Beth Ditto on the fashion industry
There are those who accuse the fashion industry of being fickle in their new-found love for Beth Ditto, but the singer herself isn't one of them. She has very strong views on the so-called hypocrisy of her being on the front row of every show at this season's Paris Fashion Week. ‘I know that one year Karl Lagerfeld was refusing to make clothes for women of a certain size, and the next year he was asking me to play the Fendi party,' she said this weekend. ‘What a contradiction they are! But they're probably just as big victims of not being able to see beyond the ends of their noses as all the people complaining about it. You have to get in there, shake it up.' As Beth's done with the July launch of her clothing line for Evans. It's full of clothes that, as she says, fat people often feel like they can't wear – well cut jackets, stretch tops and acid prints – and is evidence of Beth's obsession with fashion, something she's had to be creative with in the past. ‘I'm really good at turning a belt into a necklace, and I can always find a nice pair of earrings.' Not that she needs to now everyone from Karl Lagerfeld to Jeremy Scott are making one-off special catwalk copies for her – a sign she's been fully embraced by fashion and feels part of it. ‘[Did I feel] that I was going to crush Karl when I give him a hug?' she says when questioned about whether she felt like an insider at the shows. ‘No, not at all. Well, I did, but I don't care. I'm the only one there who looks like me. Everyone else just looks the same, so think about the joy of that.' In fact she reckons fashion is less snobby than the music industry. ‘If you think fashion is snobby, go hang out with some punks. They are beyond elitist! [The Times]
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- this is all very well and yes, the fashion industry is hypocritical and size-obsessed, all true. What really bothers me though is that we never hear of women who are a healthy size. Clearly, Beth Ditto is morbidly obese. That is NOT healthy and also really unattractive. When will the fashion industry focus on healthy women instead of promoting extremes?
nicoleg - Totally agree with nicoleg, get a healthy woman out there!! =)
elzzy - Ladies, I would love to see more healthy looking women in fashion and I can only think that Beth Ditto's collection at Evans is a very small step towards an industry that treats all bodies with equal respect. It gives more women interesting fashion options, and that in my book is an excellent thing. We're talking about Evans here (do you remember, the one for larger sized women or are they all too 'unattractive' to be on your radar?), Karl Largerfield may approve of her music but it's not as if she's just been made the face of Chanel. What's more, to begrudge any woman who has made her own success, especially one who does not conform physically in an image obsessed society, simply because she doesn't wear a dress size you approve of is to be as guilty of body fascism as any tape-measure wilding size zero obsessive in the 'fashion industry'. I just can't quite see what your problem with this is; do you feel it likely that someone is going to stop exercising to wear her clothing? Or that women will aspire to become morbidly obese if Beth is a fashion icon? I can't see that happening, no matter how much British women claim to love chocolate: they are not so foolish.
eclare
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