Posted by Melanie Rickey, Fashion Editor at Large
Ever since Hedi Slimane re-joined the worshipful Yves Saint Laurent company last year he has been stamping his pointy black-booted feet all over the traditional conventions of the fashion industry, and in particular its media.
Only last night at his comeback menswear show at YSL (he previously designed YSL menswear from 1996-2000) he broke unwritten catwalk rule number one. Namely: Do Not Hire Underweight, Anorexic Looking Men (or Women) as Models.
This guy needs to eat (photo: style.com)
Back in the old days before social media a very very skinny, ill-looking male model, such as the one above, would cause raised eyebrows amongst those actually present at the show, and not much else. Last night this boy caused raised eyebrows in the catwalk theatre and beyond. Simon Chilvers of the Guardian said Slimane's skinny musician boys looked "dated" compared to the way the majority of brands including Prada and Margiela are using male models today. "When you start to see clothes on a wider variety of male bodies," says Chilvers, "you cannot help but hone in on models that are particularly thin, such as some of those boys in the Saint Laurent show last night." Tim Blanks even mentioned the elephant in the room in his Style.com review saying "You don't even want to go there with the skinny." But it was left to writer and former LOVE editor Isaac Lock to say what everyone was thinking, and it went viral.
Lock (@IsaacJLock) highlighted the above photo of this emaciated boy on his Twitter feed last night asking the question: "This is aspirational, right?" which prompted hundreds of Retweets. The former LOVE magazine editor also Tweeted "Hedi's Home for Hungry Boys. Fashion, you're pretty fucked up sometimes." Which fairly summed up the thoughts of everyone who put their twopence worth in overnight on social media. Yes, fashion can be fucked up, yet we all know Hedi Slimane is an agent provocateur. He has always used skinny models. But this skinny?? Could he be using fashion's biggest taboo to gain press coverage? By lunchtime the photo had prompted stories on the New Statesman and Daily Mail websites among others and interested parties knew Hedi Slimane was back at YSL menswear causing a commotion.
When I emailed Isaac Lock this afternoon to ask him why he felt strongly enough to publish his thoughts on Twitter he sent me the following. What Isaac has to say strikes at the heart of the matter of why social responsibility remains relevant in fashion.
"I reacted so strongly because I think there’s an unhealthy
silence around men’s body issues both in and out of the fashion industry. Women, of
course, are subjected to extreme body pressures all the time, but there is, at
least, an ongoing conversation in the media about it. That’s less
the case when it comes to men and it can be embarrassing for a
lot of men to talk about the way they feel about their bodies. The way the
fashion industry often works is to pile shame on people then invite them to buy
their way out of it. For men, or boys, since with this show we really are
talking about boys, to say that an image or an ideal is shame inducing can be
very difficult - it opens the door to more shame - that they’re not manly
enough, they’re not tough enough, they’re not cool enough to just get on with
it like the boys in the show.
"More than any other men’s
designer, Hedi Slimane trades in hype. He trades in saying, "This is it, this is
the coolest, most relevant idea there is." When he’s saying that, and then
presenting that idea on a series of boys who have a body that it’s unhealthy
for the majority of the male population to aspire to I think it’s important to
say ‘Hey, what the fuck is up with you? Are you ok?'
"In
the years between Hedi Slimane’s time at Dior and his time now at YSL there’s
been a change which means there are a lot of teenage consumers of
fashion. They don’t consume it by buying it, though, they consume it in image
form. They obsessively gather images of shows and shoots on their Tumblrs and
send them around. They respond to fashion in the way that some of their peers
might respond to music or sport. These are kids sitting at home in their
bedrooms pawing over the internet probably dreaming, like a lot of us did,
about escaping to a new, metropolitan, exciting life. They are kids who are at a
vulnerable age and whose stock in trade is trying to work out what they can do
to realise their fantasies. For those kids who are interested in fashion,
something like the Saint Laurent show must seem like the epitome of excitement
and escape. The thing is, those kids, like the kids of the Dior era can’t buy
the clothes. They can, however, emulate the bodies the clothes are shown on. I
don’t think Slimane can ignore his teenage fans and say it’s not intended for
them because, by appropriating the language of youth culture to sell stuff,
he’s talking right to them, and what’s he’s saying is hollow, disempowering,
crap."
Posts
I completely agree with Isaac Lock, especially with what he says in the last paragraph.
ReplyDeleteDesigners need to realise that they carry an immense responsibility. It's true that not only people invited to the show see the thin models (for me it doesn't make any difference whatsoever if it's a stick-thin female or male model, both are humans) but also everyone else sees them, thanks to the internet. I think a lot about young and easily influencable and insecure teenagers and find it unacceptable that they look at these images and aspire to look just like model number 15 because their legs are so skinny and that's how you're supposed to look like if you want to be considered beautiful. But I'm asking myself, if the fashion industry is so disgusted with the thin models on YSL's catwalk, why does no one do anything against it? Because it's the designers, editors, journalists, stylists, photographers and co who can actually change something. Sure, there are the recent Vogue Health Initiative, the past use of curvier models at David Koma and bigger mannequins in stores from a few years ago, but all that is still a tiny drop in a big ocean. It's a good way forward but for anything to change, this needs to happen on a far broader scale. Many well-known and well-respected designers, stylists and more need to use more normal-looking people. Or a bit of every shape. I really hope something like this will happen in the future as I don't want poor kids to grow up and think that it is only important how you look and what size you are. Society would be even more messed up than it already is and this would do no good to anyone.
Thank you for bringing this up Melanie.
Emily
Hooray for Isaac!
ReplyDeleteSpeaking your mind is a risk.
The high powered voice could lose the advertising, and the upcoming lose access.
That is the fashion control system.
I had friends who looked like that when I was young. They had no energy, and smelt of sick.
And it was not cool.