Runway models get a thumbs-down Runway models get a thumbs-down

On Oct. 3 in Image, you show the model runway scene [“Spring Forecast,” “Bohemian Bliss,” “Punk Glamour”]. What I continue to wonder is: If I designed a frilly frock for some woman to wear, I would want it shown on a woman with a shape and a pretty, smiling face. What I would apparently get is a skinny bimbo, built like a 10-year-old boy and a face that looks like she just ate a lemon. How in the world does that sell anything? I spent a lot of years in the sales game when I was young. One thing I discovered is you don’t sell the product as much as you sell yourself. None of those girls could sell me anything.

John Waugen

Anaheim

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The runway pictures in the Oct. 3 Image section are exceptional in that they manage to make all the models look unattractive in ugly clothes.

John Anderson

Oxnard

1950s ‘ladylike’

fashion begone

The 1950s are back [“She’s Looking Like a Lady,” Sept. 5] and with it the concept of “ladylike” covered-up fashion for this fall. We thought the 1950s were gone, but now they have come alive in fashion. Long skirts, tight belts, scarves and flowery cocktail dresses are the quintessential outfits for this era that had women marginalized and looking pretty, cooking at home [while] waiting for their husbands.

Dear Simon Kneen, executive vice president of design for Banana Republic, I completely agree with you that this new fashion can age even the youngest. Let’s stay in the present and come up with new innovative fashion; those times are over. Women, let’s leave that fashion in the past and wear whatever the heck we want. Show skin if you please. Let’s break through the standards that have been following us for so many years. No more “ladylike”-restricting fashion. Enough!

Karla Ramirez

Santa Barbara