Project Runway has got everything you’d want in a reality show, interesting challenges, weird people and a look at a different world. In the most recent episode here in NZ the challenge was to design for another contestant’s mother or sister. There was a lot gross about the way things were done; the designers got to pick the relatives, which was a ‘we want skinny people’ version of picking teams at school. But the episode as a whole was fascinating, most of the designers were truly stumped by designing for people who weren’t models, particularly fat people who weren’t models.
I think it was Robert Best who said “I don’t understand these proportions”. His day job is to design for Barbie.
Jeffrey, who is a misogynist prick at the best of times, said “If I go then there’s nothing I could have done – I couldn’t have prepared for this challenge.”
It makes me want to read about the history of fashion to figure out how we got here. Where there is a whole occupation, models, to make women to fit its clothes. We’re so used to this ridiculous artifice that it’s absurdity is only brought home when barbies proportions make sense to a designer, and a woman’s, any woman’s, proportions do not.
[Amateur Cultural Studies to follow]
It’s rather interesting in that for the last few years, the ideal female body type appearing in most media has been different from that in the fashion industry. The latter is still wedded to the idea of tall stick women, whereas the dominant culture is now promoting a more athletic build. Of course, this doesn’t reflect *that* much progress, since there’s a strong class-based element to it (showing that you can afford gym membership and various workout accoutrements, while having the leisure time to spend ten hours a week in the gym), but it is telling that the fashion industry actually seems to be behind the curve on this one.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – it’s a poor, poor designer who, when confronted with a “challenge”, has a whinge about how they can’t work with it. Imagine, if you will, Frank Lloyd Wright throwing up his hands in horror on seeing the site for ‘Fallingwater’ and saying “Oh no, I can’t possibly work with this unless you raze the land flat and make all the corners right angles!”.
Calling yourself a ‘designer’ when you refuse to work with anything but one very narrow ideal is really rather precious.
Andrew:
What about lower-class women who have an athletic build because of the type of work they do? Menial labor can be a real bitch, you know.
On the flipside, bravo to Project Runway for taking on the issue. Sure, provocative issues create instant drama and are good for ratings, but I would like to believe somebody in charge is trying to promote discussion on some of the fashion industry’s problems, too.
Where there is a whole occupation, models, to make women to fit its clothes.
There is not. The cloths you buy in a shop are designed to appeal to the buyers, who are usually not catwalk models.
The clothes on display on catwalks are designed to build the reputation of the fashion house, not to be worn by anybody. On a catwalk, the model is there to make the clothes look good, not vice versa.
I’ve seen that show several times, and I’m always surprised at how acceptable it is to make fun of fat women. Jeffrey wouldn’t have felt free to make fun of Angela’s mother if she wasn’t fat and they didn’t disagree on her dress to begin with! And of course, he admits he knows *nothing* about designing for her, yet will not take her advice! I mean, she SHOULD KNOW what looks good on her, it’s her body, right? Wrong!… grrrrowf!
Then they penalize Robert, who is “stuck” (meaning he was one of last to get to choose, as in your grade-school example!) with the fattest woman. I KNEW before the show ended, that the guy with the fattest model would be the loser. (Very predictable–aren’t they the least bit ashamed about that????)
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – it’s a poor, poor designer who, when confronted with a “challenge”, has a whinge about how they can’t work with it. Imagine, if you will, Frank Lloyd Wright throwing up his hands in horror on seeing the site for ‘Fallingwater’ and saying “Oh no, I can’t possibly work with this unless you raze the land flat and make all the corners right angles!”.
Calling yourself a ‘designer’ when you refuse to work with anything but one very narrow ideal is really rather precious.
Beautiful! :)
Oh, I saw this episode, and it made me so angry! I don’t understand the fashion industry _at all_. When the majority of your customers are going to be at least a size 14, shouldn’t you know how to dress them? Had none of them ever even stepped foot into a Lane Bryant’s? This was really not that difficult, and yet none of them had any idea what to do and could not stop whining about it!
I guess this one just brought out all the anger I’ve had over the past ten years or so, trying to find decent, fashionable clothing. I recently started making some of my own, but even that doesn’t work out so well, as many dress patterns stop around an 18. They may use the models on the catwalk to build their reputation, but most designers seem to have no idea what to do with the rest of us. Or they think that all women over a size ten enjoy weird, boxy suits, sequins, and elastic waists. I’m 26 and reasonably fashion-aware. I should not be forced to dress like a child or forty years older than I am just because my body doesn’t fit some bizarre standard. I hate going into a “regular” store and feeling alternately like the salespeople are laughing at me or angry because there are plenty of things that would look great on me, if only they were my size.
this has been on my mind forever.
I remember that Jeffrey said he had difficulty with his model because she “expressed body-unconsciousness”. what does that even mean?
that whole challenge really made me mad. like being normal is some sort of insurmountable obstacle for the poor little designers who struggle so hard to cover our shame.
To be fair to the judges and the show, Robert didn’t lose because he has a fat model. Robert lost because he made a crappy dress. The model asked for red and black, and he gave her that, but it was a crappy polyester sack with lame scarf attached. There was no print, no trim, nothing to make it special at all – she could have bought something nicer on clearance at WalMart. I actually took Robert’s loss to be the judges’ way of punishing him for refusing to make any effort for a plus-size woman.
(Jeffrey was a total asshole to his model, and the dress wasn’t the colors she had asked for, but it had some nice touches, and you could imagine that someone else might have liked the dress if she hadn’t been around for its creation.)
the fashion industry actually seems to be behind the curve on this one.
Actually, they seem to have no awareness of curves at all.
Calling yourself a ‘designer’ when you refuse to work with anything but one very narrow ideal is really rather precious.
Dead on.
Had none of them ever even stepped foot into a Lane Bryant’s?
A few years after I was married, I bought my wife a very nice dress at Lane Bryant’s for Christmas. When she opened it up, my (now late) mother-in-law (on Christmas morning, mind you, with all the family gathered opening presents)gave me absolute hell for buying a dress for her daughter at Lane Bryant’s. It was the right size, but it went back because Lane Bryant’s makes dresses for fat people. Apparently.
Also, Ulli did a wonderful job for Kayne’s mother (I think I’m remembering this right), didn’t she? She really should have won that challenge. So, whereas there was considerable assholery in that episode, it wasn’t one-hundred-percent assholery.
I occurred to me that there might be an analogy between fashion shows and NASCAR racing. Both events occur in an artificial setting, involve unrealistic extreme models that are illegal and unhealthy on the street and are partly fantasy and entertainment events that promote manufacturers other products. The race car drivers could die or get injured in a race just as a fashion model could starve to death. If people act like them in real life they could die.
I am totally ignorant of fashion shows, so correct me if you think the analogy is wrong. NASCAR automobiles, even if they superficially resemble usual cars are entirely different from a normal automobile. Races cars are uncomfortable, temperamental, high maintenance vehicles with a short life. They tend to crash and burn and get into a lot of wrecks.
Since fashion shows are sending the wrong message to women skip them and go to the stock car races instead.
Dave, the only correction I’d make about race cars is that they’re not less safe than street cars. They’re safer. MUCH safer. They’re just driven a LOT harder. It would not be hard to make a race car street legal. New tires, lights, turn signals, and some more suspension travel would be all you needed to do. But other than that I agree. Neither high fashion nor auto racing have much to do with day to day life.
LedasMom–
Yeah, Uli’s outfit was amazing–but then again most of what Uli designed would have looked good on a wide variety of womens’ bodies.
To be fair to the judges and the show, Robert didn’t lose because he has a fat model. Robert lost because he made a crappy dress.
He made a crappy dress because as he admitted, he had no idea how to design for a fat woman.
Great comment, AntiP.
“I remember that Jeffrey said he had difficulty with his model because she “expressed body-unconsciousness”. what does that even mean?”
Huh? I’m as baffled as AP is.
What I THINK he might mean is something like “There is a certain way that a woman’s body is supposed to be shaped, and if it is not she should want to do everything in her power to fake it. This woman does not appear to be trying to do so. She seems to be trying to get me to make her a dress that fits her actual body. WTF?” – I may be wrong, but that’s where I think he’s going. And the thing is…well, this particular woman is not shaped “that” way. Deal. Think of it as a creative challenge rather than whining about it.
Isn’t the whole point of the show that they demonstrate their ability to adapt and think on their feet? In this case most of them failed. You had to love the comments from the panel, though, especially the older woman who chewed several of them out for assuming that fat women want to wear potato sacks.