Monday, August 20, 2012

THE MODEL DEBATE

Ah, models- love em' and hate em'

There has always been so much controversy with models, age, weight, height, gender and so on but lately the most talked about one is weight and role models.

I remember doing a presentation when I was back at school about anorexia and bulimia and how the environment can effect us. My partner and I for the project, had to research different forms of influence on regular people and the main one was celebrities and models. Being in the limelight so much younger kids are being influenced by these people we put so much attention towards. Models back in the day were slim and regulations were close to non existant. These days regulations are more strict with age and weight. Countries around the world are starting to implement rules and are refusing to hire underweight models which started in Israel and Spain and hopefully will make its way around the world. There is also an age limit now to modeling in some countries which is set at 16.

Recently Vogue banned the use of models under 16 and anyone that looked like they had an eating disorder which is great progress being one of the leading fashion magazines in the world. Chinese, British, American and French Vogue have sworn they will not knowingly use underage models with Japanese Vogue jumping on board last month.
Some statistics said
“Most runway models meet the Body Mass Index physical criteria for Anorexia,” one reads.

“Twenty years ago the average fashion model weighted 8% less than the average woman. Today she weighs 23% less,” another states.

The editorial claims that the average plus sized model at most modeling agencies, fluctuates between a size 6 and 14, while ten years ago, they averaged between size 12 and 18.
A medical report said in 2007 that as many as 40% of models are suffering from an eating disorder and are hiding it very well.

A couple of weeks ago and I had seen a Dove campaign for real beauty that was put side by side a Victoria's Secret campaign with the caption: What is real Beauty?
I completely support the Dove campaign because it has a sense of realism to it by using people that aren't one size and that aren't heavily photoshopped and close to starving.

I really admire Dove and what they stand for because if we don't start making a change, our children will and can have it worse than us now.
The media has showed us that one look is considered beautiful but this look makes up for maybe 10% of the worlds population, so what about the rest?
Society has changed so much and we've been led to believe a certain look is perfection. It is so sad to see that only 4% of women in the world consider themselves beautiful even though everyone is beautifully unique.




I think thats why I love what I do, because we create made to order dresses and for the most important day of a girls life, their wedding dress. We usually sit with a client and talk about the form and fit of the dress and we always customise it so that you're comfortable in your dress.
A lot of people think fashion is just one sided and we all promote this sort of body type but we don't. When I did castings for Kanchan Couture when never expected a certain body-type to show up, if you look good in our clothes and our clothes look good on you, you've got the job.
I hope one day it will be that simple for larger fashion houses and our kids won't have to grow up wishing they had the "perfect body."



Love, Petra


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