Walking by the GAP this morning I saw their visual merchandise people putting up a new window display. This isn't anything unusual since they change these displays about every month, but the image today was startling. There was a larger than life photo of what I assume was a woman wearing ultra tight jeans and a bare midriff top. Her face looked normal enough but her body was impossibly thin.
Like Calvin Klein, the GAP has decided to Photoshop inches off their models to make them look like Auschwitz survivors. If this woman is really as thin as she appears in the photo, she would be too frail to stand, and her face is bigger than her waist!
I understand fashion marketing. Clothes that are designed impossibly thin on paper, look better on tall thin models. The problem is, these artificially reduced bodies hold up impossible ideals for people. Worse still, the whole "skinny look" looks good on only a tiny fraction of men and women, on the rest it just looks ludicrous.
American's as a whole are overweight, and I am no exception, but to design clothes for only emaciated bulimics is silly. I guess the fashion industry is so drunk on their own Kool-Aid that they forget what actually looks good on the street.
How long will it be until the GAP has to fess up to it's deceptive window display and apologize like Ralph Lauren. Of course he did fire the model he Photoshopped for being too fat. She was a size 4!
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2 comments:
I almost went anorexic in 2001, but recently beat anorexia by putting on the pounds faster than I would have thought. In 2001 I had dropped to 170 pounds, with my 5 ft 11 inches in height. Even though it's well within the BMI scale (which is BS as far as the vast opinion of most doctors and people in general), I wanted my 'normal' 200 pounds back again. It's a good healthy weight, and I felt good with it too. Wish granted in 2003 when I was doing better health wise. But the gain never stopped. I've gained every year since then, and now I'm fully 270 pounds naked. Anyway, I'm just as guilty of desiring a certain weight look, and want it back again, but it will take time, exercise, and diet. For the rest of the world, it's energy drinks and diets which would ultimately kill a person before they're 50. Here's a link about the GAP advertisement:
"Model too skinny in Gap ad for black skinny pants"
http://www.backinskinnyjeans.com/2006/09/model_too_skinn.html
richard h.
fort worth, texas, usa
Hardy, you're right on again to attack this crime - for that it is. Pictures from the fashion shows in Paris this year are gag-worthy.
Models so emaciated that tendons look like hawsers is not MY idea of the feminine ideal! Like you, I'm not exactly a hard body, but my weight isn't putting me in jeopardy as the like of girth is jeopardizing those thin-at-any cost role models for young girls & women...
My lady had daughters who fought anorexia - and won; many mothers though are daughterless because of this media-driven scourge.
Thanks for adding a voice guy!
JLubeJack
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