The Changing Shape of High- Fashion

In an industry dominated by teenagers, high- fashion is saturated with girls that are size zero- 2. Designers claim that they are designing for women, but with the average American woman weighing in at 162.9 lbs. and sporting a size 14*, high- fashion is hardly using identification to appeal to American women. The average runway model is estimated to be 5 feet 9 inches tall and weigh in at 110lbs** and the average sample size is a 0***. On the street a size 4 is skinny, at castings these women have been historically criticized for being too fat for fashion. An ideal so strongly coveted that some fashion shows have instituted rules requiring models to eat before they take the catwalk; a response to 22-year-old Uruguayan model Luisel Ramos reportedly dying of heart failure after stepping off the runway during Fashion Week in Montevideo in 2006.

Perhaps using models that every day women cannot identify with has been a means by which the high-fashion industry has perpetuated the perception of elitism (well that, and the price tag associated with the goods!) Reverse identification?

But now, for whatever reason, designers including Chanel, Prada, and Marc Jacobs are pioneering a much needed change. In an industry that notoriously alienates a high percentage of women with purchasing power, top fashion designers are jumpstarting a movement to replace these toothpick models- most recently at the Paris Womenswear Fashion Week in Paris, France this past week. Marc Jacobs cast women of all ages and physiques in his show- including Elle MacPherson, 47, Karolina Kurkova, 26, and Adriana Lima, 28, among others.

For years fashion designers have been deathly afraid that regular women might like to actually look like the models and wear the clothes that they're modeling. Thus, the emergence of the 15 year old, rail-thin, models. Considering the high-fashion industry used to embrace these "larger" models, what is causing the reemergence of these body types? Are these designers finally realizing that they are alienating a large portion of the population that would actually buy the product; economic motivation? Or is it that the unhealthy ways of many in the fashion industry are setting an unrealistic ideal for women in society; an ethical motivation?

Whatever the reason, I hope that this change is here to stay. For too long women have been comparing themselves to an unrealistic ideal that has been shaped by the fashion and entertainment industries. Though many women still cannot identify with a size 4 model, atleast they are no longer comparing themselves to the 15-year-old superskinnies. High-fashion is returning to its roots-- supermodels. These women are real. They are wives and mothers- just like the women in the audience- instead of little girls dressed up in grown-up clothes. They are babes, not babies.

-ev

*http://articles.latimes.com/2009/mar/01/image/ig-size1

**http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/story?id=2450069&page=1

***http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/35336098