Jennifer Garner Spanx "Shocker"
Lest you think stars slip effortlessly into their couture, Jennifer Garner admits that she wears not one, but two girdles when she’s walking the red carpet. Garner says:
I usually feel like, “No matter how many girdles you put me in, you will not be able to zip this.”They always say to you — as though it’s something that should make you happy — “This is fresh from the runway.” But what I think is, That was made for some 14-year-old girl from Russia! It was not made to go on my body.
The Entertainment Lawyer (who also recently wrote about Kiefer Sutherland’s weight) spins this comment in a negative way, noting that:
Isn’t she being just a bit of a hypocrite? I’m sure she didn’t think of it that way when she made the statement, and I think we all know she is not one to dress up everyday, but still, she complains that designers don’t understand the body she has, and I don’t think she understands that the average size in the world isn’t 2.
I mean, isn’t Jennifer Garner just working with the body she has? I guess I don’t understand the complaint. Should she have added a disclaimer before her statement, like, “even though I am far thinner than most women on earth, even I do not fit into runway clothes”? Just, a weird spin.
And it’s spun here as a “girdle confession,” as if it’s some big shameful secret. Which, obviously, it’s not. I find it refreshingly normal, in fact.
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Celebrities, Fashion, Jennifer Garner
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I have a big fat girl crush on Jennifer Garner. Hearing this makes me want to make out with her.
That is all. You may go about your business.
I think I see where The Entertainment Lawyer is coming from though. Because, yes, it’d be even MORE refreshing if what Garner had said was, “hey, even my body, which is a large part of what I have built my profession on, is not what designers are designing for.” Right now, it kind of sounds like she thinks she has it really hard.
And girdles ARE kind of a shameful secret, I imagine. They are one of the least sexy undergarments presented to society, and they are seen as something fat people wear. If someone as thin as Garner is has to wear a girdle people can either say, hey, runway clothes are fucked up or they can say, hey, she must be fat. Given responses to Brittney’s body at the VMAs? I’m not putting too much money on the first response being the most common.
Someone replied with: “I would not be a happy camper if I was that big myself.” Below a picture of Jennifer Garner looking very thin indeed. (She’s not teeny tiny becuase she’s not built like a pixie. That doesn’t make her “big”).
And, argh, there is of course already someone in the comments saying Garner is one of the “bigger” girls of Hollywood and, of course, SHE wouldn’t be happy at that size.
I don’t understand the complaints either. I find it refreshing that Garner is speaking about these issues. She’s smaller than probably 90 percent of American women – if she can’t fit into these clothes being modeled by, yes 14-year-old girls, who else can?
I love Jennifer Garner. This just makes me love her more. And by the way? When she was acting in Alias and had a little “baby weight,” she was totally hotter.
Love the blog, btw. Not sure if I’ve commented here yet.
I think Jen was just being honest about her feelings, totally allowed. But yeah, how lame is it that even size 2 women are made to feel like they are too fat. This craziness has to be stopped.
I think any woman who is a leading lady in show business has it very hard. Regardless of weight. You are never just right. You’re too thin or too-fat.
I’m just stunned by the concept of double Spanx. Totally never occurred to me.
And I’m in the camp that loves Garner for this.
In my more body-hating days, I have done the equivalent of the double-Spanx but with more heavy-duty gear. One really must remember to pee BEFORE suiting up like that.
And I’m not saying Garner doesn’t have a right to feel like the standards are unreasonable – just that it would have been MORE refreshing if she had acknowledged the ridiculousness of the standard in the context of many shapes and sizes instead of just hers, which is still considered pretty freakin’ ideal. As I said at the blog, I don’t think hypocrite is the right word. Possibly, oblivious.
She is completely honest and I love her for it! I wish there were more celebs like her.
Yes, she is far thinner than most of us, but just look at the size of her hands, she has really big hands and super long fingers, you can see that she wasn’t meant to be a size 1!
Speaking of her hands, she has really beautiful hands, I sort of have a hand thing (hands fetish). Actually her hubby Ben Afflec has really nice hands as well. They could tag team as hand models… LOL I bet there daughter Violet will be the next hand super model :-)
my other comment to the critics is ” and if she had said that she’s smaller than most women in America, how much more would people be criticizing her for being a snob” and rightly so. I mean, I do think she said it all with the 14 year old girl comment.
I’m not really surprised about the girdle thing, but I’m happy she admitted to it.
Really, girdles arent’ exactly just for slimming a body, but for smoothing the line and curve of the body so that clothing hangs correctly. It’s very silly that we’re so quiet on the subject of girdles and the like. As someone who has had to wear many formal gowns I know that nearly EVERYONE usually ends up wearing some type of underware that subtly changes shape…Puts padding here…diminishes a little there, cinches just so…etc…and we’ve been wearing these garments (men too) since the dawn of civilization in the fertile cresent.
That it is media worthy is a little surprising to me.
Like most women, I too wear some kind of girdle from time to time. I live in Spanx and even have some real girdles for dress-up occasions. I’m sure that Hollywood women, even those with perfect bodies are just like me. Their figures may be better, but they’re more in the public eye. They admit that they wear girdles or Spanx all the time. There’s nothing shocking or surprising about this at all. But I think that the news media likes to run articles like this because they think it is titillating.
Here’s the deal ladies -
Stars do not buy or have made red carpet gowns. They are most often borrowed PR samples, which have already been photographed or on the runway, or on a foreign socialite. It’s a publicity thing. Those dresses do not live in their closets. Ever.
Runway models are about 1-2 sizes smaller (and also taller) than even the smallest stars you know. Truly. They are. And in their teens. Editorial fashion is even crueler to the ego than pop culture cameras. That’s why only models usually do it.
Therefore, when those stars are loaned those gowns by the designers (99.9% of the time) – they wear Spanx. Sometimes two. Or Givenchy body smoother hose – the best. The gowns are also altered, taped, let out. pinched in, etc etc etc.
Red Carpet is not a reality! For anyone, not the stars, not you, not anyone. It is a beautiful (sometimes) fantasy to look at, a glamorous moment of nothing. And certainly nothing – ever – for anyone ever to feel either envious of (the stars are envious of the taller, smaller, younger models, and the models are envious of the
famous, charming, loved stars) or intimidated by. Be inspired. Judge none of those girls – make your own glamour.
cheers.
grl in thebiz
Cheers