Versace For H&M Rejects Real Women Modeling Concept

The fashion-hungry masses are swooning for Versace for H&M... but apparently Versace for H&M is not swooning for the masses.

The New York Daily News reports this morning that Versace cancelled a Daily News photo shoot featuring real New York women modeling the new Versace for H&M looks.

After initially giving the go-ahead, an H&M publicist later emailed the newspaper regarding the young, twenty-something New Yorkers selected to model the looks, saying:

"Donatella will likely not approve shooting the collection on real women."

Of the three proposed "models," only one was OK'd, as the others did not "fit [Versace's] branding."

It's an unfortunately ironic response, given the nature of the collaboration. Not only, as the Daily News notes, is such a collection intended for real women desiring high-fashion style (at an affordable price); but Donatella Versace created the line specifically for real-women Versace fans.

She told Style.com/Print:

"All these people reacting to what was in the archives -- Gaga, the people in London, the young kids in the office -- they're 25 years old, they're obsessed... But they don't know the whole story. So we did a best of Versace for H&M, a greatest hits, from the beginning until now."

We're guessing the three would-be models fall into or around that category of "obsessed 25 year olds" and would have loved the chance to wear some Versace threads.

Likewise, we would have welcomed the chance to see the collection modeled this way. We'd understand if the shoot were for Vogue, perhaps, or Harper's Bazaar. But the Daily News, given its wide readership and lack of glamorous pretensions, had probably planned a low-key shoot. Did they really need a Natalia Vodianova or a Gisele?

Read more of the Daily News' story at NYDailyNews.com... and see the collection modeled by runway models below.

Comments

[oberlinkay91]

01:55 PM on 11/26/2011

As long as none of the models look like the woman at the top of the page...Someone's had way too much work done...and it looks bad.

[iconico62]

12:45 AM on 11/19/2011

Donatella is a sad sight alright but sadder still are scores of middle aged women who, in such a despair to be au courant fashion wise will sport studded leather pink bustiers or gaudy pizza-throw up piped with dizzzying straps of semi cooked spaghetti that may look adorable on a rock star or an energetic 12 year old but looks absolutely ridiculous on anyone over 40. Her fashion is nature's way of saying you have too much money, no taste and desperate for lurid attention.

[Namea]

04:41 PM on 11/17/2011

I think it's sad that Donatella refused the plus sized model suggestion as I would enjoy seeing variety in clothes sizes since I have quite a few plus sized gal pals. On that note can someone please explain to me why only plus sized girls are considered real women? As far as I'm concerned once you're living and breathing you should be considered "real" oh well that might just be me.

[leelee76]

08:15 AM on 11/21/2011

i think the real woman thing means they are not professional models. it has nothing to do with plus size girls.

[JWoode]

02:08 PM on 11/17/2011

Donatella would not recognize real women.

[Sandy Lee Canady]

10:53 AM on 11/17/2011

in my op ,i think that m. monroe size 12 /14 was stunning ! in these days i think jennifer lopez kim kardashian ,generally any one with a curvey figure is so much sexier so much more intence then the crackish look that is so out (really) please stop with the heroin crakish look its discusting and our super models in the 90s didnt even look this badly as they do now . its great to be fit like jillian micheals but we dont want our ladies looking like 12 yr old boys anymore its gross ! donatella is gross she has racoon eyes and no eyebrows and looks crackish enough !

[andys0391]

08:25 PM on 11/16/2011

The use of the term "real" in this sense is completely offensive. No one person is anymore real than any other. Naturally skinny tall models are not fake, or inhumane or anything else. They are just as real as every other woman out there. I'm assuming they're using these "real" models to ease the body image crisis in society, but in doing so, they're just making it worse. They're defining a certain size as being "real" and all other sizes as being weird or not normal.

[method]

05:45 PM on 11/16/2011

this is one butt ugly woman

[LittleSanityLeft]

05:09 PM on 11/17/2011

She looks like a high maintenance Gremlin.

[Jangocat]

05:37 PM on 11/16/2011

It's just marketing and I'm not the least bit surprised. When was the last time you saw an average looking man or woman advertising anything? The male models are as hunky and unrealistic as the female ones. You rarely ever see an average looking person on TV or the movies either. Hell even the majority of newswomen are surprisingly young and gorgeous these days. Sex appeal sells, that's just the way it is.

[harmonikasavingsbonds]

04:09 PM on 11/16/2011

Indeed!

Since she no longer looks even remotely human, why should any of her models look presentable?

[NevaforLeadership]

06:15 AM on 11/16/2011

Clothes look better on tall, thin women. Modelling is about selling clothes; not about catering to those of us who are not tall and skinny.

[MtnGeek]

04:03 PM on 11/16/2011

And yet seeing the clothes on someone who more closely matched a potential customer's body type would give them a better sense of how the clothes will look (which may be why they don't use regular people, since their clothes only look good on stick figures).

[sillyblueness]

07:55 PM on 11/16/2011

And yet designers are so eager to have celebs wear their clothes on the red carpet, and many look stunning when they do. Check many of these celebs heights out - many are rather short. Christina Ricci looks great in Zac Posen for example, and she is only 5 feet tall.

[tccat4]

05:36 AM on 11/16/2011

Office wear???? Yeah if ya work at the zoo....

[spikedance]

04:20 AM on 11/16/2011

Well then, bring on the American clothes designers. Go back to Italy, versace.

[TTCAT0765]

04:08 AM on 11/16/2011

This is one of the reasons that young girls are killin themselves to be thin.....SHAME DONATELLA SHAME......BOOOO!!!!!!

[NevaforLeadership]

06:23 AM on 11/16/2011

The fashion industry used tall, thin women as models long before Donatella joined it. Women pined and worked to be thin long before Donatella.

Ever been to a fashion show, where shorter, rounder models were used? I have. Not inspiring. The purpose of fashion shows and magazines are to sell clothes; clothes look better on tall, thin women. They are not about political correctness or to cater to the insecurities of women.

From a shorter rounder woman.

[canobserv]

09:29 AM on 11/17/2011

most women in the forties and ffities were a size 12......size 12 was normal............then twiggy came along...now stick figures are in.........it wasn't that long ago that normal was ACTUALLY normal

[jfults2577]

03:45 AM on 11/16/2011

....That's probably because she doesnt look like a real woman. She doesnt want anyone on her runway prettier than her....What a plastic suregery freak show and geez she chose to make hereself look that ugly, WOW! Talk about an error in judgement :o

[TheNewShadeofBlue]

03:38 AM on 11/16/2011

How is a mere mortal pulicist given so much power in the decision making. It will be interesting to see if she remains employed.