SALON

Tuesday, Oct 13, 2009 7:14 PM UTC

Fashion still hates “fat”

You can never be too rich, too thin or too plastic for haute couture

By

Topics: Broadsheet, Fashion,

Trends come and go, but within the realm of haute couture, one thing remains a constant: designers and their abhorrence of fat. And by “fat,” we mean “reality.”

In response to the German magazine Brigitte’s recent promise to abandon professional models in favor of real women, Karl Lagerfeld this weekend complained to Focus magazine that “No one wants to see curvy women.”  (The original German word he used was “runde.”)  Metaphoric black leather gloves off, the major domo of Chanel and Fendi went on to dis “fat mothers with their bags of chips sitting in front of the television and saying that thin models are ugly.”

Shoe designer Christian Louboutin, meanwhile, has of late been grappling with the nightmare of creating something special for perennial fashionista Barbie. A spokesman for Louboutin told WWD yesterday that when designing for the doll, whose ankles measure under a quarter of an inch, “He found her ankles were too fat.”  Chips! Cankles! Le horreur!

If Lagerfeld and Louboutin’s comments feel particularly jarring, it may be because they arrive at a moment when the fashion industry has begun embracing  a wider standard of beauty. Glamour magazine won raves for featuring Lizzie Miller’s nude and untaut belly in the August issue, while Ralph Lauren was mocked for Photoshopping a model’s hips into near oblivion in a recent ad.

Louboutin, working as he does in the medium of shoes, has rarely before had the opportunity to put his own feet in his mouth regarding weight. But Lagerfeld, the man who himself lost 90 pounds in a year and wrote an internationally best-selling diet guide, is famed for his steadfast intolerance toward the non-ectomorphic.

Herewith a few with of his greatest hits:

On creating a line for H&M: “What I designed was fashion for slender and slim people. That was the original idea.”

On reading: “If not being able to wear new, trendy small-sized clothes does not cause you any regret, this book is not for you.”

On his 2006 spring show models: “The girls are skinny. They have skinny bones.”

On obesity: “There are nearly 30 per cent of young people who are too fat. So let’s take care of the zillions of the too fat before we talk about the percentage that’s left. “

And when Katy Perry interviewed him for Elle.com just last week, he assessed her approvingly as a “size 2.” 

To hear it straight from the horse’s asses, one would conclude that Lagerfeld and Louboutin are content to plant themselves in the tradition of hoity toity designers who love fashion but sure seem to hate women. But wait a minute.

Among the celebs who wobble happily on Louboutin’s sky-high heels are Nicole Kidman (size 9) and Angelina Jolie (size 8 1/2). And Karl Lagerfeld chose the non-emaciated Lily Allen to represent his collection last spring and has designed for the unmistakably “runde” Beth Ditto.  Could there be, under those impossibly metallic veneers, egalitarian hearts of true gold? Maybe.

Or is it something to do with the fact that runways are fine, but star power is what really counts in raising a brand’s visibility? Designers rely on celebrities to push their fashions into the public eye — and create demand. Ordinary, chips-eating moms, with their big feet and their fat bones, may still repulse them. But if a woman’s got a famous face to attach to their wares, Lagerfeld and Louboutin are more than willing to forgive her for the size of her ass – or her ankles.

Mary Elizabeth Williams

Mary Elizabeth Williams is a staff writer for Salon and the author of "Gimme Shelter: My Three Years Searching for the American Dream." Follow her on Twitter: @embeedub. More Mary Elizabeth Williams.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 69 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations