fantasy old factory: Crystal Renn for ELLE Canada

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Crystal Renn for ELLE Canada

Continuing our "Big girls don't cry" theme...

Since we featured two posts in the last week about plus-sized models, and since the general consensus (with which we agreed) was that neither editorial really did the models any favors, we thought it would be a good idea to feature an editorial that for once, they got exactly right.

As you may recall, we said this yesterday:

"So why not put them in the correct size or in clothes that flatter them? It's what a photographer and stylist would do with any other model, so why do the bigger models get the tighter, more revealing clothes? You never see plus-sized models in these editorials wearing something classic and tailored or flowing and goddess-y. No, they always look like they're heading out to the road house on a Saturday night, where ladies drinks are half off. In fact, the more we think about it, we can't ever remember seeing a "plus-sized" editorial (and it's not like there have been so many that we have trouble recalling) where we liked the clothes. It's always super-tight, super-short, super-revealing. We get it. "Big is Beautiful." They want to promote the idea that bigger women are sexy. Well you know what? Bigger women are fabulous too. Can't we have a "Big is Fabulous" spread some time soon that doesn't roll around in the old tropes that fat women are sexually ravenous and a little sloppy to boot?"

And lo, our prayers were answered by the fashion gods at Elle Canada, who featured Crystal Renn, a (technically) plus-sized model in a fashion editorial that treated her like every other working model. In other words, it was about the clothes and the styling and not about the fact that she's bigger than the average model.

In fact, we'd go so far as to say that most people who didn't know her wouldn't even notice the fact that she's not size 2, at least not right away. This is what the beauty industry needs to do more often, not these stunt shoots that have no theme to them other than "Look at the fat girls!" The clothes are gorgeous; the styling is gorgeous; and Crystal is gorgeous. Her size has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the editorial.

Some of you are inevitably going to point out that as "plus-sized" models go, she's on the distinctly smaller end of the scale, but it's all about the baby steps, kittens. We say, Bravo, Elle Canada. Bravo.