My first reaction towards this was 'NO' but I think it's just how s*itty it all is, it's not even about the people here, it's just that they're photographed like a Metro PCS campaign for some blackberry-looking phone. I have a hard time making the connection between the person that did
this.. and this.
Frankly I don't really mind seeing people that are unattractive in fashion because.. I have followed fashion for a lot of years, and in every single one of them, there was always someone that I did not find attractive or whose appeal I just didn't get. In some cases, like when Anouck Lepere and An Oost first came out (both conventionally less attractive than some of the people here), I sort of rewired myself and understood that not everyone had to look like a freakin' barbie and that barbies were in fact pretty dull.
The difference then, and even in the 70s, 80s and 90s when looking at the work produced back then, is that the variety of faces (one can call it 'diversity' too) was pretty big.. it just wasn't a moral statement and definitely not a charitable pursuit. In a way, those in front of the lens were assigned a more dignified place and their natural beauty was explored for its individuality and completely in synch with the premise of fashion as we know it: status, beauty, lifestyle, a genuine appreciation for garments and a need to express yourself creatively through them.
The average fashion consumer is not really demanding, they can be retrained for a-n-y-t-h-i-n-g, they will nod and devour things the way a dog fetches a bone, you could sell the holidays of a lifetime or lingerie in that good ol' sultry Calvin Klein way with
this girl, the problem is wanting at all costs to overlook and deny that what constitutes an interest for fashion has little to do with your fellow human beings, it has always been a selfish endeavor, no one thinks
'I'm going to buy this beautiful garment so I can make that event look amazing!'.. you buy a beautiful garment so YOU can look amazing IN that event. That is the whole base for the 'fantasy', the 'aspiration', the unattainable and larger-than-life ideas. So when a group is chosen based on prior or current vulnerability, as a message of empowerment... not only you're going to have questionable results because you're already detaching from the original motive, but it immediately removes the viewer as well from his/her aspirational needs and demands altruism from them instead... and that's not just hard work.. it is annoying to be demanded anything in an outlet that is, more often than not, easy, purely about pleasure, and certainly not the one you go to when you want justice made in any way.
In short, I think the viewer is wrongly assigned responsibility and that will never really work and I think some of the people here have the same potential as.. Harleth or Selena.. they're just all piled together, for questionable reasons and with absolutely no effort from the team behind this because they're so obviously in disagreement.. and it kind of just shows.. how CK is currently a ship on fire. ☄️
