Model Management: VOGUE’s Grace Coddington Weighs In
The debate about just how thin models should be continues. First British VOGUE editor Alexandra Shulman lambasted designers for demanding super skinny models. Then Anna Wintour dressed biggish singing sensation Adele for the Grammys. And now VOGUE creative director–and former model–Grace Coddington has weighed in, saying:
“It is a big problem. I remember when I was young, they told me that if I didn’t lose weight I’d be out of the show, so I spent a week living off of coffee. But I’m a very levelheaded person. These problems nowadays are with kids much, much younger than that, and that’s most of the problem – when they’re very young and vulnerable.”
While Coddington said that models need to be thin, since the camera adds pounds, she did assert that most designers and models take it too far. But some magazines are making a point of differing in opinion. Germany’s most popular womens’ magazine has banned the use of professional images on its pages. As of 2010, Brigitte will use only “real life women.” And Glamour magazine has been in the headlines lately for using nude images of plus-sized models.
But will the trend take? It’s really up to the designers. Karl Lagerfeld says he does not want to see “round” women in his designs, Donatella Versace has no interest in doing a plus-sized line, and Ralph Lauren is still weathering the tail end of the storm surrounding his advertising team’s reduction of a model’s waist-size to less than the width of her head. But designer Mark Fast used three plus-sized models to showcase his trademark tight knitted dresses, despite the very public row with his creative team over the idea.
LET’S HEAR IT
Big or thin: which should be in?
