Kate Moss Simple And Sensual For St Tropez Summer 2013 Ad Campaign

Kate Moss bears all for the summer 2013 St. Tropez ad campaign. The international superstar simplifies the shots with a straight forward glare and skin that’s pure perfection. 

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Giulia Noni Captures Jemma Baines For L'Express Styles April 2013 Mirages D'été

Jemma Baines blends into the backdrop in a surreal shoot by Guilia Noni for L’Express Styles. The optical illusion features the stand out style selects of Yann Weber. 

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Edita Vilkeviciute's Beautiful Body Testament By Gilles Bensimon For Vogue Paris May 2013

The French have a superb relationship with sunlight. After all, it was Coco Chanel who made tanned skin all the rage among the style set. Photographer Gilles Bensimon snaps the true beauty Edita Vilkeviciute nude and communing with nature for Vogue Paris’ May issue.

Suntanning triggers the brain’s reward region linked to addictions. On a positive note, suntanning seems to cause a ‘runners high’ and positive sense of wellbeing.

When I look at these gorgeous images of Edita as nature girl, I’m swept into the thoughtful consideration of how different Americans are in our relationship with the female body. Due to the primacy of religion in our morality mindset, Americans view the female body with ambivalence and often contempt — much like the Arab world.

This awareness was front and center in my mind yesterday, reading British Vogue’s page-view generating headline Former Angel Slams Victoria’s Secret. The nothing story focused on meltdown, born-again woman Kylie Bisutti who is on a pr campaign to publicize her new book and modesty-inspired clothing line with news that she “has clarified the reasons why she quit as one of the faces of Victoria’s Secret”.

Certainly Kylie takes herself far too seriously and is capitalizing on her brief fame for self-promotion. But anytime the message comes front and center that women must cover-up our bodies, honoring God and husbands, I can only think of the incredible suffering religion has inflicted on women worldwide, in the name of modesty.Therefore, I believe that Bisutti is an agent of women’s oppression.

The fact that the conservative, right-wing morality police buys the most porn in America, only adds insult to injury for thoughtful women like myself. The French are far from perfect, but their relationship with the female body is much more positive than America enjoys.

Just consider the fact that the bare-breasted woman with a snake’s lower parts serves as a beast of temptation on the West facade of the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. Generally considered to be Lilith, Adam’s first wife in the Old Testament, the French have publicly acknowledged the conflict over women’s bodies for centuries.

Following in the footsteps of former Vogue Paris editor-in-chief Carine Roitfeld, Emmanuelle Alt herself has publicly struggled with nudity and sensuality. Little by little, Alt has come around in accepting a limited amount of nudity in Vogue Paris, which remains a shadow of its former self under Roitfeld.

Today it’s Edita Vilkeviciute who has the last word on the subject of the female body. Her fearless Gilles Bensimon images are gorgeous and inspiring. If only every woman could enjoy this kind of peace with her physicality, the world would be a far less dangerous place. ~ Anne

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Aluad Deng Anei Wears Strong Suits By Kope | Figgins For Marie Claire South Africa April 2013

Pulling off these power suits calls for an executive type of woman. ‘Strong Suit’ displays a jaw-dropping assortment of stand out suits selected by Bee Diamondhead. Aluad Deng Anei is the perfect match to pull off the shots of Kope | Figgins for Marie Claire South Africa. 

The title of the editorial catches our attention with its message of the fashionable woman is taller, leaner and sexier. There is no doubt that fashion prefers this look. During the epic success of the ’90s supermodels, 25% of women could achieve their body shape. Forgetting for one moment just how much obesity has grown in the world and especially in America, only 8% of healthy women could achieve today’s body ideal.

That’s a big change in one decade, the result of shrinking ideal model size from a size 4-6 to a size 0. Read yesterday’s Does Fashion Promote Anorexia? Do Models Really Eat Tissue Paper To Stay Thin?

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Does Fashion Industry Promote Anorexia? Do Models Eat Tissue Paper To Stay Thin?

The most recent wave of criticism against anorexic-looking models was launched in 2009 with the publication of a Ralph Lauren ad campaign featuring fired model Filippa Hamilton, who was photoshopped to look exactly like these images.

The debate over fashion’s obsession with ultra-thin models has continued unabated since then, with little turning away from the down-sizing of the healthy body, original ’90s supermodels like Cindy Crawford and Naomi Campbell. Most of those size 4-6 supermodels are considered plus-size models today, compared to our typically androgynous-looking size 0 models.

Brazil’s Star Models You Are Not A Sketch Campaign

Brazilian modeling agency Star Models has recently launched an innovative eating disorder awareness campaign featuring your typical fashion sketch on the left, and models photoshopped to look like the illustration on the right. The impossibly long-legged fashionista on the left has been with us for decades. Photoshopping a real model to look like a fashion illustration is a more recent phenomenon.

Fashion insiders tell women that neither image should have any impact on our psyches. Any intelligent woman isn’t impacted by these visions of the ideal female body because we know they are only ads. The same argument applies to Barbie. Are people seriously suggesting that Barbie be banned.

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Giampaolo Sgura Lenses Blondie Magdalena Frackowiak For Vogue Paris May 2013

Geraldine Saglio dresses Magdalena Frackowiak in diamonds for the blonde bombshell’s intimate, bed set shoot with Giampaolo for Vogue Paris. 

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