Backstage Beauty: Runway Models Go Real-Size
We've all heard a million times that fashion models are too thin, and watched stick figures walk the runway season after season. But this year, a few designers are finally giving curvy girls their chance to strut.
The trend kicked off in Milan, with Miuccia Prada casting several voluptuous Victoria's Secret supermodels in her show, like Alessandra Ambrosio, Miranda Kerr, Lara Stone, and Doutzen Kroes. Prada also showed clothes that look great on curvy bodies, like glamorous '50s and '60s A-line dresses and princess coats. Marc Jacobs did the same at Louis Vuitton, casting evermore VS models and ones who are-gasp-older than 17 (shown here).
Related: Coco Rocha, Size 4: Too Fat for the Runway?
He also booked Alessandra Ambrosio, plus recent moms Karolina Kurkova and Adriana Lima, and even closed the show with 46-year-old Elle McPherson.
"It was about gorgeous women," Jacobs told us after the show. "We didn't care about age, or height, or width." Jacobs also went the retro route, using the movie And God Created Women (which turned Brigitte Bardot into the original sex kitten back in 1956) as his inspiration. Call it the Mad Men Effect; maybe it took the immaculate Joan Holloway (played by Christina Hendricks) to finally show designers that breasts and hips are sexy. "Usually they're Ace Bandage-ing my boobs down, but for this show, they were on display," Cameron Russell told us at Vuitton. "Maybe we're moving back to more beautiful, iconic women? Let's hope."
But before we start singing "Hallelujah!," we need to face facts: Certainly not all designers are going to embrace dressing models who are larger than size double-zero, and Prada and Marc Jacobs will likely return to using stick-thin women. But it's still good news that designers saw that curvier gals could stomp the runways...and look damn sexy doing it.
Photo Credit: WWD
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