iPhone app iPad app Android phone app Android tablet app More

Featuring fresh takes and real-time analysis from HuffPost's signature lineup of contributors
Bonnie Fuller

GET UPDATES FROM Bonnie Fuller
 

Fashion Designers, Pay Attention! Real Women Want To Look Like Curvy Blake Lively & Kim Kardashian -- NOT Skinny Models!

Posted: 09/13/2011 4:02 pm

Hello, fashion designers! Why are you still filling the runways at NYC Fashion Week with models so skinny they look like little fawns?

Women don't want to be fawns, baby colts, pencils or skeletons! Women want to be fit, healthy and sexy! Women want to look great for themselves AND, yes, also for men.

That is a FACT! Women enjoy feeling alluring for the men in their lives... or for the men that they want to have in their lives.

And yes, while every woman wants to lose 5 lbs and is constantly working out or watching what she eats, no normal woman wants to look like the rail-thin models marching down the runways at NY Fashion Week.

Those poor things have legs like sticks, bony knees, protruding clavicle bones, wraith-like arms and not a hint of hips, tummies or breasts. They are sexless!

They don't even look like adolescent girls. Kylie Jenner, 14, who walked in the Abbey Dawn fashion show on September 12 is beautifully slim and still looked twice as wide as the typical models on the runway. What's up with that?

In previous fashions seasons, I've spent time interviewing modelling agents, designers, and representatives for NY Fashion Week and no one "knows" who is creating this sub- zero size model trend. Everyone points a finger at each other.

Designers claim that the only models the modelling agencies send them are ultra skinny girls. They are forced to use them. Then the modelling agents reply that it's really the stylists for the fashion shows who want the super skinnies. After past show seasons,  there's been talk about banning models from the runway who had a lower body mass index (BMI) than 18.5. Madrid, Spain, actually banned models with a BMI of less than 18!

In the meantime, the pencils keep marching on down the runways. But in the world of real American women -- the beauty and style role models that actual, red-blooded American women aspire to -- have plenty of curves.


So designers, whether you like it or not, it's fuller figured women like Kim Kardashian, Beyoncé, Christina Hendricks, J. Lo, Blake Lively, Diana Agron, Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato and Vanessa Hudgens that real women want to emulate and dress like.

Click for pics and to read more about pin thin models!

 

Follow Bonnie Fuller on Twitter: www.twitter.com/bonniefuller

FOLLOW STYLE
 
 
  • Comments
  • 53
  • Pending Comments
  • 0
  • View FAQ
Comments are closed for this entry
View All
Favorites
Recency  | 
Popularity
Page: 1 2  Next ›  Last »  (2 total)
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
maori
11:39 PM on 09/14/2011
Anti gay comments aside, thin models aren't about making any kind of statement on behalf of, or against anyone.

Certain bodies have lines that show clothes they way they were designed, or in the ideal.
Billowing sleeves don't look good on short arms, for instance, and a designer wants to show an outfit the way it was meant to look, or the buyers aren't buying. Sizes can be adjusted later.

As for models being sexless, they're obviously having sex with somebody.
photo
BlackJAC
It's better to be a black king than a white knight
07:56 PM on 09/14/2011
You do know that most fashion designers are gay men and therefore the outfits--which were never meant to be deployed in the real world for real people--are designed for the 18-year-old boys they're really into, right?
07:06 PM on 09/14/2011
Women want to emulate models that have similar body type and to a lesser extent, similar age. At 23 and size 0, I wanted to dress like a J.Crew model. After 6 years and a baby (at size 2-4), I am more interested in dressing for my curvier body. Of course I don't see any representation of that in the runway or even in most retail stores. So I get my inspiration from Youtube and street style blogs.
I do think it is quite ridiculous to ban women with a BMI of less than 18. I had a BMI of 17 until I got pregnant. Some women just don't gain weight easily. Especially at a younger age.
12:16 PM on 09/14/2011
Huh, I was just reading this article about how fashion doesn't really give women what they want, because the industry is run almost entirely by gay men. And I would say I have to agree, and this is coming from a gay man who works in the industry.
http://thegrindstone.com/strategy/is-the-fashion-industry-a-gay-mans-world-584/

There are some great stories and quotes in that piece too. Anyway, I guess my point is I wish more articles about Fashion Week were more honest and insightful like that one, instead of being just a bunch of fluff and BS all the time. The fashion biz is hardly all wine and roses like the media often makes it out to be. How come there isn't more real insider info?
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Cassandra45
"Let us do our best, even if it gets us nowhere."
03:04 PM on 09/14/2011
Good article (thegrindstone) ! Although I don't get why they dissed Tara Subkoff for being mad at a model who showed up two hours late. If I showed up at my office 2 hours late, I would not be greeted with roses.
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
HannahaS
Have great day!
11:55 AM on 09/14/2011
Blake Lively is curvy? Really? Don't get me wrong, she's a lovely girl. But curvy?

In truth, women want to be appreciated for whomever they are whatever they look like. They want to have options and feel good about themselves. They don't want to be told that this person is too this or that person is too that. A 45 yo woman doesn't want to be compared to a 25 yo woman or any other woman.

The same media outlets that gossip about someone getting too thin gossip about the next one gaining weight. Shut up about it already.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
maori
11:40 PM on 09/14/2011
Thanks.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
lawgrrl
Repubs need a "time-out" until they can behave.
11:32 AM on 09/14/2011
Blake Lively is considered "curvy"? Really??? Um---no. She's closer to model skinny. Kim K IS curvy.
10:29 AM on 09/14/2011
Selena Gomez? She's not curvy.
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
FilthyHarry
Expletive Deleted
09:06 AM on 09/14/2011
Real men want that too. Compare the women in a men's magazine to the women in women's magazine. The difference is huge. It always made me think that women dress (the one's who take their cues from fashion mags at least) to impress other women, not men.
08:43 AM on 09/14/2011
what's really sad is those fashions for ultra skinnies look horrible on a woman with a female shape.
08:22 AM on 09/14/2011
Where the heck did my last post go?????? Anyway, as a good old red-blooded american male I say stick figure's don't cut it with me. WOMEN=CURVES ! Sophia Loren, Jane Russel, Maureen O'Hara, Rachel Welch, Christina Hendricks, Real women, real curves, real easy on the eye's as we used to say. I'll take a few extra pound's anyday over needing a few just to look healthy. Plus it's nice to take a lady out to dinner that actually eat's what she order's ! On this note I'd like to quote a fav of mine;

"What a wonderful world it is that has girls in it !"

L.Long
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
krisgarfield
Res ipsa loquitur - Let the good times roll.
11:20 AM on 09/14/2011
....another great old quote..."Only a dog likes to chew on a bone."
01:20 AM on 09/14/2011
How in the world are Selena Gomez and Blake Lively "curvy" and "fuller figured"? The author has a valid point, but I am finding her examples of real women to not exactly be the epitome of ... real women.
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Droid Noir
Graphic Designer, Writer.
02:16 AM on 09/14/2011
ha ha ha true that but I think that Blake Lively has curves though, I'm not too sure about Gomez.
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
HannahaS
Have great day!
11:57 AM on 09/14/2011
Selena Gomez is a child and Blake Lively, while beautiful, is not "curvaceous", and is also still a young woman. Who the hell wants to be compared to that when you're 45 and old enough to be their mother.
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Bob Kellerman
Let's have more sanity toward each other
12:01 AM on 09/14/2011
TIPS FOR ALL "REAL WOMEN, NOT MODELS"

1 -- HEALTHY PEOPLE WHO BELIEVE THEY ARE FINE DO NOT HAVE TIME TO PICK AT OTHERS --the fastest way to convince others you are not attractive is to dish models and clothing manufacturers for "not making for real women" --- it's old, trite, and silly.

2 -- there is a billion dollar industry making clothes for YOU
GO INTO A MACYS AND LOOK AT THE VERY NICE CLOTHES IN "MACY WOMAN" which were made for you. They are adaptations, watered down for more wearability, of ideas that were first seen on runways.

3-- REAL, ACTUAL WOMEN buy the magazines and or those designer clothes. Many women who are not suited to high fashion looks ENJOY VIEWING THEM, which is their right. If you dont enjoy it, dont look, just go to the store and buy what you like
This user has chosen to opt out of the Badges program
photo
Zombie Goddess
I'd be bored to death if I wasn't already dead.
12:36 AM on 09/14/2011
All this coming from a man.Guess you're the total authority on everything about women,eh?

1. -- Criticizing the fashion industry is not an indication that someone is "not attractive".And they *don't* make clothes for the average-sized woman.You're not a woman,so this isn't for you to decide.

2. -- Not everyone can afford to shop at Macy's.If you can afford it,then I guess they do make clothes for "real women",but in reality,not everyone has that kind of budget.You should get out more.

3. -- I don't know anyone who buys designer clothes,and very few women who buy the magazines.I don't see the point in buying a magazine full of things I'm not suited to and can't afford,and I'm not so low on self-esteem that I have to pine for what I'm not.You don't seem to be very informed about women today.We don't all just sit around looking at herion-thin models and sighing because we aren't them.And when we criticize them and the fashion industry,it isn't because we "aren't attractive",it's because we're tired of seeing so many young girls endangering their health because the mass media pushes this one 'acceptable' image on the public.

We don't need your "tips",Mr. Knowitall,please try to be more informed and less patronizing.
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Bob Kellerman
Let's have more sanity toward each other
02:36 AM on 09/14/2011
Dont put words in my mouth, lady, ok?

1-- the article and many of the posts KNOCK THE WOMEN MODELS

2-- I shop the "leftover rack of clearance" at Macys for less than you might spend at WalMart , or the same, Dont be snobby

3-- Just because YOU dont know such women, they obviously exist, or the companies and magazines would be gone.

4-- You are so busy being right you didnt read well. Most of the criticism here of thin models (who ARE entitled to be thin) is from women who presumably are not and are mean about it --- very little is "concern for the young girls"

5-- Ask ANY man what type of woman goes on about fashion designs not being for real women, and models being thin. Most men will say "angry fat women"

YOU are patronizing to the models, who CHOOSE that life -- my point
This user has chosen to opt out of the Badges program
11:00 PM on 09/14/2011
I've been to Macy Woman, thanks. They've watered down the "adaptations" so far that they no longer resemble anything close to the originals. They change the fabric, the print, the colors, the cut, the quality, charge more than they do for the originals, and tell us we should be grateful.
This user has chosen to opt out of the Badges program
photo
Zombie Goddess
I'd be bored to death if I wasn't already dead.
11:44 PM on 09/13/2011
Blake Lively is "curvy"?Are you serious?She's only a few vomit-sessions away from anorexic.C'mon,have your vision checked!

I for one don't "aspire" to look like Kardashian,since I'm 5'10 and a size 14 with a naturally wide bone structure.I only "aspire" to look like myself.I can't make my ribcage shrink so I'll have a tiny waist.I personally would like for clothing designers to realize that not all size 14s are short and not all tall women are rail-thin and curveless,because it's a challenge to find pants(without paying a fortune)that are both long enough for my legs and wide enough for my hips.
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Bob Kellerman
Let's have more sanity toward each other
05:43 AM on 09/14/2011
ALL ABOUT YOURSELF

AS IF THE ARTICLE WAS PERSONAL TO YOU -- rather than personal to the woman who wrote it
This user has chosen to opt out of the Badges program
photo
Zombie Goddess
I'd be bored to death if I wasn't already dead.
11:11 PM on 09/16/2011
Take a deep breath,Bob...then exhale...

The article indicates 'women' -- as in the entire gender -- want to look like Kim Kardashian and Blake Lively...saying 'women' in the broad sense is more or less including us all.I stated that I for one don't desire to look like or be like someone else.

It must really intimidate you when a woman has confidence,feels good,works out,takes care of herself,and likes herself,doesn't it?
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
oneputtsteven
Former conservative who looked behind the curtain
11:31 PM on 09/13/2011
As a man I can tell you curvy is good, women should be women, not sticks.
This user has chosen to opt out of the Badges program
photo
10:57 PM on 09/13/2011
Amen.