Two articles from WSJ and NYTimes on a similar topic. What are your thoughts, should we embrace larger sizes or encourage fitness? Post below.
When Alexandra Schulman, editor of British Vogue, last week sent a letter to designers including Karl Lagerfeld, John Galliano, Prada and Versace, asking them to make larger clothes for fashion shoots, she touched on an issue of increasing concern to many consumers. In the letter, which caused a sensation in clubby London fashion circles, Ms. Schulman says she wants to be able to hire slightly larger models so she can stop asking photo editors to hide super-skinny models’ protruding bones. Many ordinary women want the fashion world to make larger clothes, too. Stores are filled to overflowing with trendy, young fashions designed for pin-thin bodies. But women larger than size 8 or 10 complain it’s difficult to find fashionable apparel. – from WSJ
Beth Ditto was livid. Topshop, the fast-fashion chain, had approached Ms. Ditto, the outsize lead singer with the punk band Gossip, and a favorite mascot of the fashion world, to perform at its flagship store in London. Blowups of her heart-shaped face and rotund form would be on display. But Ms. Ditto, who happily flaunts what the British like to call her “wobbly bits,” was having none of it. “I don’t think it’s fair to put my face somewhere where they would never let me in there to wear their clothes,” she complained on a blog. If the chain hoped to capitalize on her grooviness, she wrote, why not accord her the same status it does Kate Moss, and let her create a “big girl” line for Topshop. – from NYTimes