The painting, The Three Graces, by the Flemish master of Baroque, Peter Paul Rubens, hangs at the Prado in Madrid, Spain. Anyone can see that the body mass index (BMI) of the three ladies depicted is way above the 18.5-25 BMI ‘safe zone’ recommended by UN health experts. But if the new regulations set by the organisers of the ongoing Madrid Fashion Week are anything to go by, being Rubenesque is fine, but looking like figures from an El Greco painting — reed-like and elongated — is not.
The London Fashion Week, which also started on September 18, doesn’t have a ban on models who are ‘super-skinny’. Unlike in Madrid, ‘size zero’ figures still walk the ramp in London. In the meantime, pressure from doctors and women’s rights groups are pushing to end the display of ‘heroin chic’ and the Kate Moss look in fashion shows once and for all. Fashionistas, however, are furious and see the Madrid move and the growing demand in London to be outrageous and harmful for the careers of ‘naturally gazelle-like’ models. The problem of the British-Spanish spat stems as much from a serious difference in aesthetics as it does from concerns over health. It is one thing to champion the clothes hanger-appeal of today’s Twiggys and quite another to find impressionable youngsters turning anorexic in a bid to have a figure like Paris Hilton.
But in the end, it will have to be aesthetics, and not rules, that will determine the outcome of the battle. Obese women may not be a pretty sight for modern eyes — rules of beauty depicted in Tamil cinema may be an anomaly — but they worked for the aesthetes during Rubens’ time. Similarly, waif-like creatures have to be made less fashionable. Thankfully, in the world of music, women like Shakira and Beyonce are already seen to be way ‘cooler’ than, say, Avril Lavigne or, shudder, Paris Hilton. A gentle nudge in the direction of curves, rather than diktats, should do the trick in the fashion world.
{{/usCountry}}But in the end, it will have to be aesthetics, and not rules, that will determine the outcome of the battle. Obese women may not be a pretty sight for modern eyes — rules of beauty depicted in Tamil cinema may be an anomaly — but they worked for the aesthetes during Rubens’ time. Similarly, waif-like creatures have to be made less fashionable. Thankfully, in the world of music, women like Shakira and Beyonce are already seen to be way ‘cooler’ than, say, Avril Lavigne or, shudder, Paris Hilton. A gentle nudge in the direction of curves, rather than diktats, should do the trick in the fashion world.
{{/usCountry}}