The Model as Mousse

Nichola Formichetti, the new Creative Director at French design house Thierry Mugler, was quoted in a recent W Magazine article as saying:  "I was only used to dressing models and skinny kids,..and I turned up (to a photo shoot), and it was, like, three fat guys.  I just left. That was the last time I tried to work with fat people...it was so ghetto."

I begin this post with a caveat.  Some people think I'm a crass, insensitive person only concerned with labels and outward appearances.  Those I know well know me as a crass, insensitive person only concerned with labels and outward appearances with a heart.

My family, culled and propagated from genetically large, healthy, robust mid-western stock, are known to often live well into their nineties without concern for New-Agey diets, supplements, or vitamins.  My 450 lb. grandfather assumed a "food pyramid" was how high you could stack food on a plate before it toppled.  My Granny, accustomed to cooking every meal for a large family, would make recipes involving dozens of eggs and tubs of butter preparing a simple breakfast for just me and my sister.

I realize this is a fashion/style blog, and here is my point - I think the inner glow, the source, the core of my overweight friends and family shines in their demeanor.  Do I worry about their health?  Sure, but I have no right to judge.  I have enough microbes and viruses swimming in my slender frame to alert the CDC.  Do I worry about others' judgments?  Sure, but I shouldn't be concerned.  As long as they live in America, they are part of a comfortable majority.

A designer, like a painter, sometimes finds the optimum expression is made on the largest canvas.  If I continue to highlight everyone, no matter what size, in beautiful packaging, more people will be intrigued to find the treasure contained inside.

Beauty comes in an unlimited variety of shapes and sizes, and I will never be quoted in W Magazine saying anything different!

-JFA