London Fashion Week controversy over size 12-14 models

[The Silence and I]

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The Fast and the furious: Stylist at London Fashion Week resigns over designer Mark Fast's decision to use size 14 models
By KATE LOVEYS
Last updated at 9:13 AM on 21st September 2009

Preparing for his London Fashion Week slot, knitwear designer Mark Fast decided to challenge the obsession with size zero models and use curvier women to showcase his creations.

It was a bold move - and one which nearly led to his entire project unravelling.

When he told his design team that his figure-hugging outfits would be paraded down the runway by size 12 and 14 models, two of his people were apparently so angry they quit.

The stylist and creative designer deserted Fast, 28, just three days before Saturday's event at the University of Westminster.

The show was only saved after freelancers Daniela Agnelli and Natalie Hubbarb stepped in to help Fast, working into the early hours to ensure all the designs were ready for the big day.

Happily, it was a great success, with three models from the agency 12+ UK gracing the catwalk.

Amanda May, Fast's creative director, yesterday blamed the walkout on 'creative differences' over the use of larger models. 'There was a team change and we are glad we stuck to our vision,' she said.

'The decision to use fuller girls is something we have been talking about. There's an idea that only thin and slender women are able to wear Mark's dresses and he wanted to combat that. We wanted women to know they didn't have to be a size zero to wear a Mark Fast dress - curvier women can look even better in them.'

The models used in the show were Hayley Morley, 21, a size 12, Laura Catterall, 20, a size 14 and Gwyneth Harrison, 25, a size 12-14.

Sarah Watkinson, 37, founded 12+ UK in 2000 and has 37 models on her books.

She said: 'I'm very happy that Amanda and Mark stuck to their passion. They really wanted to do it but it was difficult for them.

'Mark has been passionate about using larger women and really wanted to show that they look great in his dresses.

'Every time I think things are progressing, they end up going back to how they've always been. I hope this has sparked lasting changes.'

Fast, a Canadian, has also been involved in the photographic exhibition All Walks Beyond The Catwalk, which features models aged 18 to 65 and sized eight to 16 wearing clothes created by young London designers.

The exhibition, which opened on Friday at Somerset House, attempts to challenge the narrow view of beauty in the fashion world.

The day before Fast's show, chairman of the Institute of Psychiatry's eating disorder team, Professor Ulrike Schmidt, had raised concerns over the use of stick-thin models.

He said: 'We are very concerned that the lack of medical checks of models at London Fashion Week, coupled by an environment where being underweight is the norm, prevents those with eating disorders into gaining an insight into their condition.'

My thought is this Mark Fast guy deserves a golf clap for sticking to his idea and presenting his fashion creations with realistic looking women. Or maybe a kegger would be better?

[frigidmagi]

If you look at the pictures... Well the girls in size 12-14 are the girls I would be going after in a bar or a party, not the standard runway model who frankly often looks sickly to me.

[The Cleric]

Size 0 is rarely attractive. Nor is 12 or 14.

[fgalkin]

Huh?

Looks pretty attractive to me

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[Soontir948]

It'd probably help if the girls don't look like drug addicts.

[rhoenix]

It would probably help more if most of the models picked didn't resemble boys.

I'm sorry, but I think its dumb to hold stick figures up who usually smoke crackrock and never eat to keep up their figures as standards of beauty.

So, I say this is a good thing. We might start seeing female models that actually have breasts or a butt - you know, like most women?

[General Havoc]

Remind me what size Marilyn Monroe (you know, the sex goddess) was?

Because I don't think it was 0.

[Rukia]

I believe that Marilyn Monroe was around a size 12. There has been a debate about what she really was because the sizing was different then. http://marilynmonroepages.com/facts.html says that her measurements were:

Measurements( studio's claim):
37-23-36 (inches)
93.9 - 58.4 - 91.4 (centimeters)

Measurements (dressmaker's claim):
35-22-35 (inches)
88.9 - 55.8 - 88.9 (centimeters)

This site says:

But if people demand numbers? They're certainly out there. According to measurements from Marilyn Monroe's dressmaker:
Height: 5 feet, 5½ inches
Weight: 118-140 pounds
Bust: 35-37 inches
Waist: 22-23 inches
Hips: 35-36 inches
Bra size: 36D

to give you an idea I am a 38-30-39 and I am in a 14ish.

[General Havoc]

Whether she was a 12 or a 10 or a 14 or whatever, she was a hell of a lot more attractive than the starvation victims that they use to model clothes now.

[Rukia]

Whether she was a 12 or a 10 or a 14 or whatever, she was a hell of a lot more attractive than the starvation victims that they use to model clothes now.

I completely agree! I was just trying to cement the point that beauty shouldn't be determined on a number. And give a reference point. (granted people who weigh 400+ pounds tend to be very NOT attractive. Also, I think that the emaciated models they tend to use are very unattractive.) I think if a woman is proportional they tend to be more attractive. But I do agree that the models they used didn't have the best faces, but they had amazing bodies. And I commend the designer for pushing on with his vision. I hope that more people follow in his footsteps.

[Stofsk]

I prefer curvier women to the emaciated stick figures that are usually are seen walking down a runway.

But my opinion doesn't matter, because I'm a guy. Most women don't want to be thinner because they're thinking about what a guy wants or sees as attractive, rather they do it because they want to feel better about themselves. A huge part of it is also competition amongst other women.

My mother was watching the fashion channel on cable TV one night, and a lot of the models had that stick-thin, boned-out junkie look and none of them had a pretty face either, and I said none of them were attractive. She disagreed and said that they were very pretty.

[Lindar]

*cheers for the models* approval is good

and not everyone can be small.. ~_~ so it's not fair.

[Cynical Cat]

Healthy is always good mark to shoot for when it comes to physique. Emaciated is not healthy.

[The Cleric]

Huh?

Looks pretty attractive to me

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

And I wouldn't give her a second look if I saw her in public.

And dress size alone does not tell the whole story. A higher hip:waist ratio is almost universally more attractive, especially when coupled with a similar bust/hip size (classic hourglass figure).

[Stofsk]

Tastes differ on matters of personal attraction.

Some guys like 'em thin, others like 'em curvy. Some like the hour glass, others like the apple.

But modelling is less about being attractive as it is being able to show off the fashion, and most high-end ladies fashion caters to the 'petite is best' model.

Unless you're talking about glamour models, but they usually don't wear very much (sometimes nothing) and in those cases they're not modelling a particular fashion item.

[The Cleric]

It's always been my impression that the clothes they model are meant to convey a style or theme, rather than a direct "we will be mass producing this to sell to everyone." I am in no way a fashion anything, it's just what I thought was being done.

And the word "curvy" has been so very overused it's not even amusing. If the outward curves do not have corresponding inward curves, then the accurate term is "overweight" or some more/less political correct version thereof.

[Stofsk]

When I say curvy I mean like, hourglass shape. I mean a girl who has a bum and a bust, as opposed to a stick figure.