Face it, you’re just lazy

As consumers, there is a certain amount of toil that goes into finding clothing. Should plus size women be given a pass on this work? It’s easier for some than others, but it’s the same basic scenario for most: you see something you like, you try it on, and you go from there. Advertisements are meant to entice, to get you to give an outfit or accessory a shot, and they sure don't guarantee success or beauty or that the garment will event fit - that is where you come in.

There is no one fashion model who will show each and every consumer exactly how something will look on her – but that is not what they are used for. You can put ten, twenty, even 100 women who wear the same size and have the same body shape in the same outfit and it will look different on every one. There are so many magical subtleties in a women’s body, in how she holds herself and how she styles the outfit that generate the final look that this is an impossibility. Professional models erase those subtleties, yes, but they replace them with an overall sense of beauty, fashion and enticement that makes you want to run out and try the dress on anyway – your pointy elbows or droopy boobs be damned. Using an everyday woman with no model appeal is a sure way of turning the masses off – we’re plus size but we’re women and there’s no way that we actively aspire to look like our dumpy neighbors.

The call to use “real” models shifts the responsibility of dressing yourself to the retailer, the “model,” to whoever dresses us. It’s not unheard of - this is a practice that has been in place for decades, of course. In the straight size world there just happens to be many more and definitely way more dynamic options. I think that some full figured women are forced to look for that “real woman” on a Lane Bryant mailer/newspaper ad/runway because they have given up on the idea of thinking of themselves as gorgeous or as acceptable as a size 12. “Put me on that magazine cover – that way I can justify feeling pride in how I look!” Therefore, seeing a woman who is smaller than us and considering her a source of fashion inspiration is a no-no. Sorry, but that’s a cop-out. It’s time to focus and to take responsibility for your sense of fashion!

Retailers must hire models that fit the clothing and that are marketable to the widest cross-section of consumers. By consumers I mean the public, the industry, their competition, the media, etc. A smart designer will pay money to shoot his designs on a recognizable, marketable model. A not-so-smart one will whip out a cheap digital camera, ask her friends to model for free and suffer the consequences in the form of flat sales. A magazine that uses “real women” models is doomed to stay online - try selling ad space using your “Hot!” best friend who is a little too short to work professionally as a cover model. Torrid is an example of a retailer that is walking this very line, but the company ultimately illustrates my point. They use every- day customers to model the bulk of their looks online, which serves to generate page hits and entice their customers to shop the looks that they can most closely relate to. But their print ads in magazines, and almost every example of their email blasts and marketing materials, feature agency models that will most successfully sell their entire vibe – one of professionalism, sleekness, trendiest and success. The countless cute, chubby customer models they recruit for product shots won’t cut it in a television ad when Torrid’s competition is hiring agency girls for theirs.

Boo hoo, that model is too tiny!

I’ve seen some posts on various message boards that consist of negative comments about retailers that use plus size models that are “too small,” “not really plus sized,” “not representative of big women,” etc. These comments are sometimes paired with a call to have more “real” women as models. Now, I wonder: why would I want to see every-day women in a fashion editorial or advertisement? This idea defeats the purpose of using actual models, which is to sell a product, an ideal, a concept, and retailers are in this to do just that. Make it more attractive, desirable and even a little out of reach and that ideal (or shirt, top, shoe, etc.) becomes that much more delicious and coveted. I want retailers to woo me, appeal to my eye, and make me WANT something. Speaking as someone who has read fashion magazines since I was eight years old, I can say that my standards are a bit beyond the call for “real” people models – they just don’t make me want to reach for m wallet.

I wonder why plus size women would demand use of this type of model. I also wonder if they know what they are even asking. There are agencies that represent real people with non-model looks, but I’m sure I don’t want to see them in Avenue ads. Are we as a group that insecure, self-loathing and unimaginative that we cannot creatively extrapolate from the image of a gorgeous size 14 woman a concept of personal style and say "hey, that outfit is great - I need to try it and see how it looks on me"? I happen to be that gorgeous, and so seeing a size 12 model doesn’t bother me. Seeing a size 2 doesn’t ruffle my feathers either, it just makes me wonder if that item or something like it comes in my size. Are we that disgusted by our own dimensions that we can’t tolerate indulging in the beauty of a lean, mean size 16, and then – oh perish the thought! – go on to imagine that we can appropriate that beautiful concept of a trendy outfit on that “small” model within our own lives? Skinny models appeal to the skinny to average to plus size woman – why shouldn’t plus size models? In the interest of doing that (because a good model will appeal too many), she must be the ideal, the most beautiful, the most desirable and most flexible/diverse in her look. She cannot, by definition, look like “us.” The “every-woman” is beautiful, to be sure, but she is not the ideal for the majority and is therefore not really sufficient model material.

Just in case you forgot, models represent ideals, and plus size models, even if they are “big,” do that as well. Compared to us, the average consumer, they are smaller – heck, they just might be more photogenic and beautiful, and fit into more clothing, and be able to walk in five inch stilettos, too – but note that these are requirement for the job. They may only be a size 12, 14 or even 10, but compared to a straight size model who is 5'11" and a size 2, that is huge. Plus size models ARE straight size models - only bigger, and what is wrong with that? Where is it written that plus size models need to look like your mom? Like your Aunt Betty? Like YOU and ME? Plus size models are not meant to prove that big women are gorgeous, sexy, worthy, etc. - they exist to sell products, period. People keep confusing modeling with building self-worth, and that is a lost cause. One thing has nothing to do with the other.