We still need Models of Diversity
It's the year 2019. People are now more attuned to the idea that beauty is diverse and that beauty standards have changed. Fewer people are dismissive of the view that models should represent the entire age spectrum and that their bodies should be of different sizes and abilities, to reflect the entire range of consumers. There is still some resistance to such ideas, of course, and a divide between those that are looking for realism and those who emphasise the aspirational quality of modelling.
Fashion has made tremendous strides; the advertising world still lags behind. Thus, for example, older people are now required to be 'eccentric' - as an older model, I come across many casting calls where casting directors, on behalf of clients, ask to see older women attired and accessorised like Iris Apfell, as if showing eccentric older people were the only way old age stereotypes could be dismissed. How simplistic! It just means that one stereotype is substituted with another. Not all older people embrace eccentricity!
Thus when, a few days ago, I came across an interview given by Phoebe Philo in 2014 to Alexandra Shulman, the then editor of British Vogue, I was somewhat taken aback by a couple of her statements. I just had to remind myself that it was five years ago and five years is a long time in fashion.
For those who may not quite remember, Phoebe Philo, British and female, Central St Martin's trained, led Céline until 2017. In 2018 Hedi Slimane, French and male, École du Louvre alumnus, took over and renamed the brand, now spelt Celine - sans l'accent aigu (without the acute accent).
Céline models. Google image.
Phoebe Philo says in the interview "I think it would be unrealistic to think that human beings are not going to have some kind of worshipping for beautiful people because they always have. I think it's unrealistic to think that the fashion industry, the film industry, the sex industry are not going to have extreme ideas of beauty as a way of selling themselves. I don't really like it sometimes … What I really do believe is that anybody – and it really doesn't matter what shape your body is – can be seductive and sexy and gorgeous and beautiful. I use an extreme idea of beauty as a way of showing Céline, but I don't believe it has to be like that outside of the fashion show." Well then. In plain English, Phoebe Philo says that on the runway she will only have tall, very slim, preferably white (or as close as possible to the Caucasian ideal), very young models. Off the runway it would not be necessary, because let's face it, it would, among other things, limit sales.
Like I said, this was five years ago.
Joan Didion. Pinterest
I clearly disagree with Philo Phoebe's idea of extreme beauty, whatever that is. I do, however, appreciate her honesty in acknowledging her biases and I continue to love her design work. And I will never forget that it was Phoebe Philo who broke the mould and used octagenarian, Joan Didion, in one of her campaigns. Of course, Didion is a celebrity, not an ordinary woman or a model. But still...
Celine will always be Céline, to me, thanks to Philo and what she brought to it.
In conclusion, diversity is part of the fabric of life. I do not think it can be stopped. Fashion can be more effectively representational, and models can still be aspirational, through parading their diversity. This is, hopefully, the new beauty standard.
(I dedicate this post to Models of Diversity, who have been campaigning for a diversity of representation in the fashion and beauty industry for the past nine years.)
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