Not Just Super, but Superior
Whoever made the observation that supermodels are freaks of nature was chewing on a mouthful of sour fruit. It’s true enough that very thin women nearly 6 feet tall with pretty hair, narrow hips and symmetrical features are a minority so small as to be statistically invisible. But they do exist, and if teenage girls didn’t feel the hopeless need to deify and emulate them, they could probably be appreciated as skilled workers who help decorate our world.
The amazing thing about professional runway models is they get no help. No control top pantyhose to smooth a bulging tummy, no Wonderbra to push up what gravity has lowered, no opaque tights to cover a bruised leg. In most shows, they barely even wear underwear, the thong being all that separates them from total nudity beneath the clothes.
Up close, many of them are breathtaking. Some are painfully thin, awkward giraffes who just happen to wear clothes well. They range in age from 14 to 30, but the older models are likely to be in the Cindy Crawford class--women who’ve attained a diversified profile beyond modeling.
Recently, some designers have been favoring the naive look. When a new girl appears on the runway, all wide eyes and scrawny legs, we jaded fashion journalists roll our eyes and whisper, “She’s 12.” Let the designers talk all they want about freshness and innocence. There’s something insulting about using prepubescent girls to show clothes that will be sold to the grown women who can afford them.
Inevitably, those of us who follow the silk and polyester road from Milan to Paris to New York develop the camaraderie of combat veterans. Feelings of affection and bitchiness alternate. When a well-known model has been missing from the runways for a while, the standard assumption is, “Oh, she’s probably in rehab.” In some cases, that’s the truth. In others, it’s a bum rap.
Between the ready-to-wear and couture shows, models do have lives they return to, realities that include husbands and babies. Trish Goff, an American who started working at 14 and still isn’t old enough to drink in most states has brought her infant daughter to work with her this season. Husbands and boyfriends often serve as helpers and managers, arranging transportation, keeping track of a complex schedule, or just offering foot rubs and a hedge against the loneliness of the road.
Many of the best runway models are of indeterminate age. Dressed in their borrowed finery, they appear far too self-assured to be really young, too flawlessly beautiful to be mature. An exotic stunner like Esther Canadas could be 18 or 35 (she’s 20).
Between shows, the models are most likely to be seen in scruffy hip-huggers and the latest high-tech sneakers. With their endless legs, they look like colts at play. Their guys are usually young too, and the sight of a woman made-up and coiffed to resemble some fantasy courtesan nuzzling a long-haired boy who could be an Oasis dropout is a scene from “Beauty and the Beast.”
Fine-boned, classic beauties are in demand now, such as Danielle Z, a 22-year-old from West Virginia and Elsa Benitez, a 21-year-old Mexican who projects the qualities of the great Italian neo-realist actresses.
Then along comes a surprise like Alek Wek, a statuesque 18-year-old from the southern Sudan with almost no hair, or Karen Elson, last year’s “it” girl. Discovered at 16, the flaming redhead from Manchester, England, was signed by Chanel for its fall campaign, despite or because of a very unconventional look.
During the collections, the hours are long and the pace relentless. By the end of the Paris shows, the girls seem to drag themselves down the runway, their fatigue almost painful to watch. We won’t shed any tears for these genetically blessed women, but they do work hard and face rejection. Designers can be fickle, casting Amazons one season, waifs another.
As someone who spends a lot of time looking at clothes, I would rather see them on a graceful beauty like Shalom Harlow than a real, flawed woman, no matter how big her heart or delightful her sense of humor. Call me square, but I just wish the girls would leave their nipple rings home.
