I shamelessly stole this from Style Spy because
a) it’s awesome
b) I’m about to go on vacation so I’m not even trying to come up with my own material.
All Walks Beyond the Catwalk from ALL WALKS BEYOND THE CATWALK on Vimeo.
On one hand, YAY! On the other, uh, not to look a gift cat in the mouth, but is this really all walks?
Because it kinda looks to me like it’s “mostly the same walk, but some have bigger shoes and oh there’s a black girl too“.
It’s like you can have ONE thing working “against” you: you can be plus-size if you’re tall and young and gorgeous. You can be black as long as you’ve got processed hair and fit all other standard model requirements. You can be old as long as you’ve got the bone structure of a patrician flamingo. And you can be tall if you’re…well, you kinda have to be tall.
Don’t get me wrong, I still really like this video and the concept behind it.
Maybe they didn’t include women who are more than just a hair out of the mainstream because they didn’t want to seem like it was a gimmick.
I mean Jackie Robinson was a great ball player, but he wasn’t the best the Negro Leagues had to offer by a long shot, but the reason you know Jackie Robinson instead of Ray Dandridge –widely considered one of the best ever to have played the game– is that Mr Robinson was far more palatable to white working class America than Mr Dandridge. Maybe they wanted to make sure the women were still palatable enough for fashion consumption: thus the being tall and beautiful and mostly slender.
Clothes as they’re designed now look better on tall women and on thin women.
They just do. Being tall means you can carry off a lot of stuff short chicks can’t, and that’s just the way it is (you pocket people get all the men, so let the tall girls have this one) but just because tall girls have an easier time of things doesn’t mean designers should be expected to design only for tall women. But they do.
I believe the average fit model is about 5’9″ which is fine for me, I’m just an inch taller, but the average American woman is just under 5’4″ oh, and petite models? Generally between 5’6″ – 5’8″.
So should we be glad that in an industry so totally skewed and screwed that designers are getting and embracing SOME change and take what we can get or do the All Walks people get a “close, but no style cigar”?
I watched it before I read the rest of the post, and as I was watching I kept thinking, well, all of these women look the same to me. I kept looking for the Token Big Girl and couldn’t find one. Or the Token Odd-Looking Girl, although a lot of models look kind of odd to me anyway.
Anyway, they all looked tall, thin and gorgeous, even if they weren’t AS thin as the walking clothes-hangers in most shows. It’s a nod in the right direction, but not a step.
Comment by Sarah — October 9, 2009 @ 1:09 pm
I watched it before I read the rest of the post, and as I was watching I kept thinking, well, all of these women look the same to me. I kept looking for the Token Big Girl and couldn’t find one. Or the Token Odd-Looking Girl, although a lot of models look kind of odd to me anyway.
Anyway, they all looked tall, thin and gorgeous, even if they weren’t AS thin as the walking clothes-hangers in most shows. It’s a nod in the right direction, but not a step.
Sorry, forgot to add great post! Can’t wait to see your next post!
Comment by Sarah — October 9, 2009 @ 3:21 pm
I’m going to have to lean toward no cigar. Maybe an honorable mention?
Comment by Mrs. Hendricks — October 9, 2009 @ 4:33 pm
I’ll be more generous. There were appreciable differences, but not glaring ones. And we aren’t suddenly going to get everything — to continue your Jackie Robinson analogy, while there were three blacks playing for Major league ball clubs in 1947, it wasn’t until 1949 that any more joined their number, and it wasn’t until 19*5*9 that all teams had at least one black player.
So, I’ll say Acknowledge it as a small step.
Comment by rabrab — October 9, 2009 @ 10:04 pm
They don’t get close or a cigar from me. This reminds me of those Baywatch episodes or the SyFy movies where the “homely” girl is a playboy bunny with somewhat nerdy glasses. These women are all very lovely, and I’m glad they are lovely, but this isn’t all bodies, and I’m not feeling generous today.
Comment by Lisa — October 10, 2009 @ 11:28 am
This is their idea of “diversity”? Seriously?
For the fashion world, maybe it is, but… really??
Comment by Synnamin — October 10, 2009 @ 8:27 pm
I agree Synnamin. This is STILL hardly representative of all women. But at least it’s a start. http://www.newsy.com/videos/fashion_s_new_line_up
Comment by Kayla — October 12, 2009 @ 11:22 am
no cigar, no nothing. You want revolutionary? Try dressing a zaftig middle-aged woman. Hell, try doing an entire collection and show with zaftig middle-aged women. Ground rules: no frump, no Chico’s, no mutton-dressed-as-fug.
Diversity, my…cheeks.
Comment by theDiva — October 12, 2009 @ 11:34 am