Hips as Narrow as Her Head? Advertising’s Distorted Bodies
If you walk around Madrid these days, you will definitely see the new advertisement of the fashion brand Amy Gee, due to the fact that they have invested a huge amount of money on their outdoor campaign all around the city.
I didn’t know the brand before, but the image of their latest advertisement worried me. In my opinion, the model on the ad looks extremely young and unbelieveably thin. The image is strange; the model's proportion are just unreal. I assume the intention of the photographer was to focus on the face, but the way the picture was taken makes the model’s head look in disproportion to her hips, increasing the sensation of skinny legs.
I researched the brand further on my way home and discovered that they claim to be "a brand with one goal: to praise the image of a woman." They also claim to "interpret a woman’s spirit and confirm her identity." If you look on the brand's website, or watch the 'making of' videos, you will see that the models don’t look as skinny as the one shown in the ad, but my concern is that they have probably chosen this image because they consider it communicates their identity as a brand.
Amy Gee claims to be focusing on a new generation of young women, but I cannot believe that it is a healthy brand message that the poster girl for the range has to be airbrushed to such an extent that her hips are as narrow as her head. Surely the already very slim, beautiful model selected is an aspirational brand representative as she is?
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Post by Maria Llanos
Our voice from Spain! After graduating in Business Administration, María worked in marketing at L’oréal for almost 3 years. After this period, she decided to develop her creativity by studying an MA in Design Studies at Central Saint Martins, where she developed her thesis around the evolution of the ideal female beauty concept and got to know All Walks. Currently, María is working at a Communication agency in Madrid. Check out all of Maria Llanos' posts for All Walks, and find her on Twitter @merillanos.
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Editor Charlotte Gush, on Twitter @CavaCharlotte
Spanish Parliament fight against eating disorders
Spanish political group the Convergence and Union (CIU) has presented a proposal to the Government, urging them to take action against eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia in Spain.The initiative proposes reinforcement of the computer offenses investigation team, to deal with unlawful website content relating to eating disorders. The proposal also requests that websites display the owner's contact details, in order to identify those responsible and eliminate any harmful content.
Another important point of the proposal is to regulate catwalk models. They ask the industry not to hire extremely thin models and to redefine fashion sizes.
This proposal has been developed to deal with the increasing number of eating disorders in Spain and to consider the social circumstances that surround them.
CIU maintains that we have created a "social stereotype of extreme thinness linked with beauty and success." In their opinion, this stereotype is "supported by magazines, advertisements and models, sending a deceitful message about diets and inviting women to loose weight and focus [negatively] on the body."
I believe this is an important step in making the Spanish government aware of the need to deal with this growing problem. The debate should start now, and professionals from different fields should work together in order to find the best solutions, and in some cases regulations, for the issues discussed here.
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Post by Maria Llanos
Our voice from Spain! After graduating in Business Administration, María worked in marketing at L’oréal for almost 3 years. After this period, she decided to develop her creativity by studying an MA in Design Studies at Central Saint Martins, where she developed her thesis around the evolution of the ideal female beauty concept and got to know All Walks. Currently, María is working at a Communication agency in Madrid. Check out all of Maria Llanos' posts for All Walks, and find her on Twitter @merillanos.
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Editor Charlotte Gush, on Twitter @CavaCharlotte
H&M’s SUMMER MEN!
I found H&M;’s last advertising campaign very refreshing; not only for the light and beach portrayed but for the male models they chose to wear the swimmear designs.The models are Andrés Velencoso, one of the most famous Spanish models, and Ben Hill, an American model ranked amongst the top ten world models. Both are 33 years old and have worked for H&M; before.
In the campaign images, Andrés and Ben appear with hair chest and, in Ben’s case, with some grey hair. What I like about this is that they look more natural and healthy than many of the models we are used to seeing lately. We shouldn’t forget that the images are clearly fashion-oriented; the location is perfect and the models are extremely handsome, but they look confident, masculine and quite relaxed.
In my opinion, the issue of thinness and youth is impacting the male model industry more and more, with well-known models losing weight – like Jon Kortajarena - and fashion houses and magazines choosing young and androgynous models, such as this model on the cover of Japanese Voge Homme:
We can already see that many male models face the same pressure over their weight as female models do. This is worrying as men have, until now, appeared to be less susceptible to pressure to be ultra-skinny, but the more pressure on models to be this thin, the more pressure 'normal' men may feel to look unhealthily thin .
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Post by Maria Llanos
Our voice from Spain! After graduating in Business Administration, María worked in marketing at L’oréal for almost 3 years. After this period, she decided to develop her creativity by studying an MA in Design Studies at Central Saint Martins, where she developed her thesis around the evolution of the ideal female beauty concept and got to know All Walks. Currently, María is working at a Communication agency in Madrid. Check out all her posts here, and on Twitter @merillanos.
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Editor Charlotte Gush, on Twitter @CavaCharlotte
Glamour Espana: My most beautiful flaw
When I read the title of the article, ?My most beautiful flaw? in the May issue of Spanish Glamour magazine, I was shocked to see the word flaw related to something positive. I kept on reading and realized that the article was more an illustrated report, featuring five models with special physical characteristics – usually considered to be flaws – which, in their cases, made a positive differentiation in their careers.
The cases portrayed are the plus size model Jennie Runk, the model Verena – whose eyes are different colors, the black albino model Diandra Forrest, the Italian model Amanda Lopes - who has a protuberant nose, and Sabine, a black model who keeps her natural afro hairstyle.
In my opinion, Glamour’s approach is an interesting attempt to show diverse beauty. However, not all the images are equally surprising or rare, and I don’t believe that keeping natural afro hair or not getting surgery on a Mediterranean nose should be considered big differences inside the fashion industry.
Nevetheless, I recognize that these women send a positive message about uniqueness by feeling good about the differences that make them special. I only hope we can see them soon on Glamour’s fashion shoots.
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Post by Maria Llanos
Our voice from Spain! After graduating in Business Administration, María worked in marketing at L’oréal for almost 3 years. After this period, she decided to develop her creativity by studying an MA in Design Studies at Central Saint Martins, where she developed her thesis around the evolution of the ideal female beauty concept and got to know All Walks. Currently, María is working at a Communication agency in Madrid. Check out all her posts here, and on Twitter @merillanos.
*** All images courtesy of Glamour Espana
Editor Charlotte Gush, on Twitter @CavaCharlotte
ALL WALKS BOOK CLUB:
HOW TO TAKE PART? All you need to do is to buy the book, or even rent it from your local public libary, if you area student why not share with your peers,friends and housemates? THE RULES: no rules we want your opinion and you to feel free to share your voice on the All Walks suggested book and how has it inspired you or made you feel? we will be discussing one chapter a week so we can all focus on the importance of the chapter and to also give all of you the opportunity to be able to read at your own pace and digest. this week we will be starting on introduction and chapter 1. THE CONCEPT: To make global discussion and gather opinions, and to get all of us into reading. WHO IS TAKING PART ON THIS BOOK CLUB?: people who have read this months selected book are the Co founder's and Caryn franklins book review link can be found below. also All Walks Blogger's Maria LLanos our voice from spain, M.W blogger for All Walks.org and Saftypincharm and stylist/designer and ' Free Your Mind 'blogger Nicola Edward's who is an aspiring screenwriter with a campaign aiming to beat stigma towards mental illness through arts and culture. and then of course yourself . so a range of opinion's on this book and the subject matter. HOW TO TALK ABOUT THIS BOOK?: we will be discussing the book on our twitter using # tag: #AWbookclub and on facebook discussion forum : http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=17591&uid=275187151550 Preview of the blog can be read and introduction on Amazon.co.uk Above the copy (co founder Debra Bourne) of Bodies that we see everyday in the All Walks OfficeFor Post by Co Founder Caryn Franklin on the book Bodies
Post by M.W
Pictures curtosy of Amazon and How to lookgood.com
HELENA CHRISTENSEN, THE NEW PHOTOGRAPHER OF HOSS INTROPIA
HELENA CHRISTENSEN, THE NEW PHOTOGRAPHER OF HOSS INTROPIA The Spanish fashion brand Hoss Intropia has chosen Helena Christensen as their new image for the 2011 S/S collection. The interesting part is that Helena is not collaborating as a model but as the photographer of the catalogue. This action is completely coherent with brand’s communication strategy, which is based on selecting Intropia women who are not just models but have artistic interests and an interior world they express through fashion. Hoss Intropia has always selected real women who stand out in their professional activities for their communication campaigns such as Tamara Rojo (prima ballerina of the Royal Ballet in London) Naomie Harris (actress and musician) or Carmen Kass (model, entrepreneur and chess player) amongst others. I believe that Hoss Intropia has a particular and interesting vision of fashion as a mixture of color, quality and eclecticism which enable women to express their personalities and interests. Please post comments below and share your views of what you think on the subect as always we love to hear your views at All Walks.... Post by MARIA LLANOS Reporting on Diversity from SpainANATOMY LESSON BY VOGUE
Spanish Vogue has developed a fashion shoot which celebrates six different body types. Under the slogan 'Anatomy lesson', Vogue tries to prove that different female figures can be equally beautiful. Spanish famous faces have been chosen to portray the following six body types in the March issue: thin, curvaceous, athletic, petite, pregnant and tall. This is the second time that Spanish Vogue develops this initiative – they did it under the slogan 'We are all beautiful' in 2010 March issue using the exact same body types. Although the initiative is a nice attempt of celebrating diversity, some pictures are too similar and it would have been interesting if they had explored a wider range of body types.
Below: Patricia Pérez - Curvaceous
Raquel del Rosario - petite:
Mar Flores - pregnant
Right: Leticia Dolera - Thin
Below: Juncal Rivero - tall
Below:Carlota Castrejana - athletic
Please post comments below and share your views of what you think on the subect
as always we love to hear your views at All Walks....
Post by
MARIA LLANOS
Reporting on Diversity from Spain