Tuesday 7 September 2010

Too Curvy for Fashion?

OK, so there are many many positive stories in the press at the moment which show the attitude to curves in the fashion world is changing...

Prada, the Italian label credited with inventing the cult of the skinny girl, has started to use curvier, womanly Victoria's Secret lingerie models on its catwalk.  Marc Jacobs has vowed to make his clothes in bigger sizes, if only for a season or two.

But then the reality of the fashion world rears its ugle head!

35-year-old actress Christina Hendricks - the curvaceous star of hit U.S. TV series Mad Men who was nominated for best supporting actress, has struggled to find a designer who would dress her for the red carpet at the Emmys.


'Not one designer will loan me a dress,' she told a Scottish newspaper. 'They only lend out a size zero or a size 2. So I'm still struggling for someone to give me a darn dress!'

Lawren Sample has been Hendricks' stylist for three years and has a constant battle to dress her stunning curvaceous figure.  'Most of the time Christina can't fit into samples. Sometimes she can get into it if it has a little stretch, but not often,' says Lawren.

'She's a woman, she's got a woman's body. But most actors these days, there's nothing to them - they're a clothes hanger'

Lawren admits that although her curvaceous 38DD-26-34 figure is the envy of millions of women, designers would prefer to steer clear.
Two of our most beautiful British actresses - Suranne Jones, who played Karen McDonald in Coronation Street, and Sarah Paris, who most recently appeared on screen in Mistresses, have also said that because they do not conform to the "standard size" they find it impossible to be dressed by any of the big designers.

'No one will lend clothes to me,' says Jones. 'Even when I try to buy a designer dress, it's hard to find anything that works in my size, which is a 12.'

Why are these beautiful women finding it so difficult to be dressed on the red carpet?  Jasper Conran, one of our most curve friendly designers, says: 'The truth of the matter is that models tend to be tall, slim and young, the samples are fitted to the models, so that dictates the size they are'.

New York designer Zac Posen rose to the challenge and personally created a dress for Christina to wear at the Emmys. What a show stopper it was. He wanted to accentuate her shape, rather than hide it. The lilac, cleavage-bearing, hourglass dress in chiffon with hand stitched feathers was specially made for her, with a structured, boned bodice.
The dress was stunning and, for me, she stole the show with her curvy figure showcased at its best. A woman who looks like a woman, most certainly not like a coat hanger.

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