The Skinny on Skinny

Just got off the phone with my friend who went to a designer trunk show last night featuring what she called "the skinniest models I have ever seen." She and her two female compadres have the kind of wallets, fashion sense and disposable incomes that make sales people weak in the knees and salivate, with visions of big commissions dancing in front of their eyes like a jonesing beauty junkie getting inside my cosmetic tickle trunk.  But the show left them feeling slighted and uninspired. Not by the clothing, which barely received a mention,  but by the clothing hangers modeling them. If customer service is all about making you, the customer, the one with the cash,  feel great, feel pretty, feel empowered -then this show fell flat and the only great sounding fizzy fizzy pop was the free flowing Veuve.

Now my friend has a real woman's body, in fact an enviable one, with curves that make men stupid and other woman stand up straighter and throw their shoulders back. When she walks into a room people notice, but at this trunk show the clothing became secondary to the cult of skinny. What woman with curves is going to want to try things on when she is surrounded by size 0 or 2's? What woman is going to feel pretty  surrounded by all those jutting angles of hips and elbows knowing that if she didn't eat for weeks her thigh would still be bigger then these models waist?

They tried on nothing- they bought nothing. They enjoyed the Veuve but left with a bitter taste in their mouth. The designer who understands that women come in all shapes and sizes and celebrates that on the runway and in reality will be the designer that sells to women everywhere, not just the hungry ones. The retailer that realizes the power of pretty is in how being made to feel pretty outside makes you feel inside, will hear their cash register sing. By sending out only a solo parade of skinny, the designer effectively stopped women from seeing themselves wearing his clothing. It sure is difficult to sell to someone you just alienated and made to feel bad, even in the smallest way.

Fashion is cyclical- so tell me, when do curves come back? When do hips and a shapely bottom become the next new in fashion it item ? The reality is for most women they never went out.