If we could choose our bodies, wouldn’t we all opt for long, lean and leggy?
But our frame is largely predetermined by a number of factors, including our genes. Thankfully for those of us who are tempted to compare ourselves to the bodies we see on the catwalks, the definition of a model physique is evolving.
As Johanna Lenander points out in “Bodies of Work” (page 82), the Fall 2010 runways showed more diversity in terms of size and shape than ever. The most notable frame belongs to American model Crystal Renn (Q&A, page 30), who only hit the big time after packing on enough pounds to qualify as plus-size. Ironically, when I met up with Renn in St-Tropez in May for the launch of the Chanel 2011 Cruise collection (page 36), she looked as if she had shed a few pounds since walking the Joe Fresh Style runway in Toronto six-weeks prior. But she has been burning calories by working non-stop. And it’s not like she isn’t eating—the day of the Chanel show, she said she fuelled herself with a large lunch and a beer. But it wasn’t always so.
“I remember being sick and tired and teetering in on heels to Chanel castings,” Renn divulged after the show, which unfolded on a stretch of pavement in the port before a bank of gleaming white superyachts. “To be here is surreal. When I was a thin model, to do Chanel was a dream. It’s the one show that you ask your agent about every day. ‘Did I get Chanel? Did I get Chanel?’ Today, my dream came true. And to be here at my size is even better.”
To hear that a model can eat what she wants and be considered a world-class beauty suggests we just might be making progress, after all.
I would love to hear your thoughts on our model issue. Write to me at letters@fashionmagazine.com.
First published in FASHION Magazine August 2010
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