Short Body Image and Size Diversity Rant

Non-standard size (but not petite in height either) model, Crystal Renn

I read another body image related post in a blog I follow, so I felt like I should write a post here about it.  I don't know about you, but I'm sick and tired of all those body image activists who claim that they want diversity, but in reality, only want to see more size 12 or so models in magazines and on the runway.  Yes, that may be adding to the body types when it comes to what's pretty/beautiful, but it is not diverse.  If you're only going to have Crystal Renn (above) on the runway with a sea of 5'11" size 0 models, it's called tokenism.  In order to be diverse, you have to have a lot of different types.  Unfortunately, short women, or even average heighted women don't factor in to most body diversity activists' interests.  To them, it's all about the dress size, and one that is larger than, say, a US size 4 (UK 8). 

I realize that I see a lot of people my size in magazines, but the people in magazines aren't usually in FASHION SPREADS.  I see people my size in magazines like In Touch or US Weekly because people my size in the public eye are musicians or actresses.  Sure, they get to be in fashion and lifestyle magazines too, but they're not usually doing fashion.  They're cover girls with an interview inside.  Once in a while, you'll see them at some sort of charity fashion show.  That's pretty much it.  Size diversity should encompass every size, height and frame included.

/rant

(Look for another body image/specialty size related post coming soon.  It will be on both this site and DelectablyChic!.  I just need to gather more information on exclusively specialty size designers and what people think of them!)

When Models are Too Tall for a Dress





These pictures are from the Amanda Lew Kee show at LG Fashion Week in Toronto.   Several pieces in Amanda's Spring/Summer 2011 collection feature dresses in this length, which would work better on shorter women than the 5'11"ish models.  I know they say that clothes "hang better" on tall people, but this is, in my opinion, ridiculous.  I realize the model is wearing leggings/tights in the first picture, but since they are close to her enough to her natural skin colour, it is telling the viewer that what she's wearing is meant to be a dress rather than a long shirt.  Sorry, but it doesn't look good in this case.


(images courtesy of DelectablyChic!, my other site)

Alternative Modelling and Petites

Petites, of course, are supposed to fall into this category, but for some reason, we aren't included in the Facebook Event celebrating alternative models (Alternative Model Week is in August. More information will be posted here and in Prospere Magazine closer to the date). I've even posted a note on the wall, but the admins have not changed anything as of Wednesday afternoon. Perhaps we need to have a bigger voice. You see tattooed people, people with multiple piercings, goth and even the more mainstream plus being celebrated, but us shorties? Nope. Nada.

Maybe there just aren't enough designers interested in risking it, especially in Canada. Maybe we need to encourage fashion students to go an alternate route. Isn't it interesting that people are more willing to be "weird" alternative than mainstream-alternative (i.e. plus and petite)? I would think that there are more people who'd be interested in mainstream-alternative, especially in a country like Canada. We're, after all, generally less risk-taking. Even Ben Barry, the Canadian modelling agent who encourages all shapes and sizes seems to ignore the shorties.

So what can we do? Well, starting a website to talk about these issues is one. This seems to be the most common, though most petite websites don't seem to update very regularly (Serafina, Petite Fashionista and this site are the most regular). Encouraging designers to think outside of the box is another. Of course, the latter can be hard. The fashion industry, as creative as they are, seem to be very narrow-minded when it comes to what looks good. Last year, I was at an event where one of the guests was a Canadian designer who has had shows in L'Oreal Fashion Week (won't name this person, as I am afraid of getting into trouble). I told this designer about this blog, and though this person was very friendly prior to my mentioning Shorty Stories, stopped talking to me all together afterwards. And trust me, it was NOT the alcohol. Petite fashion shouldn't only be shows like Petite Fashionista Presents. Petite fashion should be everywhere.

Of course, even if we are successful in encouraging designers to go petite, there's no guarantee that the Canadian Fashion Design Council will respond well to them. I've heard that some people there have a reputation to be pretty much the Anna Wintour of the North. And we all know what that means.

Shorty Stories: Jessica's Modeling Story

Jessica sent me her Shorty Story over a year ago about an experience she had at a big modeling agency:

I'm 5'1" and around a 00P. I've always wanted to be a model, since I was like 4 and I always said that when I grew up, I was going to be a high fashion model and model for Coco Chanel! Well recently, I tried out for Ford Models - like THE hugest modeling company there is! So I walked in, and sat down. The woman who was interviewing me walked in after I had sat down so she couldnt tell how tall i was. She was about to sign me, just from seeing my face and hair.

For more of the story, please click here

Just out of curiousity to readers: Should Jessica have even gone to the open call? After all, fashion modeling is still overwhelmingly for very tall, skinny, young looking girls. And if you try to talk so-called "experts" out of it, they'll just give you that stupid "clothes need to look like they're on hangers" speech. It's funny that they do, because they're supposed to be creative, and creative people usually like to think outside of the box. They don't even consider that there are designers who make specialty sizes out there (wasn't plus sizes a challenge on Project Runway? A challenge that many contestants had trouble with?)

Petite Fit Modeling....would you do it?

In the August edition of Petite Personal Shopper, a notice was posted in the Fashion News section that UK clothing brand, Dorothy Perkins is looking for a fit model for their petite range. Keep in mind that this isn't a glamourous opportunity to become the first truly petite supermodel (supermodels don't really exist today, at least not to the extent they did in the 80s and 90s anyway), but a fit opportunity. A fit model tries on clothes so that designers/design technicians can fix any imperfections. The catch is that you have to have perfect proportions for a given size, which in the case of Dorothy Perkins is a UK 12 (US 8). While it isn't listed on Petite Personal Shopper, it's probably expected that you be a certain height (probably 5'2" or so). You also have to be very patient and be able to stand very still for long periods of time. Would this be something that you'd ever do, if given the opportunity? I would. Who knows, maybe I'll launch my own clothing line out of this, like Paige Adams-Geller's Paige Premium Denim!

Is "All shapes and sizes" synonymous with "plus sized"?

A segment on Entertainment Tonight Canada the other day talked about a Canadian model (her name escapes me...if anyone saw that show, please let me know) who gained weight and decided to keep it (she'd rather be at a more healthy weight, which ET Canada reported as 140 lb for her 5'10" frame....very slim, but a healthy weight for her height) rather than go down to her 120 lb "model weight." According to the report, she now does some work for a (Canadian) designer who uses models of "all shapes and sizes." However, the girls that ET Canada showed all looked like they were "plus" and probably on the taller side. I thought "all shapes and sizes" meant just that. Short, tall, skinny, not-so-skinny...at least the "Four Basic Shapes" I outlined in an entry last month. But shows like ET (all versions, whether Canadian, American or whatever) seem to want to focus only on plus. This doesn't make it all that diverse, does it? It's like saying that an organization is "multicultural" when all the visible minorities are of one ethnicity. In terms of size, it's like saying "hey petite woman, you don't really matter, when it comes to beauty/fashion (even though there are many celebs who are actually petite.).

This designer doesn't look like she designs for "all shapes and sizes" if it turns out that none of the clothes properly fit petite women, regardless of whether she's thin or plus. She only designs for some shapes and sizes, or "standard" and "plus." But at the same time, I'm not surprised. The American version of Entertainment Tonight seems to have an OBSESSION with plus sizes. Whenever they talk about body image/body size topics, it's plus, plus, plus. And usually they interview Mo'Nique (or whatever her name is). I realize that plenty of people are overweight in this part of the world, but talking only about plus sizes (and not discussing a plus sized person's height...no one ever talks about how a 5'2" woman who is size 16 probably looks very different from a 5'10 woman of the same dress size) isn't making things any better. Of course, as usual, the media will not listen to my rants (I actually left a message with Global Television re: the ET Canada thing...doubt I'd ever get a call back!)

From the Edmonton Journal: How skinny and tall does a fashion model have to be?

Last week, I had the chance to speak with David Staples of the Edmonton Journal about height and modeling. He had found my blog and website through an online petition called "Short is Beautiful", which was created by someone who felt that the 5'7" height requirement for Canada's Next Top Model was discriminatory.

You can find the David's entire blog entry here.

Found this petition..."Short Is Beautiful"

This petition is probably very old, and unfortunately, even if it had 1000s of signatures, won't change a thing in the modeling/fashion industry. The petition was put up by Canadians who felt that the 5'7" minimum requirement for Canada's Next Top Model was discriminating against short, beautiful women. I do agree, and did sign it, but knowing the fashion industry (and the media pretty much brushing off short women doesn't help...every time I hear about size issues, it seems to be plus, plus, plus...)

Other petite petitions include:

A More Petite Friendly Fashion Industry (which I created over a year ago)

A Petite Board for the Lou Lou Magazine website (Lou Lou is a Canadian shopping mag...kind of like Lucky)

Models Threat To Sue Blocked Size Zero Ban

From a February 11 Observer article

Alexandra Shulman, an editor of (British?) Vogue and member of the London Fashion Council, said this: "We would not be allowed to discriminate in that way. It would be like saying you can't have black or white models. By imposing new rules on models' size, you would be trying to prove whether someone was ill or well."

Melissa Richardson of Take Two model agency said:

"It was one of the points we made. You can't say to models, "you can't work because you are black or because you are blind", so why should you be able to say 'you are too thin to work?'."

Ummm, Ms. Shulman and Ms. Richardson, your industry ALREADY discriminates! Why do you think I have this blog? Why do you think I have my Shorty Stories site? If you didn't discriminate, Ms. Shulman and Ms. Richardson, the runways would have models of all sizes and HEIGHTS. Yes, Ms. Shulman and Ms. Richardson, that's right. In the perfect world, someone Eva Longoria's height and size would be walking down the runway (so yes, in the perfect world, it would be realistic to believe that Gabrielle Solis is a former model.)

April 2007 Survey Results

Below are the April 2007 results:

The question was: Would you rather be 5'0 and a size 0 or 5'7 and size 14?

To summarize:

34% said: 5'0" even and size zero. I like being tiny and delicate

3.8% said: 5'7" and size 14. You're wearing a larger size, but at least pants and tops are cut at the right length. Alterations won't cost as much, if at all.

34% said: Neither. I'd like to be 5'7" or so and a size 6 or 8.

18.9% said: Neither. I'd like to be 5'10 or taller and a small size so I can be a model

9.4% said: None of the above (aka neither)

Personally, I think these results show that there's a dire need of more petite sizes and that we as petite women are an ignored segment of society that, without media attention, would continue to be ignored. What do you think?

By the way: The May Survey is up!

Height issues in fashion (part one million)

Last October, I asked readers of my site whether shorter models would be better for today's extremely thin sample sizes. The majority of you, at close to 70% said that the industry should. Are you surprised at the results (even if things are very unlikely to change?)? Do you think there's anything we can do to encourage the fashion industry (other than using more celeb spokespeople)? Comments would be great as I would like the media to read this blog!

October results