Guest Commentary: Sorry, But Fashion Is Not A Celebration Of The Everywoman

Image: Karl Lagerfeld for V Magazine

I adore fashion and I have never been thin. My size has taunted and tormented me for as long as I can remember, not because I necessarily wanted to be thin as much as I wanted to look different in clothes. It’s difficult to trust someone who says they love fashion when their appearance screams comfort, practicality or negligence, so in many ways I have always felt like something of a fraud. Even today, few things intimidate me more than a skinny, well-dressed peer. (Ed. note: WHA? For the record, Streib is fashionable and beautiful.)

But the never-ending and nauseating discussions of whether the idolization of super-skinny models and celebrities is ruining our culture—brought to light most recently with V magazine’s current size issue, which includes plus size models—is absurd. I’ll be the first one to admit that any issues I have with my size are fueled by my own insecurities, not because fashion magazines are beckoning me to fit some fabricated ideal. I’m never going to feel more comfortable with my body by seeing Crystal Renn in a bikini. Why? Because she’s just as gorgeous as any size two professional model.

Fashion magazines are not a celebration of the Everywoman, just like cooking magazines don’t include images of frozen TV dinners. Aspiration is part of the editorial appeal, it’s all about what’s new, what’s different, whatever can convince you to buy the magazine. V is getting tons of publicity because of this issue, which is great for them. But pretending that this is suddenly going to revolutionize the fashion industry or make women more accepting of their bodies is ludicrous. It’s the same thing in a different package.

Fashion is a business. Publishing is a business. Self-confidence, health, personal style…these are not things that can be purchased.

Lauren Streib is a journalist living in Brooklyn. She’s written for Forbes, The Daily Beast, Marie Claire and of course, The Fashion Beat.

Another ed. note: Magazines don’t give girls anorexia, their parents–pushing them to be perfect in every way–do. Growing up, I was certainly not a size O and I loved fashion magazines. Yet I’ve always been self confident because my mother was constantly telling me how beautiful and smart I was. While I commend V for its effort, I do think this is going to have a similar effect as the Italian Vogue “black” issue did: very little. Someday, I hope to see women of all sizes and colors in every magazine. Not because it’s politically correct, but because it’s more beautiful.

Why We Can’t Read French But We Still Buy Vogue Paris

American Vogue may be fashion’s bible, but its Parisian counterpart is more like the literary fiction section at your favorite bookstore: Ever-changing, ever evolving, yet stocked with classics that inspire modern incarnations.

American Vogue revels in accessible glamour, while Vogue Paris wears exclusivity on its sleeve. (Editor Carine Roitfeld to U.K.’s Observer in 2007: “I think the rest of the country don’t like us, and we don’t know them.”) Its cover subjects are primarily models, not celebrities. Its editorials use clothing as props for the avant-garde and eccentric tangents of the photographers.  American Vogue more closely resembles a Spiegel catalog.

The Vogue brand was created to cover what’s new and what’s on trend, and to serve as a who’s who guide to the beauties and the creative brains in fashion. But Roitfeld and her staff go a step further, transforming each issue into fantastical art.  For November 2009, Lady Gaga is literally put on a pedestal, a model with the legs of a Doberman reclines across two pages and Michael Jackson graffiti serves as the backdrop for couture. It’s striking but silly. As a result, a reader is able to both peek inside the fashion world and feel a part of it.

Roitfeld has tested taste in the name of creativity without end since she adapted the title to her liking in 2001. In December 2007, feminists attacked after Karen Elson was featured in bondage in a Vogue calendar guest edited by John Galliano (the calendar was included with the issue). This year she’s drawn ire for featuring a sexed up, smoking model with a baby bump, an editorial depicting cannibalism, and, most recently, model-of-the-moment Lara Stone in blackface.

She’s incredibly smart for courting debate, because in the business of publishing and fashion, controversy is currency. She acts as an artist, not as a journalist or publisher­­–hinting at instincts that were developed during her time as a stylist (notably for Gucci before landing atop Vogue’s masthead). I almost wonder if she’s trying to please the reader or herself, and if it’s the latter, than I (the reader) am infinitely lucky.

And I’m not the only one thankful for Roitfeld’s second career. Since her arrival at Vogue Paris, circulation has increased 36%, from 102,000 in 1999 to 139,000 today. Of course that’s tiny compared to American Vogue’s stagnant count of 1.2 million, but at least it’s growing. And for that, the fashion world is lucky.

Lauren Streib is a Brooklyn-based writer and reporter at the The Daily Beast.

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Vogue’s Covers Might Be Boring, But They Still Sell

Our new contributor Lauren Streib is a Brooklyn-based writer. For the past three years she was at reporter at Forbes, where she covered celebrity earnings and the publishing industry. She’s currently freelancing at The Daily Beast.

For a project today, I pulled the last 12 issues of fashion magazine mainstays Vogue, ELLE, Harper’s Bazaar and W. The cast of cover girls was mostly familiar (Jennifer Aniston, Angelina Jolie, Beyonce) with a few smart surprises (Christy Turlington, Amy Adams). There’s lots to be said about why magazines choose the cover models that they do. But while comparing the rosters across the four titles, I couldn’t get this particular thought out of my mind: What the hell has been going on at Vogue?

When examined over the course of the year, Vogue’s cover cast goes from stalwart Jennifer Aniston to 20-something starlet Blake Lively to first lady Michele Obama to a crew of high-fashion models to does-anyone-even-care-about-her-anymore Sienna Miller. Aside from propping up middling movie stars, what does this magazine stand for? Obama was a nice shot in the arm; not only is she a veritable style star with the required pedigree, but her fame and relevance bolstered newsstand sales to 560,000 (the mag’s average for the first half of 2009 was 384,000). But what does someone like Charlize Theron bring to the table?