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Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Plus-size Crystal Renn takes on a typically slim model to prove fashion CAN flatter any figure
By Tamara Abraham
Last updated at 12:27 AM on 23rd December 2009
READ MORE AFTER THE JUMP!!!!
Renn, 23, is pictured alongside fashion's latest new face, Jacquelyn Jablonski, who at just 17 has already modelled for Calvin Klein Jeans and Proenza Schouler.
Both girls are 5ft 9in tall with long dark hair - but that's where the similarities end. While Jablonski fits the slender mould for a typical catwalk model, Renn is a curvy size 16.
But Renn, who is the face of Evans' latest campaign, and has appeared on the cover of U.S. Vogue, more than holds her own.
Dressed in identical tribal-inspired outfits, each girl lends her own unique personality to the garments by high-fashion designers including Ralph Lauren, Versace and Dolce & Gabbana - all famed for favouring very thin models on their catwalks.
Nor are the edgy looks hampered by Renn's less conventional shape - instead, they are in many ways enhanced.
The images, which were taken by top fashion photographer Terry Richardson, are the latest in a series of campaigns for designers and magazines to use models with more varied looks, ages and body shapes.
They follow British designer Mark Fast's last-minute decision to use a combination of plus-size and conventional models on his catwalk last September.
His choice, an effort to show how his collection could work for any body shape, was considered so radical that his stylist allegedly pulled out of the show just days before it was due to take place.
Renn herself has just written a book detailing her own battle with the modeling industry, and the pressure to be thin, titled Hungry: A Young Model’s Story of Appetite, Ambition and the Ultimate Embrace of Curves.
The book tells how she developed an eating disorder that nearly killed her, and the extreme lengths she went to in order to obtain a fashion-thin body.
Now a staunch campaigner against identikit catwalk models, she said: 'I’d love to see [the fashion industry] open their eyes to the variety of women. That variety is what’s beautiful.
'Current sample sizes that models are all expected to fit into are ridiculous – a US size zero or British size 4 is the standard. They should go up to a British size 16.
'I’m not saying all models should be size 16, but bigger dresses can be pinned and adjusted, while tiny size zero clothes can’t really be changed. It means all these models starve themselves, like I did, to fit them.'
But recent events prove that the likes of Renn and Fast have a long way to go. This year alone, two models have died from anorexia, and Ralph Lauren came under fire in October when in photo shopped an already slim model to look impossibly thin.
Just last month Kate Moss added more fuel to the size zero debate by admitting her motto is: 'Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels,' and only this week, Selfridges provoked outrage after it decided to cease stocking plus-size fashion line Marina Rinaldi.
Dressed in identical tribal-inspired outfits, each girl lends her own unique personality to the garments by high-fashion designers including Ralph Lauren, Versace and Dolce & Gabbana - all famed for favouring very thin models on their catwalks.
Nor are the edgy looks hampered by Renn's less conventional shape - instead, they are in many ways enhanced.
The images, which were taken by top fashion photographer Terry Richardson, are the latest in a series of campaigns for designers and magazines to use models with more varied looks, ages and body shapes.
They follow British designer Mark Fast's last-minute decision to use a combination of plus-size and conventional models on his catwalk last September.
Renn herself has just written a book detailing her own battle with the modeling industry, and the pressure to be thin, titled Hungry: A Young Model’s Story of Appetite, Ambition and the Ultimate Embrace of Curves.
The book tells how she developed an eating disorder that nearly killed her, and the extreme lengths she went to in order to obtain a fashion-thin body.
Now a staunch campaigner against identikit catwalk models, she said: 'I’d love to see [the fashion industry] open their eyes to the variety of women. That variety is what’s beautiful.
'I’m not saying all models should be size 16, but bigger dresses can be pinned and adjusted, while tiny size zero clothes can’t really be changed. It means all these models starve themselves, like I did, to fit them.'
But recent events prove that the likes of Renn and Fast have a long way to go. This year alone, two models have died from anorexia, and Ralph Lauren came under fire in October when in photo shopped an already slim model to look impossibly thin.
Just last month Kate Moss added more fuel to the size zero debate by admitting her motto is: 'Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels,' and only this week, Selfridges provoked outrage after it decided to cease stocking plus-size fashion line Marina Rinaldi.
Photography by Terry Richardson; Styling by Mel Ottenberg. The feature appears in next month's V Magazine, available from January 14.
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