I'm Just Not Buying It
I am totally addicted to Bravo’s Fashion Show (or as we call it at our house, Project Fakeway). Isaac Mizrahi is a delight, and I even like Kelly Rowland.
Last week, they had the obligatory “real” woman challenge. (Sorry, size zero models, that you are not “real.”) In this instance, the “real” women were actually pretty normal-sized; the largest person looked to be maybe a size 12.
In advance of the show, there was a preview that showed Isaac Mizrahi calling one of the designers “sizist.” The Rotund took note:
One of the designers goes off on the 43 inch hips of her person and another person is all, omg, my person has 45 inch hips like it’s the end of the world. And that’s when it happens. Isaac Mizrahi – designer for Target-That-Broke-My-Heart – busts out with “Frankly, I think you’re being very sizist.â€
Like, he used the word SIZIST. I am all a-flutter! Dude! I know it’s just a preview, but it seemed like it was a part of a larger chewing out. Dare I hope that this was an actual factual fat positive (or at least general body positive) moment on television?
To answer the question, from the TWoP recap, here’s how it went down:
Kelly switches gears and says that every woman has something she loves and something she hates about her body. Isaac says that Donna Karan has made a career from building body-loving clothing and reminds them that this show is about creating real clothes for real women. Then, Kelly says that they are about to meet the real women with whom they will be working. All of the agents [at the modeling agency] stand up! They line up and the camera pans over one girl who is probably a size 12 like she is ENORMOUS.
Reco’s not worried. His aunt is a size 16 and his sister is a size 12, and he designs for them all of the time. OK, if Reco cools it with the workroom shit-talking, I think he may have just officially won me forever.
I totes love Reco, by the way.
At the workroom, they all get to work. Haven and Daniella compare whose client has the largest ass. 43-inch for Kashelle and 45-inch for Daniella’s girl. Then, they spend hours padding their mannequins. They’re acting like they’re designing for Martians…Daniella explains that she’s having a problem because her model is bigger all over. Isaac stops her and says that a size 16 is average for the real world. He thinks she’s being sizist.
I saw the episode, and after he says she’s being sizist, her eyes get all wide and she’s like “no! I’m not!” but doesn’t really defend herself much. She does look abashed, though. Chagrined, even!
Here’s T. Lo’s take:
Now, normally we dread when shows like this do a so-called “real world” challenge because our comments section tends to explode with outrage from, well, “real” women. We don’t blame them for that, but we recognize how much and how well certain buttons are being pushed in certain segments of the audience. Having said that…
THESE WOMEN ALL HAD PERFECTLY FINE BODIES, YOU ASSHOLES.
All of that obnoxious on-camera wailing and gnashing of teeth over women who don’t have visible hip bones was so over-the-top, all we could think was, “Do these idiots realize there are cameras on them?”
Honestly (and we realize some of you may disagree), if they were actually dealing with obese clients we could at least understand some of their dismay (because that does require an entirely separate skillset), but we’re talking about average women with, frankly, above average bodies.
I think this is an excellent point. Like I said, these women were not plus-sized, and so the dismay about having to design for them was even more ridiculous than it usually is!
Daniella ended up winning the challenge (over Reco, which was ridiculous, because Reco’s design was awesome). Of her winning look, T. Lo said:
Really, judges? Because we look at that and think “Sure, it’s got its good points, but she basically looked at a woman who isn’t a size zero and translated that as ‘Ethel Mertz.'”
But it just looks like a bunch of “how to dress your figure” tricks all wrapped up in one garment and from where we’re sitting, the model didn’t really need much help dressing her figure in the first place. The popped collar, scoop neck, big belt, and flared skirt all scream “We’re going to give you a WAIST!” to someone who already looks like she has a waist.
Oh, and one other note; Bravo sells the winning designs online, but their sizing only goes up to a 10. I just went and looked again, and it’s all over the place! This week’s “real woman” design is available in sizes 8-18, and it looks like the other designs come in sizes 0-14. I swear during the first week, size 10 was the max. maybe I was hallucinating. Anyway, if you want the Ethel Mertz dress and are a size 8-18, you’re in luck!
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Fashion, Fashion Show, Fat Positive, Fatism, TV
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I watched the episode online, and was horrified by the designers as a whole, especially, James-Paul, who was saying things like “I don’t do average, no matter what anyone says I won’t sacrifice my vision!” You design clothes, honey, clothes are meant to be worn by people, who unfortunately for you don’t all fit the model mold. if you don’t want your precious vision sullied by women who exist in the real works and not in the fashion industry, I recommend you take up painting.
Honestly on all of the “real women challenge” all I can think is how quickly most of the designers show their biggest weakness as designers. It takes more skill and artistry to dress normal bodies, ones that aren’t picked for their uniformity. High fashion models are easy to dress, it’s nothing but straight lines, and I think they’re doing fashion designers as a whole a great disservice by teaching them to design only for that body type.
I’m a fashion design hobbyist, and I understand it’s easier to sketch a series of straight lines, but it’s not realistic, and chose never to get into the habit of doing so, and it’s just something that I do for fun.
I wrote a story about a local plus-size fashion designer a couple years ago who moved back from New York to start her own line and boutique here. I toured her shop and workroom and she explained to me how designing for plus-size women does take an entirely different skillset, something that is sadly lacking amongst many mainstream brands that also offer the token size 16 or 18. She said that they usually just use the same proportions as their size 6 mannequins and then size up. She specially orders her mannequins because she says fat women have much different proportions. I could understand the designers’ frustrations somewhat if they were dealing with actual plus-size women, but as you’ve pointed out… most of these women weren’t plus-size. Erm, exactly who do they design for then? Do the two percent of women who have the bodies of models really constitute that powerful of a market?
What I couldn’t figure out was why on earth the judges would reward Daniella a)after her obvious disdain for having to design ZOMGFATCLOTHS and b)designing a dowdy, boring, and at best, funereal garment? I kept wanting to hear Nina Garcia say “You bored us.” It was like they just reinforced the justification every designer gives that makes the same damned “Forgiving” dress for plus sizes. Boo. I would have bought Reco’s outfit in a heartbeat if it was in plus sizes.
That episode was a bit of a tipping point for me. Between that and the article that came out last week explaining that women who wear plus sizes are to blame for the lack of plus sized clothing on the market because we don’t want nice clothes…well, here’s my response:
http://manolobig.com/2009/06/06/ouroboros/
Also? Reco is a very talented guy, but I keep expecting him to break out into a comedy routine about a homeless crackhead designing high fashion, he looks so much like Dave Chappelle.
James Paul broke my heart into a million bitty pieces with his ‘I’m too good to design for actual bodies’ ‘tude. If that’s the case, then he needs to take up sculpture.
I must admit, Daniella’s dress was such a classic Dior moment that I did like it…but it in no way makes up for her sucktastic attitude and endless whining. And I think it wound up Christian Dior by accident, so I would have been happy to see her lose…except that this is the first time in a ‘real woman’ challenge that the winning design has been done for the largest woman in the room.
Mostly I thought Daniella chose the colors to ‘slenderize’ her model, but I thought softer, lighter colors would have been more flattering. If she’d done the same dress but in a soft apple green or a warm honey beige, I’d have adored it, and there wouldn’t have been any hint of Ethel Mertz.
DAMN!! Ha ha!! I must have some lousy taste because I loved that purple dress (it did fit badly up top) and I am wearing the “ugly” colors in the Ethel Mertz dress RIGHT NOW! :)
Maybe I can get Weet to fly over and get my closets situated!
Punchy, I think there are a lot of people who look fabulous in black and navy, it’s just that not everybody does. That woman’s coloring really would have been better served by softer colors, I felt.
And you are not alone in seeing the possibilities in the purple dress. The construction was not what it ought to have been, but the dress was actually kind of nice for a woman with the right figure. I didn’t feel it was nearly as dire as it was made out to be.
You’re right, that dress would be *awesome* if it were apple green. As-is it’s sort of Dior Does Dracula.
I love Reco so much. And I can’t believe the one was actually crying over the size of her model. Crimony.
Also I am very glad that I read on here about not sizing up when creating plus sized clothes. I want to start sewing my own clothes to save money and was told to just size up if the pattern was too small, lol.
The thing I found interesting is that Daniella is not stick thin herself. Does she not make anything for herself? I just assume that if you are a designer, you would make some of your own clothes or for family/friends and be used to different sizes.
I guess this is different for the male designers, but I would be making my own clothes all the time if I had the talent.
I think the only challenge for those types of designers is the realisation that they’re really not ‘all that’ in the creativity department.
If designers can’t make a dress for a woman who is a size 14 and up (90% of the female population in the western world), then what the eff can they make? A dress is a dress. It has a basic construction. They’re just being selective and discriminatory.
A lot of the skinny minnie Hollywood It Girls, and magazine editors like Anna Wintour think that thin is ‘it’, Wintour told Oprah to lose a few pounds before appearing on the cover of Vogue, but these fashionistas don’t realize that the only reason why haute couture survives in France is because it’s heavily patronized by women who can afford it (who make Anna Wintour look like a chambermaid in terms of money), and most of those women are wealthy Saudis and other Middle Eastern rich folk, who aren’t size 0. A lot of those women are size 12 and up, but designers for Christian Dior, etc, don’t bitch about the sizing.
I have to agree. Rico has won me over forever. Rico and Isaac!
if they were actually dealing with obese clients we could at least understand some of their dismay (because that does require an entirely separate skillset)
I think this is an excellent point.
What. The. Fuck?
Women with a BMI above the magic 30 require “an entirely separate skillset” to design clothes for? Cutting and shaping cloth to fit a body somehow changes completely at that point, so the skills in designing for thin women are entirely different from those used in designing for large women? (It’s not like designing for, you know, a human body.)
And this is “an excellent point”?
*klunk*
I am confused – a couple of years ago, didn’t Isaac Mizhari declare that he would never make his fashions for women size 12 and over?
Not that I begrudge anyone the right to see the light and change their mind, but I’m just curious as to when he realized larger women have fashion needs as well?
He did make that point. I remember. But maybe because his name isn’t up there, as it was years ago, he’s changing his tune?
Back in high school, I did work experience for two fashion designers, and after a month (two weeks each), it totally put me off the industry. The bitchiness, superficiality, etc.
In the fashion industry, you are considered “plus sized” if you are anything over a size 6, which I think is the standard sample size (most sample sales I’ve been to have only size 4 & 6 clothing, occasionally a 2). At a 10 (PETITE) more or less, and 5’3, i’m considered plus sized. I’m just saying.
I’m not buying Project Fakeway (LOL…by the way). But yet I find myself glued to the tube when it’s on. Nothing will ever take the place of project runway.
The fashion industry is dominated by men who just plain hate women – of any size, I should mention. It’s just too inconvenient to deal with a human being with thoughts, feelings, and flesh – which is why they want the mute 14-year-old child from Eastern Europe for their designs. These girls are nothing but, well, mannequins for their “visions.”
Ike Mizrahi changed his tune when he worked for Target (largest size was a missy 18) and now with Liz Claiborne, a multi-billion-dollar company. His stuff for Liz is pretty good.
if they were actually dealing with obese clients we could at least understand some of their dismay (because that does require an entirely separate skillset)
I think this is an excellent point.
What. The. Fuck?
Women with a BMI above the magic 30 require “an entirely separate skillset” to design clothes for? Cutting and shaping cloth to fit a body somehow changes completely at that point, so the skills in designing for thin women are entirely different from those used in designing for large women? (It’s not like designing for, you know, a human body.)
And this is “an excellent point”?
*klunk*
It is quite different designing for bigger bodies as there are simply more things to consider-especially the amount of possible variation depending on where weight goes. yea its still cuttingand sewing fabric but you just have to be a better designer to do it well. be more careful picking fabrics, more specific with sizing and better at construction. Very thin bodies are very forgiving when it comes to bad design-things just hang. (one of the main reasons i think high dfasion models are always pictures of emaciation)
not exactly a different skill set but different yes