Are America's Curvy Girls A Movement or Publicity Stunt? It's Up to American Women

Dree Hemingway for V MagazineArriving today at V Magazine’s website, the content looks ‘normal’ for an edgy, smart fashionista’s hangout.

Dree Hemingway, daughter of the gorgeous Mariel and granddaughter of literary giant, Dree Hemingway wears the iconic California girl looks of an all-American woman.

In the escalating battle to define the place of ‘real women’ in fashion’s visual beauty vocab — torched by the now infamous Ralph Lauren photoshop job on Filippa Hamilton and her firing for being ‘too fat’ — V Magazine’s following Glamour’s lead, featuring curvy and plus-size models in its January 2010 issue.

Karl Lagerfeld, Terry Richardson, Bruce Weber and the husband-wife team Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin will be in charge of the shoot. One woman photographer out of five isn’t bad, right?

Forget the fact that woman photographer Ellen von Unwerth is hotter than Hades right now.

Two months ago Karl Lagerfeld infamously told Focus magazine:  “No one wants to see curvy women. You’ve got fat mothers with their bags of chips sitting in front of the television and saying that thin models are ugly.”

Models featured in the V Magazine ‘curvy girls’ issue are Crystal Renn, Kate Dillon, Hayley Morley, Mia Tyler, and Whitney Thompson.

“Big, little, pint-size, plus-size — every body is beautiful. And this issue is out to prove it,” exclaimed V Magazine editor-in-chief Stephen Gan.

Most fashion veterans consider the V Mag issue to be a publicity stunt than a real commitment to expand the definition of beauty for American women.

One guy who is committed to keeping the body image topic front and center is Darryl Roberts, the indy filmmaker who will be featured today on CNN. Roberts has growing support for his boycot against Ralph Lauren.

Read more on Darryl Roberts and his campaign to loosen the yoke of size 0 models on American women — and every woman — in Ubah Hassan Does Look More Like Ralph Lauren’s Photoshop Version of Filippa Hamilton.

Ubah Hassan Does Look More Like Ralph Lauren’s Photoshop Version of Filippa Hamilton

I can confirm that the original Ralph Lauren story is back in the #2 spot on Anne of Carversville, and all of our Body & Beauty Blog stories are gaining traction. Anne

More reading: Plus-size trend to continue in 2010 Independent UK

Filippa Hamilton Reveals: Ralph Lauren Fired Her in April 2009

Ralph Lauren Celebrates the End of American Women’s Sexuality

Comments

[Marcie]

I've always been a fan of plus-size models! There's a great site with many images of Crystal and other plus-size models here:

http://www.judgmentofparis.com/

They're all gorgeous.

The site's forum also has thought-provoking discussions about body image and the media.