The AP wonders if “older” models are “the new black” since we saw a handful of older, established, recognizable faces on the fall 2010 runways. Calvin Klein for instance cast Kristen McMenamy, Stella Tennant, and Kirsty Hume. Prada cast Victoria’s Secret models Alessandra Ambrosio, Doutzen Kroes, and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. Giles Deacon also cast Ambrosio. Calvin Klein designer Francisco Costa reiterated that he chose older models because he wanted the cast to represent the women who actually buy his clothes, who are not 16-year-olds. His show opened, however, with Jac, who is 16.
Still, Nian Fish, creative director at fashion-show powerhouse producer KCD, says designers, stylists, casting agents and modeling agents all collectively heeded the call to put forth a healthier image.
“This is fashion coupled with compassion,” says Fish, who helped the Council of Fashion Designers of America launch its health initiative back in 2007. “But I think the compassion came first, and then the fashion suited these bodies. I loved seeing these bodies in Prada. We’re always looking for trends at Prada, and seeing Victoria’s Secret girls on the Prada runway woke up a lot of people about what a women should look like.”
We loved seeing the Victoria’s Secret models on the runways too. It was refreshing. But they also stood out so much because they were still the exception.
“I had been away from fashion shows seven or eight years, other than Victoria’s Secret,” says Ambrosio … “It was really nice to participate. It was surprising because, for such a long time, designers were only using girls that weren’t so sexy, whose bodies were less curvy.”
Sexy, curvaceous figures seem to be on the rise, but the vast majority of girls walking that we saw were still super-skinny and super-young.
Are ‘Older’ Models The New Black? [HuffPo]