my younger sister get into discussions about this all the time. i personally prefer curvier women not i dont mean overweight i mean has a nice figure with curves etc, my sister likes slim boyish figures, shes 5ft7 im a bit taller and size 14-16 shes a size 6 and looks slim but not horribly skinny or anything and whenever i comment on the skinny models looking scary she gets offended but the thing i try to explain is that these models are usually 6ft plus so a size 6 on that kinda frame looks really thin. it all depends on your height and your weight for your height etc

Vendetta Vain you are gorgeous! ive seen you at some shows ive been to and you have a great figure! i cant believe you got those requests! how offensive! 'real women' seems to be a popular saying right now and doesnt make any sense.

i understand why catwalk models are so slim etc there are more variations in body shape the curvier you are and its a lot easier to make these clothes for similar shaped slim bodies

as for mark fast,good on him for using bigger than average models ... but the clothes he put on them werent flattering at all... like they were designed for thinner models before he decided to use the bigger models.

but in magazines/advertising etc for example id like to see some more variations!

When did we get obsessed with must be a certain size to be attractive? I'm convinced that people have a natural size and if they vary too much from that they look just plain odd. A curvy cutie who obsessively diets down to a size 12 can look plain ill and a waif who chunks up to the same size 12 same look like a a whale.

Fashion is for those without style!