Saturday, August 18, 2007

What could be more challenging?

Project Runway has got everything you'd want in a reality show, interesting challenges, weird people and a look at a different world. But it sometimes takes . In this challenge they had to design for another contestant's mother or sister. There was a lot gross about the way things were done; the designers got to pick the relatives, which was a 'we want skinny people' version of picking teams at school. But the episode as a whole was fascinating, most of the designers were truly stumped by designing for people who weren't models, particularly fat people who weren't models.

I think it was Robert Best who said "I don't understand these proportions". His day job is to design for Barbie.

Jeffrey, who is a misogynist prick at the best of times, said "If I go then there's nothing I could have done - I couldn't have prepared for this challenge."

It makes me want to read about the history of fashion to figure out how we got here. Where there is a whole occupation, models, to make women to fit its clothes. We're so used to this ridiculous artifice that it's absurdity is only brought home when barbies proportions make sense to a designer, and a woman's, any woman's, proportions do not.

4 comments:

  1. Striving for beauty amongst other things, feeds the cosmetics, clothing and plastic surgery businesses.

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  2. Certainly striving for a false idea of beauty, that is socially constructed and detrimental to women (and indeed men these days) is. But I don't think seeking beauty always has to be like that, intrinsically. Does it?

    I didn't see this episode of PR but it sounds mega disturbing. Albeit an important exposure of the unreality of the fashion industry.

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  3. Anonymous3:04 pm

    Just got back from 'booobs on bikes' made me realise that there really is no need for clothes at all :p

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  4. I love to design clothes. I am 180 lbs. 5'4" and I usually design for me. Hopefully there will be more professional designers like me in the future...

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