E-mail
Print
How super are you?
The term supermodel goes by the wayside
By Christy Brownfield
The original super models represented an idealized look for everyday women. Tanned, toned and sexy. With the ‘90s, however, the “heroin chic” look ushered in a new look, underfed and drugged up.
Liz Jones, former Marie Claire editor recently published an article entitled, “Goodbye supermodels - you've been left behind by an industry hungry for youth.” This prompted me to consider the question, is the supermodel era really over?
By the looks of it, supermodels have had their day and are now becoming beautiful memories of the past. There are still a few lingering models such as Gisele or Tyra, and of course Kate, who as household names deserve the super status, but the idea of an upcoming crop of super fashion divas is quite hard to imagine.
The big names in the industry today do not seem to crave the same type of media attention as the originals: Christy, Linda, Naomi and Cindy. In today’s fashion world, the biggies Lilly, Gemma and Stella, while recognizable and famous within the industry, are hardly a blip on the radar for most of the mainstream.
If anything, they cherish their anonymity, and their payday comes as being the last model on the Marc Jacobs runway. If the teens who now rule the runway put up a fuss, there are dozens more to take their place who are younger and skinnier. That is another reason for the bygone days of super models: the BMI issue. The original supermodels represented an idealized look for everyday women. Tanned, toned and sexy. With the 90’s, however, the “heroin chic” look ushered in a new look, underfed and drugged up. When met with opposition, the models plumped up somewhat, but only to a point, and we now seem to be heading down that “less is more” path.
With the recent death of two model sisters from malnutrition, and Madrid’s implementation of a minimum BMI of 18, I cannot help but think of how super the original supers really were.
Yet it is hard for designers to put women or even healthy looking girls on the runway because they look so out of place. This is not an argument for the cadaverous look, merely a musing on why fashion shows look like a call to order of the anorexics anonymous meeting.
In 2006, Jones published another article, “Liz Jones: The scandal of our starving models,” where she attempted to chip away at this very issue. She talked with Louise Chunn, former editor of InStyle who says she finds it “ridiculous that women in their thirties and forties are only being shown clothes on 16-year-olds.”
In the world of modeling, you’re old and past your prime by the time you reach your twenties. At this point your body starts changing and keeping slim is more difficult.
I find it sad that we do not have supermodels ruling the runway anymore, providing fashion enthusiasts and young impressionable girls with more realistic role models. Instead, during this fall’s fashion week we have 16-year-old eastern European cadavers to idolize.
> Comments