Completely unrelated to the bird-like Nicole, but on the topic of Vogue Italia...
Vogue Italia's website now features 3 sections: Vogue Talents (new designers), Vogue Black (coloured people - currently featuring the last photograph of the questionably-black Michael Jackson: at the time of his death, anyhow! I know he was black), and Vogue Curvy (guess). Given all the furore of late over skinny models and fat models, the Italians are moving leaps and bounds towards capitalising on the current interest in fashion's current plus size love-interest.
After a quick skim through site, can I just say that the curvy ladies universally ooze sex appeal. Compared to the skeletal skinny girls that traipse down the catwalks, and who stare disinterestedly out of the pages of fashion magazines, the curvy women have character and sexiness by the bucketload. The different way the models are depicted is fascinating, no? Because I'm sure not all skinny models are actually the sexless, personality-less people they may appear. Likewise, I'm sure there are some curvy ladies out there who couldn't care a dime about a shag, and who are happier staring at themselves in the mirror than conversing with someone new.
Is this a fashion backlash against the skinny model? Has this simmering contempt existed for the super-skinny-model since their emergence? I'm thinking here of the whole heroin chic that emerged in the early-90s, when we really started seeing these starving girls as the ideal objects from which to hang clothes - as opposed to say the supermodels who predated heroin chic who were more sporty and cheekbone-ish than clotheshanger-like, and even before the supermodel, when screen stars with curves and stunning faces embodied the sought-after look. Even when the skinny girl appeared, the fashion spreads weren't particularly all about the glam - they were lying half-dead in swamps, pinned up on crucifixes and resembled Lolitas. Are we witnessing the death of the starved ideal? Are we returning to a more attainable body shape in the mainstream fashion press?
While I would like to say yes, I still believe there is a long way to go. The very fact Vogue has created a seperate part of the website for the curvy still suggests a little way to go in terms of integrating curvy fashion seamlessly into the more mainstream fashion we are used to. That said, the current chat and the recent movements - evidenced here by Vogue and also on the London catwalks at London Fashionweek this week, and the magazines more aggressively pushing the "real girl" model - suggest some change is on its way. While we have the two extremes - hungry and happily-satiated - I think we'll move to a more natural body shape soon. One that is fed but well-exercised, lean yet elongated, and hopefully with some breasts. I shall watch with interest, however I believe we are witnessing something of a fashion revolution.
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