"If you want to be popular...you cant afford to be skinny!"

As always, Jezebel brings us another interesting vintage ad.
http://jezebel.com/5399752/if-you-want-to-be-popular-you-cant-afford-to-be-skinny

W.T.F!

 

This is the "Ana Rexia" Halloween costume. Seriously, that's what it's called. 

I'm totally disgusted.

Ashley Falcon: Big Girl in a Skinny World

http://www.marieclaire.com/fashion/trends/articles/ashley-falcon-plus-size-stylist#comments

Big Girl in a Skinny World

Meet Ashley Falcon, proof that fashionistas come in all shapes and sizes.
CLICK HERE FOR ASHLEY'S PICKS FOR THE BEST JEANS FOR CURVY GIRLS

By Ashley Falcon

Photo Credit: Greg Kessler

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I'm the most stylish among my friends. Growing up in Miami's tight-knit Cuban community, I was the girl everyone sought out for fashion advice, the one who transformed boring outfits into head-turning looks with the flick of a collar or the cinch of a belt. Of course, it surprised no one that I decided to pursue a career as a fashion stylist—though at 5'2" and 220 pounds, I'd need an elaborate pulley system and a can of Crisco to shimmy into the clothes I dress models in. Instead, I'm relegated to the plus-size racks, where trendy usually translates into "when's your due date" empire waists and cinch-sack drawstrings. It's not easy being chic, but it's an epic struggle when you're a big girl.

EMAIL HER: Click here to contact Ashley Falcon

Case in point: Not long ago, while interning at a fashion trade publication, I scored a last-minute invitation to an industry cocktail party. I was giddy with anticipation—I can't believe I get to mingle with Marc Jacobs! But my joy quickly turned to dread when I realized that I was wearing boyfriend jeans and an oversize blazer, hardly appropriate for this Stoli-and-stilettos mixer. As I stood in the fashion closet, scanning the sparkly numbers that would barely make it up my thigh, I frantically weighed my options. There wasn't enough time to run home and change, and dashing over to the nearby Banana Republic was out of the question—their XLs are typically available only online. With literally nothing to wear, I bagged the event and spent much of the evening sulking on my couch.

I've struggled with weight—and how to camouflage it—my whole life. The skinniest I've ever been was in high school, when I weighed 150 pounds and subsisted on nothing but undressed salads. I long ago made peace with the fact that I'll never look good in a slinky dress or pleated paper-bag-waist pants, even if Coco Chanel herself came back from the dead to hand-stitch them for me. So I stick to cuts that always flatter—even in a size 18—like wrap dresses and pencil skirts. Then I'll style up dowdy items with high-end accessories, like the staggeringly awesome Louboutins I scored for Christmas or the YSL bag I recently got on sale. Big girls love accessories—they always fit, no size tags required.

My most persistent, most daunting wardrobe challenge is finding that perfect, all-occasion pair of slimming, lengthening, ass-hugging jeans. Let's face it, it's a maddening task for girls even half my size, but I go through at least a few pairs of jeans every year, routinely wearing holes in the area where my thighs rub together. My requirements: no muffin top, butt crack, or camel toe. That's a tricky set of demands considering that most jeans for the size-14-and-up set are either woefully ill-fitting or designed like industrial coveralls—solely to hide the body, style be damned. I suspect that's why so many big girls squeeze into sizes far too small for their ample builds. At least sausages have shape, right?

Still, I won't settle when it comes to jeans and insist on buying only those pairs that make me feel comfortable, sexy, and confident. They must work for my body. Which is why I've spent untold hours in countless fitting rooms squeezing into hundreds of pairs of relaxed fits, boot-cuts, straight-legs, and low-rises.

Ladies, I've road tested them all.

CLICK HERE FOR ASHLEY'S PICKS FOR THE BEST JEANS FOR CURVY GIRLS

Well, this is appalling...

" A must-have for any mother with young children considering plastic surgery"

http://www.mybeautifulmommy.com/

I'm not sure I have any words...oh, wait..yes I do....REALLY?! REALLY?! Ok well before I go on the obvious rant about self esteem I am glad there is someone out there sensitive enough to write a book about this. I am sure it is a very legitimate problem for some parents and it does seem to be written well (from these page excerpts I could find).  Thanks for that...


BUT SERIOUSLY?! This is the message you want to send your kids? Not, "oh honey, you are beautiful the way you are, looks aren't everything," yadda yadda...its "you need plastic surgery to feel good about yourself." Oh that's great. Our little kiddies don't have enough problems already. The first page directly under the title page is the most heartbreaking I could find. How confused must that kid be? I am not even going to attempt the self-esteem rant right now because I am sure you are all thinking it and I just still cant even believe this is real.

Jezebel: Even Plus-Size Models Lower Self-Esteem

 Since I recently posted  about plus-size model Crystal Renn....Check out this article posted by Jezebel (click on title to go to their blog)

Study: Even Plus-Size Models Lower Self-Esteem

According to a new study, overweight women feel worse about themselves after looking at photos of models, whether those models are skinny or not. Underweight women, however, show an increase in self-esteem. So what's going on here?
David DiSalvo of True/Slant offers this explanation:

Presumably this is because underweight women compare themselves equally to thin models and favorably to overweight models, but overweight women compare themselves unfavorably to thin models and find their similarity to overweight models depressing.

But this sounds a little simplistic to me. Must it be that "overweight" woman look at plus size models and think, "Gross! I look like that? How depressing!" Or might it be that, as Kate wrote,

[P]lus models are still models. They're still tall, well-proportioned, clear-skinned, shiny-haired, able-bodied and usually white, on top of only being "fat" relative to size 0s. The standard is basically the same as it always was, just notched up to a somewhat more common range of dress sizes - which is to say, the standard is still impossible for most of us to meet.

(note: Don't forget that plus size models never have cellulite...I think that might have something to do with it, too)

When the whole beauty-industrial complex is basically designed to exscript them, and the few models who are supposed to represent them just look like that complex's ideal "notched up" a little bit, it's no surprise that plus-size women might feel just as bad looking at Crystal Renn as they do at Kate Moss. This isn't to say that including more models like Renn and Lizzi Miller on magazine pages isn't a good thing — it is. But it doesn't magically make these magazines friendly to all shapes and sizes, or make fat women forget that lots of other cultural forces are still conspiring to devalue them.
The study's finding about underweight women is interesting too. The idea that underweight women actually feel better after looking at models contradicts an earlier study that showed all women felt worse about themselves after viewing skinny ladies in ads. It's a little hard for me to believe that underweight women compare themselves "equally" to models any more than overweight women do — like Kate said, they're still models. They're still closer to the beauty ideal than most women, regardless of weight, and they still get help from the powerful forces of hair, makeup, and airbrushing. It would be interesting to learn what percentage of the underweight women in the study were eating-disordered, and how that affected their response to the images. I'd also like to know what was going on in the underweight subjects' minds during the study — whether they actually thought, "yes! This model looks just like me," or whether they got a more modest boost from seeing a woman of similar size presented as an ideal, even if that woman was different in other ways. Perhaps this boost is easier to get if you are of privileged (ie. thin) size — although the study did find that overweight and underweight women had similar self-esteem at the outset of the experiment.
Ever since Lizzie Miller was in Glamour, the inclusion of plus size models has been trumpeted as a way to make magazines more friendly to all women. But it's clear that this might not be enough. Internalized fat prejudice goes deep, and just showing women a few bigger models isn't going to erase it. The fact is, images whose purpose is to sell women shit — whether those images look more or less like them — are probably never going to be on the forefront of social change. Including plus-size women in ads and fashion spreads is an important step not just for social good, but for aesthetic value — magazines would be more interesting if they contained a greater diversity of models. But they wouldn't magically make overweight women feel perfect about themselves, or erase all the other influences making them feel bad.
Women's Self-esteem Affected By Magazines [UPI.com]
Warning: If You're Overweight, Don't Read Women's Magazines [True/Slant]
Earlier: Memo To Women's Magazine Editors: White Women Hate Themselves After Reading Your Magazines

Contact information for this author is not available.

The Filippa Hamilton Debacle

“I think they owe American women an apology, a big apology; I’m very proud of what I look like, and I think a role model should look healthy.”-Filippa Hamilton

Filippa Hamilton is the model in the notorious photoshopped Ralph Lauren ads. After Ralph Lauren apologized for "a very distorted image of a woman’s body," in the first photo they fired Filippa Hamilton (who has been with Ralph Lauren since 2002) "as a result of her inability to meet the obligations under her contract with us." Filippa is 5'10' and 120 pounds and  her measurements are 33-24-35 (US), roughly a size 6. Most are considering that she was fired for being too big. 

What a world, ay?

Barbie has cankles

So says shoe guru Louboutin. You know what else Barbie has? a 39" bust, 18" waist and 33" hips (if she were human, of course)

Barf. CBS news article below.  I don't even know where to begin.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

NEW YORK, Oct. 14, 2009

Barbie has Cankles? Fashion Guru Thinks So

French Shoe Designer Christian Louboutin, Whose Known for his Five-Inch Stilettos, Says Barbie's Ankles Are Too Thick

(CBS)  Everyone's favorite doll, Barbie turned 50 this year and by all accounts, she's still got the body of a teenager.

But one big name in fashion is calling Barbie's physique into question.

CBS NewsCorrespondent Michelle Miller stopped by The Early Show on Wednesday, to share the latest Barbie controversy.

The man known for five-inch stilettos, French shoe designer Christian Louboutin, is now reportedly taking on an 11 1/2-inch doll, saying that Barbie needs a little work, before she can get into a pair of his shoes.

After suffering decades of ridicule for having the perfect body, in human dimensions 39, (bust) 18' (waist) and 33'(hips), Barbie may have met her toughest critic in Louboutin.

The stiletto king made news this week in Women's Wear Daily when his spokesperson was quoted as saying that Louboutin found Barbie's ankles to be "fat."

Rumors swirled that Louboutin, who is designing three special collection Barbies, due out early next year, is reshaping Barbie's gams to slim down their appearance.

"She really doesn't have a full curve to the calf and it goes straight down to the ankle," said Dr. Michelle Copeland, a Board certified plastic surgeon, whose specialty is cankles. "In Barbie's situation there might be something that on the inner side that we might be able to improve, but Barbie looks pretty good."

The company said that it was just a misunderstanding and released a statement, saying: "My dear friend, Christian loves my ankles. It was my arch that he wanted to give a little lift to, so I can rock those high heels."

Apparently even a fifty-year-old doll is dying to get her heels a pair of red-soled shoes.

"Barbie was quick to point out that her ankles are only 22 millimeters around, so it's pretty hard to say that she needs some work in that area," Miller added.

Meanwhile Christian Louboutin told CBS that he adored designing for Barbie, and his camp pointed out that maybe the original comment was taken out of context and a little lost in translation.