Real women are allowed?

I was both surprised and delighted by some recent news stories! The current edition of VMagazine is offering a photo spread using a plus-sized model along with a regular sized model in the same clothes and poses, along with a story about the rise of non-standard sized models, and another was that the Australian edition of Marie Claire magazine had used a completely un-retouched photo spread of a nude top model. In amongst these stories I learned that a German magazine had begun using real women instead of models for their fashion photos, and the French magazines were moving towards banning all photo editing.

As someone who hasn’t been a size 0 in living memory, it is refreshing to find magazines that are willing to buck the trend and acknowledge that not all women are a size 0, but still want to look their best. According to the LA Times, the average American woman is a size 14, and approximately 5′4″ tall, yet the media continually shows clothes on models who are at least 5′8″ tall, and depending on where I looked, wear no more than a size 6, but preferably a size 0-2. One US magazine editor explained this was because we needed the aspirational aspect of seeing the clothes on taller, slimmer models, but given the disparity between the size of the models and the size of real women, I feel that being constantly reminded that clothes would look better on me if my body was the size of an 8 year old girl’s is depressing, not aspirational.

The second story showed photos that allowed us to see slightly dimpled leg skin and a faint bulge in an otherwise sleek midriff when the model was sitting. This in addition to using ‘plus-sized’ (size 12!) models makes me feel that change is in the air. Women are hard enough on their own appearance at the best of times, so to see that even the most beautiful women have imperfections is encouraging. Trying to look your personal best is one goal, but trying to match up to airbrushed and Photoshopped perfection is never going to happen, and can only damage self-esteem!

With the gradual greying of the population, and the increasing knowledge that being healthy is more important than trying to attain an unreasonably small dress size (don’t get me started on vanity sizing!) I hope that this flurry of articles and photo spreads are just the beginning of a new trend. Wouldn’t it be amazing to see designers and magazines working as hard to appeal to real midlife women with exciting and flattering clothing designs that reflect who we are now, on models who look like us?