Model vs Actress - Who is 'on Vogue'?

Niki Taylor (below, in full 90's mode) has spoken out about the increasing numbers of fashion contracts & covers being swooped up be celebrities - mainly, actresses. When asked the question What changes in consciousness would you like to see in the fashion industry?", Niki replied to FutureClaw mag "Put models back on covers of magazines and in campaigns and let the movie stars do movies."

Niki was one of the supers back in the 90's. My favourite Niki Taylor shot is from UK Vogue (top of post). I had it on my wall circa 1992, she's wearing a Vivienne Westwood bustier outfit and is looking very Cindy C - people used to confuse the two of them. It's also great to see Cindy Crawford in the same mag! And to see the 90's supers featuring in the fashion glossies again - Amber Valetta, Kristin McMenamy, Naomi Campbell - and Kate Moss never left!

Niki sometimes modeled with her pretty younger sister, Krissy. Tragically, Krissy died in 1995, from an acute asthma attack stemming from cardiac arrhythmia.

6 Years later, Niki was involved a horrific car crash in 2001, resulting a coma for 6 weeks with injuries to her back, lungs and liver. It took 56 doctors to operate on her spine. This FutureClaw image is a nod to that surgery.
I can see where Niki's coming from - heavyweight fashions mags such as W, US Vogue and ELLE especially have been putting actresses on their covers for a long time now, and UK Vogue and ELLE has started to features actresses a lot more often, with Lily Allen, Demi Moore, Keira Knightly, Jennifer Aniston, Angelina Jolie, Carey Mulligan, Kate Hudson some of the latest, off the top of my head. And lately, it seems labels and fashion House campaigns feature actresses more often than not - Julianne Moore for Bulgari, Madonna and Scarlet Johannson for Dolce & Gabbana, Victoria Beckham and Sofia Coppola for Marc Jacobs, January Jones for Versace, Lily Allen for Chanel, Leighton Meester for Missoni...it goes on. Let actresses promote other products - like Scarlet's cool campaign for Moet & Chandon, below.

Personally, give me a model any day - we all know that 99% of actresses don't even choose their outfits, yet are lauded as fashion icons. It's duplicitous. At least, for the most part, models actually live and breath fashion, they have access to the best of the best and they innately style themselves to suit. Granted, they have the access to all of the labels - but they still don't need to pay a stylist to dress them in the morning. Look no further than at one of the most admired, imitated fashion icons of our generation for proof - Kate Moss. You can just see her pulling out a fur gilet and her Westwood boots after a night on the booze with the band.

Case in point - the Vogue UK edition with Emma Watson on the cover. A very wishy-washy, drab cover, yet inside is an A-Mazing Testino shoot, Star Girls- 'A Decade of Supermodels' - this Thread from The Fashionspot concurs. One of the model shots should have been the cover. I mean, just take a butcher's at these:

I understand that fashion houses think that getting celeb to front a line will bring in big bucks. But personally, I think let the models do their thing - actresses, stick to your own media!

Real girls

Crystal Renn, Tush Magazine, 2010

Carrying on from my previous post, I love a curvy girl. And leading up to Christmas, this email has been sent to me by many a girlfriend. How very true. Curvy girls seem to always be smiling, they look like they shag a lot, eat good food and have a dam good time. Not angsting over how many calories they have ingested and pinching at their skin. Surely the stress would send you to an early grave, if that lack of nutrition didn't first.

It seems the fashion world has taken a shift lately in praise of models who are over a size 0. Last year, Size 18, Beth Ditto appeared on the cover of the inaugural LOVE magazine, and now has her own plus size line for sizes 14-32 at British store Evans.

'Curvy' Lara Stone goes from strength to strength (although she is not exactly large - but is quite Amazonian with those amazing legs and boobs).

Lara Stone, Vogue Italia 2010

Lara Stone, Vogue UK January 2010

In quite a scandalous statement for the fashion industry, in April this year Creative Director of Calvin Klein Francisco Costa vowed not to use any models under a size 0. "Calvin Klein has discontinued their use of the Size 0-2 Models and traded them in for a 2-4...a sign of the times indeed," Even 'Kaiser' Karl Lagerfeld - who has long been a lover of the skinnier models (saying in 2009 "Skinny models just look better") - featured 'plus size' model Crystal Renn three times on his catwalk this year:

The brilliant Andre Leon Talley from American Vogue said "Lagerfeld had cast the show with a slightly more curvaceous model named Crystal Renn, not seen on any Chanel catwalk before. This in itself was groundbreaking for the house, but there was also the return of personality models encouraged to be themselves instead of robotic look-alikes. 'Each girl was cast because of her sense of individuality,' Lagerfeld said enthusiastically."

Crystal Renn for Dolce & Gabbana

Crystal Renn, Vogue Germany, May 2006

Crystal Renn, Vogue Paris, August 2010

Crystal Renn is also a firm fave of Jean Paul Gaultier, Dolce & Gabbana and Tom Ford, who says has long been a fashion fave for her crazy curves, although she has shrunk somewhat of late. In her shoot for Tom Ford she is veritably tiny - but I love this shoot for ELLE Canada by Leda and St Jacques. The light, the colour, the angles, the makeup, the clothes,the pretty horses! Absolutely beautiful.

Cystal Renn, ELLE Canada, August 2010

In another leap for normal sized women, Robert Duffy of Marc Jacobs announced in August this year that they will be creating a line of clothes for Size 14. "We are in talks now. For plus sizes," Duffy Tweeted. "Listen, we are in the very beginning stages of talking to a partner about plus sizes...We gotta do larger sizes" Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana, Fendi and YSL are rumored to follow suit. For his Fall 2010 Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs featured 'real women, using famously sexy, curvy models on the catwalk in an homage to 'and God Created Woman':

Alessandra Ambrosio, Coco Rocha, and Adriana Lima walking for Louis Vuitton Fall 2010French babe Laetitia Casta (fresh from her role as Brigitte Bardot in upcoming film) leading the charge, followed by a rare return to the catwalk by 'The Body' Elle MacPhearson and Victoria's Secret gals Bar Rafaeli, and my two faves, Alessandra Ambrosio and Adriana Lima.

Laetitia Casta, Bar Rafaeli, Adriana Lima, and Elle Macpherson, Louis Vuitton Fall 2010

Marc says of the show “I wanted a variety of ages and sizes. We set out to cast gorgeous women, women who feel happy to put their make-up on, get dressed up, get all their accessories.” “It’s a bit old-fashioned, I know, but I think it’s nice for a change.” French Vogue used a nude Crystal Renn here, and it is interesting to note that curvy bombshell Penelope Cruz guest edited the issue. Speaking of which, love these actresses with killer curves like Penelope Cruz, Salma Hayek, Sofia Vergara, Scarlet Johansson, Christina Hendricks and Eva Mendes. They have figures like real girls - hips, boobs and bum. Va va voom!

Penelope CruzSofia VergaraScarlet JohanssonChristina HendricksEva Mendes

Lara Stone for Tom Ford - Curvalicious

The fabulous W magazine showcases Tom Ford's new line (see my previous post here) on blonde bombshell (Mrs David Walliams), Lara Stone. And she wears it well! LOVE the delectably drapey electric-blue fringed number, and my fave poured-into leopard print sheath. To die for!
Tom Ford has long been an advocate of a woman's shape and 'plus sixe' models such as the voluptuous Sophie Dahl who featured nude in his scandalous Opium ad for YSL, to model Crystal Renn. Although -Crystal appears to have shrunk of late!
Ford says quite simply - "Fat women look better naked" ... "It’s about individuality. Real clothes, real women. For a fashionable woman aged 25 to 75. That’s why I literally put many of my own muses in the show. I hear them say, "God, I can’t find that anywhere!" OK, so Lara and Crystal are not exactly plus sized - but it's a start, and a healthy mentality in a world of stick thin, starving, frail little waifs.

Return of the Gap

It's great to see quirky non-cookie cutter girls in the latest glossies,especially three young Lauren Hutton-esque smiles - Lara Stone, Jessica Hart & Georgia Jagger.



We love you Lauren.