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'No one wants to see curvy women': German designer

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Beth Ditto on the cover of Love

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(AFP)

Curvy women have no place on the catwalk, iconic German fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld was quoted as saying Sunday, after a magazine said it was banning skinny models in favour of "real women".

"No one wants to see curvy women," Lagerfeld was quoted as saying on the website of news magazine Focus.

"You've got fat mothers with their bags of chips sitting in front of the television and saying that thin models are ugly," he added.

The world of fashion is about "dreams and illusions", he said, dismissing as "absurd" the debate prompted by Brigitte magazine which said it would no longer feature professional models on its pages.

Brigitte, one of Germany's top women's magazines, said last week it would only publish photographs of "real women" after readers complained they could not identify with the models depicted.

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False Dichotomy
[info]editorialjoe wrote:
Monday, 12 October 2009 at 03:57 pm (UTC)
Ok, so for the fashion world, it's either a disgusting (and unhealthy) level of skinny OR the picture used above? Kind of a false dichotomy we're painting here, isn't it, editors?
Its the personality underneath...
[info]ancientoneuk wrote:
Monday, 12 October 2009 at 05:34 pm (UTC)
... that counts for it doesn't matter if they are fat or thin, what maketh the woman is the personality within and for the most part, ultra pretty women I have found to be more likely to be vain and extremely shallow.

I prefer ladies to be a bit "firm and fruity", to be intelligent and witty and not willing to turn themselves into anorexic abominations because "fashion" says so.

Putting it bluntly, I will talk all day and all night with a large lady with a mind than some brain-dead stick insect who looks like she might fade away at any second.
Re: Its the personality underneath...
[info]tibleydoc wrote:
Monday, 12 October 2009 at 05:58 pm (UTC)
What if you had a choice between a beautiful, slim girl with brains, wit and humour, and a clearly overweight, unattractive girl with the same brains, wit and humour? Would you just toss a coin in that situation? Don't tell my physical attraction doesn't come in to it. Anyone who says that is a liar. It is more a question of personal preference.

As for Lagerfeld, going by this article, the guy sounds like an absolute idiot.

Re: Its the personality underneath...
[info]starlingnl wrote:
Monday, 12 October 2009 at 06:39 pm (UTC)
There is more to attraction than "she ticks all the boxes on my list". There are hormones and chemistry involved. They've got nothing to do with fat, thin, brains, wit, etc. They're all to do with primitive instincts.

If you don't know that, you're too young or you haven't been paying much attention during your life!
Re: Its the personality underneath...
[info]pcplz wrote:
Monday, 12 October 2009 at 07:32 pm (UTC)
And.....you are probably bald, buckteethed, squinty eyed, fat man. But, if you had a terrific personality and could make me chuckle....?
curvy women and fashion designers
[info]mitchellnbeard wrote:
Monday, 12 October 2009 at 06:15 pm (UTC)
I like curvy women, and so do many straight guys. The catwalk look is a slim, tall woman, cos clothes look good on women with that shape. The androgynous look appeals to fashion designers. The woman needs to flatter the clothes, not the other way round.

Having said that, on a gig with a 20-stone girl in a gay club, the minute she got up to sing the crowd went nuts even before she opened her mouth. And none of them knew who she was. And she wasn't dead glam, either. 'It takes a big woman to sing a big song', in the immortal words of the drag queen who introduced the show. So big women do appeal to the gay community in their own way. Just not on the catwalk
Lagerfeld is right !
[info]avraamjack wrote:
Monday, 12 October 2009 at 06:18 pm (UTC)
Two thirds of Americans are overweight. One third are obese.

So clearly, skinny models are the problem.
[info]starlingnl wrote:
Monday, 12 October 2009 at 06:37 pm (UTC)
Like many, Lagerfeld confuses "curvy" with "fat". Then again, to him, "fat" is probably anything fatter than a toothpick.
Curvy Women
[info]dagny_francisco wrote:
Monday, 12 October 2009 at 06:57 pm (UTC)
What a joke. Karl Lagerfield is making a stereotypical assumption that all women who are "curvy" [and the definition of this varies widely!] are lazy, fat slobs who don't care about their appearance. This is precisely why we started the blog, What the Hell Are You Talking About?

We need to dispel this ridiculous notion that women *must* be a certain shape or size in order to be sexy, interesting and/or valuable.

Dagny & Francisco
What the Hell Are You Talking About?
http://whayta09.wordpress.com
[info]nilcarbarundum wrote:
Monday, 12 October 2009 at 07:21 pm (UTC)
What a git, what an utter git.
a non story
[info]white_rose2 wrote:
Monday, 12 October 2009 at 08:04 pm (UTC)
this obsession that the media has with skinny models is bizarre. How inadequate do I feel as a guy looking at muscly rugby players. Should muscly rugby players be banned because they make me feel bad and someone who spends all day in the gym can't possible represent the normal male body. I don't think so. How many women are there in the world who look like these girls? They're not normal just as racehorses aren't normal, and Usain Bolt isn't normal and Stephen Hawking isn't normal, they're exceptional, bred or created to do something out of the ordinary their talents being dictated by the requirements of their profession. Most blokes are most attracted to normal shaped women with breasts and hips not absurdly skinny professional clothes horses. It really isn't a big deal.
This Picture is Beautiful
[info]ladynara wrote:
Monday, 12 October 2009 at 08:29 pm (UTC)
I personally think the picture on the cover of the magazine is very beautiful. Yes the model could do with some flab reduction but at least it is different from the stick people these magazines have been peddling for donkey years!

Many cultures of the world appreciate a woman not skin and bones and there is a difference when a curvy woman wears a dress or an outfit and when skin and bones do.

How people can look at a skeleton and say she is beautiful is still very puzzling to me. If a woman is naturally skinny, she is usually healthy with it thus looks good as well but when you have artificial skinny, these women look more like people dying from an incurable disease than fashion models but of course the public have been conditioned to see them as beautiful so they all collectively decide that she is very beautiful and they all want to be like her.
well its true because
[info]philly_willy wrote:
Monday, 12 October 2009 at 09:01 pm (UTC)
He's a jerk-why woud he want to insult people? But hes right. HOWEVER beth ditto is dead cool. look when youre THAT big AND you're nude its ok.. but you'll always be a novelty- and that takes the attention away from the clothes. And unlike real people and celebrities models today are anonymous and uniformly proportioned so that, ideally, the focus stays where it needs to be, on the shmattes. However, seems a lot of women (not men) are distracted by the girls' thinness, which is valid. It may be so that some of the girls aren't eating and that some girls in the general population are emulating them. be so tnat it makes two things: i've noticed college-aged girls seem to feature a slim altheletic and very sexy physique- tan, long gorgeous hair and a lot of bareness. i don't see much of the influence of the runways in how young women are modeling themselves. you see, you don't need to state the obvious to a generation of women who can hold their own quite well thanks. it's sounding sooo cliche to hear these dated feminist comments 20 years from outraged readers. these girls know lagerfeld's an idiot. you sound like one too if you let him get to you.

Listen fashion is beautiful but there are other definitions which coexist: you need all the flavors to make a world. There are plenty of Milwaukee Greyhound stations and the like- why can't there be a small space reserved for something more rarefied? And if normal- to- plus-size women want their haute couture let them create it - i do not see a single woman who has put together a modern relevant collection on a runway for larger women at fashion week EVER- except perhaps Monique (?)- god bless the bitch. Instead there's just a lot of grumbling and mediocrity in the market. But guaranteed, if big girls looked as good as waifs in designer clothes like they claim they do , they would be modeling them. No one's holding anyone back on principle. It's because clothes drape beautifully on tall fine-boned adolescent models and show best against a young lovely face with symmetrical features.

Ultimately the biggest problem with skinny models in high fashion is that it pisses off larger women to have to look at them. And makes them feel shitty about themselves, makes them grumpy and ornery. I feel that way when I'm around a bunch of Wall Street Guys or by anyone younger and better looking than me when i'm feeling particularly old and raggedy or by everyone in the Hamptons- period. It's anoying . Skinny girls are not going to go out of fashion until some great apocalyptic hardship and we become a very poor society- like Africa- and even then it would take a generation or two to adjust the aesthetic so dramatically- so you wouldn't live to see it. So deal with it.
karl
[info]kassandranobody wrote:
Monday, 12 October 2009 at 10:50 pm (UTC)
what karl means is all the gay men who decide what we will be wearing- don't like fat women- slim women are much more androgynous- so much more attractive- to gay men
look and see what happened to fiji and other islands (where women have always been voluptuous) as soon as they started getting fashion magazines - the young women became anorexic - something that was unheard of before
I say lets throw them away- no one can afford those clothes anymore anyway
[info]kittyvoo wrote:
Tuesday, 13 October 2009 at 04:03 am (UTC)
Let's hope our daughters' dreams and illusions are tied to the real world and not to what to what some aging mysoginist thinks we want. Karl, down here on the couch there are many dreamers and guess what? We ain't all fantasising about Chanel suits!.
Unhealthy women have no place on the catwalk curves or no curves.
[info]atiavondiesel wrote:
Tuesday, 13 October 2009 at 04:57 pm (UTC)
The problem is not that they are thin and gorgeous and "average" women are jealous, the problem is that they are most likely unhealthy and they are inspiring women all over the world "not to eat all day and only eat a small square of cheese when they feel like they are going to faint" a line from the movie a The Devil Wares Prada. Yes these models are unique like rugby players and racehorse and that is why they are on the catwalk and not at the checkout stand. But racehorses drop dead all the time and if rugby players are anything like body-builders, pro-athlets and other idiots that take a load of steroids and enhancement performance drugs that make them walking time bombs. That is why these emaciated models are being banded people don't miss the point and Karl Lagerfeld and others that think like him should be considered murderers.

Karl Lagerfeld is a freaken idiot for saying such stupidity. Unhealthy women have no place on the catwalk curves or no curves. Besides curvy does not equal fat and lardy, curvy is a just a women with a great behind and a nice set of perky ladies...salma hayek, elizabeth hurley, Carla Gugino, Kate Beckinsalef do I need more examples.
what an ugly man HE is!!!
[info]lee_ji_me wrote:
Tuesday, 13 October 2009 at 08:03 pm (UTC)
he can talk, he looks like a freak of nature with his stringy pony tail and ravaged face, he always covers up his neck and looks like he is on drugs or something
no one wants to see his ugly face but it is everywhere
take no notice of him
it is freaks like this who contribute to all the problems in the world and their ideas
Lagerfield Says No One Wants to See Curvey Models
[info]megson wrote:
Wednesday, 14 October 2009 at 05:24 am (UTC)
Well, this is rich coming from Lagerfield who looks like a Macy's Day Parade float hovering next to his skinny model. I guess he is eating all the food his models leave behind, so it's okay for him to be fat and gross, just not his muses.
BTY, curvy, healthy women are sexy, but the woman shown on this page and the one in the actual article are both extremes - anorexic and obese - not healthy.

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