(no subject)

[threeplusfire]

It's good to see the Kate Moss trend alive and well. I was flipping through photos from fashion week in New York on the wires, and it struck me how creepily skinny so many of the models appeared. Every now and then one who looked almost normal would pop out. It's a weird thing, because there were lots of lovely clothes but the people bother me. Coture and designer fashion is such an odd art form.

I have a hard time finding a lot of models attractive in anything other than an abstract way. Mostly because the idea of a six foot tall praying mantis person is not a sexy image. Not only that, but they are blank canvases. They exhibit no personality, they seem to exist as vehicles for the clothes. On one hand, you know, that's interesting, and on the other it is so boring because it's been done over and over. Too bad there's no one doing anything subversive and weird with models. Runway show of the newest creepy plastic surgery techniques and modifications maybe? Give them all tails I say.

It has less to do with my own self image than any psych would tell you. I bear no malice or hidden loathing of the tall skinny people. My only jealousy stems from the fact that they must have an easier time of finding comfortable jeans than I do, but that's really more of an issue with stores that only stock approximately five sizes. I bear more malice towards marketers and pitchfolk who create magazine spreads and commercials that carry the message that being a certain way, using a certain product, having a certain look will make one happy.

But enough about the race of praying mantis people who will surely take over the world in their Prada heels. We went to Dennys after work, saw drunk women talking on an ancient cell phone, a waiter get fired for arguing with a customer about something or other, a strange man who ignored his girlfriend but talked to us, and various other weird bits of the post bar hour in a twenty four seven diner. Ate greasy, greasy fried food. It's alright.

I want a chocolate shake now, I'm feeling so American.

Comments

[tinywarrior.livejournal.com]

This is the greatest post I've read in a while. I have more to say, but I've got to get it in some ordered fashion in my head. This is good writing!

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I was inspired by the praying mantis people. :P

[water-damage.livejournal.com]

Which Dennys were you at? I hope it wasn't my waiter!

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

Ah the one near Northcross Mall on Burnet, right next to an Exxon.

[water-damage.livejournal.com]

that's my Denny's. Poor waiter

[evilgeniuskatie.livejournal.com]

Color me pretty resentful of most of those comments. ~KMK

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

It's not meant to be a value judgement. Just rumination on how I'm not paticularily attracted to that stereotype, and how odd it all seems to me. (That and how some of the models remind me of insects because of their long limbs and angles) If that is your thing, I'm not going to tell you you're wrong somehow or that you need to change.

[evilgeniuskatie.livejournal.com]

I, and the people you callously deride, didn't ask to be born tall and lanky. ~KMK

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

Listen, all I was expressing is that I find the models I most often see on runways to not be the sort of women I typically find attractive. For heaven's sake it wasn't meant to be an insult to all tall lanky folk. It was simply a comment on the prevelance of a specific body type in that arena, how I find fashion models boring because they don't tend to exhibit personality during shows, and the idea of fashion models as the insect race that would colonize the earth as a flight of fancy. I'm not passing a bloody value judgement here, you're reading too much into that.

[(Anonymous)]

How do you manage to wear clothes? As sensitive as you are, it must be painful.

If you had a shread of reading comprehension, you'd have realized she wasn't referring to you, your tall and lanky friends, or her tall and lanky fiance` when she wrote this little gem. It's pretty clear that she was talking about the chocolate bunnies that are fashion models- they may look pretty at the store, but once you get the foil off, you realize they're hollow.

I'll let you in on a little secret now: THE INTERNET IS NOT ALL ABOUT YOU. If you see a piece of good writing, ponder it; if you don't like, just move on. Don't take it to heart, or you're going to spend the rest of your life wondering how people could say such awful things about you.

You have a long way to climb, but you may someday get over yourself.

~Smoove B

[evilgeniuskatie.livejournal.com]

Um....

Hey shithead....

I am one of those models.

And I like to think that I'm not hollow.

And while I'm at it. Have a hearty dose of FUCK YOU.* ~KMK

*Not in the mood to flame your trolly ass.

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

You know, I think you missed an important point in the post I made. I said models didn't interest me because they were used a canvas, they aren't paid to bring any expression of their own into the art. And that essentially is a problem with the industry and with the perception of a model's purpose, etc. I think you would be hard pressed to deny that a great many people in that profession exist to be canvases. I think it's abundantly clear that you have a personality here, so the whole damn thing is really a non issue.

[evilgeniuskatie.livejournal.com]

That last comment was for A. Nynymouse.

But since you seem pressed to push this conversation.

No, most models, even of the top tier don't exist to be cavases anymore than you or your neighbor or some guy up say...Denver.

It's a job. Just like any other. Now granted, it takes some physical prerequisites, mostly in appearance, but there's also mind stuff, try staying expressionless with a bunch of cameras going off in your face. But as for job skills like these so goes other jobs, say: roofing, you gotta be strong and not mind sun. Or how about accounting? You need to be good with numbers.

It has nothing to do with "existing as such" or an "art form," it has to do with PAYING THE BILLS. That's what it comes down to. The average career of a model can be measured in SINGLE YEARS. It's a great job to pay your way through college and sure beats stripping.

You know most models are? They're just like everybody else, they just happen to have pretty faces and good bodies (which is actually the hardest part of the job). Don't confuse work with art. Or even high fashion with art for that matter. ~KMK

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

The reason I'm pursuing this is because I think you took my writing a bit too personally, a bit too seriously and missed the point.

I view most high fashion as an art form. These shows are essentially art for the coture crowd. Sure there's a lot of fashion that exists to be put on the rack at Target and mass marketed, but I tend to see the high end stuff like Fashion Week as the arty side of the business.

Yeah, modelling pays the bills. It's a job. Several of my friends, girlfriend included, have done modelling work. But it's also a job where the clothes are the ultimate product, and a model is essentially the same as a mannequin except that they move. The model is there to show off the clothes. They exist to show off a conception of beauty, style, whatever you want to call it.

All I was attempting to say in my post was that I found that boring. So sue me, or get over it, or just think for a minute about it from another point of view. It was not intended, as I have said so many times, to be an attack.

I think you're making a bit of a mistake in assuming work can't be art and vice versa as well, but that's an entirely different track.

[tinywarrior.livejournal.com]

They're just like everybody else, they just happen to have pretty faces and good bodies. . .


Wow. Sad. This small comment says much, doesn't it?

[(Anonymous)]

And perhaps you missed the point I made, as well. Trolling and flamethrowing aside, you need thicker skin. You should also learn to apply better judgement in what you choose to get angry about. Opinions can't be wrong; you don't have to like them, but you should learn to accept the fact that you aren't going to change something as basic as what someone else finds attractive.

Also learn to accept that there are sterotypes that go with some professions. They exist for a reason.

If you can't learn these simple things, learn to keep your mouth shut. Or at least learn to not act surprised when someone tells you to keep the big fucking thing shut.

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

Smoove B, shouldn't you be at work right now and not online? I know where you are...

[(Anonymous)]

Haven't you seen my license plate? It says "PD2TROLL". =P

I did

[soccer-mom56.livejournal.com]

Sadly, I got one of the two.

Re: I did

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

You asked at birth for tall and lanky? That probably made your mother cranky. ;)

Seriously, none of this is meant to be derisive.

Re: I did

[soccer-mom56.livejournal.com]

In the heart shaped box/womb, I prayed to Allah to make me tall, thin and beautiful.

I think that my mom would have preferred that I was not a fat baby as she had to carry me around for months.


After I got out of course.

[tamperevident.livejournal.com]

i've noticed the models i normally see in catalogs such as JCrew and VS getting skinnier over the past few years... its a bit creepy, actually. you see someone go from really skinny to emaciated in two years, to keep up with the pressures of the industry, and then they dissapear from the catalogs all together, replaced by new younger arrivals. its true that people who model for a living choose to put themselves in that situation, but i can't help but wonder what it must feel like, the pressure must be enormous.

yes, an odd art form, indeed.

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

It's brutal, brutal work, as my friends in New York would attest. And one hell of a head trip as well.

I think what bothers me most is that so many of the models I see on runways and in photo spread are thin to the point of emaciation and no amount of makeup or photoshop will convince me that looks healthy. The VS models are a good example of the turnover and the cycle towards thinner and thinner women.