can you do high fashion if you're not slim/slender?

[TheGlassAngel]

Well, honestly speaking....most clothes look better on fitter people. I'm saying fitter not 'skinnier'

 

[LuxuryLover]

I think big people can make themselves look good, but I think they look silly if they try to pull of the really "exlusive" runway looks

 

[stilettogirl84]

A model's job is not to look good--it's to make the clothes look good.

So, by necessity, on the runway, the model is relatively absent, compared to the clothes. She's basically an animated hanger.

The rest of us dress ourselves for a host of other reasons--to invoke a mood, fulfill an inspiration, express our personalities, look attractive, whatever.
Most people don't wear clothes for the sake of showing them off.....
And they certainly don't want to disappear into their clothes (i.e., display the clothes at the expense of themselves)

Pulling it off has a lot more to do with comfort and confidence. And that comes from knowing your body and knowing what you want to say with the way you dress.

I couldn't have said it better!

Karma for you

 

[voodoo_mary]

well said laika!!
animated hanger- good one! hhaha
i agreee u need to be of a certain proportion and height to look good in some designer clothes.

and even if u can't- there's always tailors who can alter the size or length- GOD BLESS THEM!

i think its possible for bigger women to wear designer, but it may appear more of a feat and not so effortless anymore and that takes something away from the looking gd part. just mho

 

[laika]

thanks voodoomary!

and belated thank you to everyone who gave karma
(i just figured out that i had it!!!)
makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside....and also very welcome.

 

[Yasmin]

I think for the most part, those clothes are built for runway models and NOT for other figures.

It's not only about being thin. It is a particular very tall, rather boney (by nature,+severe dieting), elongated frame, that is quite uncommon in the real world, and most thin women don't have this body type, doesn't matter how thin.

Runway clothes are not so much "clothes" in my opinion as props for a "show".

 

[cavanaugh]

i see no problem with a larger woman wearing designer clothes, maybe not a head to toe runway look, but pieces.

she just needs to be even more careful about porportions and shapes, and just needs to know what looks good on her. i've seen it done.

 

[cavanaugh]

*it takes more than a great body to wear great clothes

 

[marsmars]

Being thin is a trend, and if you just want to be another airhead and follow the trends, then go ahead. Saying that a thin person looks better in high fashion runway clothing is completely subjective.

Just remember that in Ancient Rome, Venus-like women were adored. In parts of Indonesia, fat women are adored. Think objectively, and look at your question from outside the box.

In America, thinness is adored. But it wasn't always.

There are societal-psychological reasons that innapropriately set up these idiotic constraints.

As for the cut and fit of the clothing, I believe that if the clothing doesn't fit, it'll probably look strange. But that goes for thin and fat people (and those that are in-between).

 

[stilettogirl84]

MarsMars- Big women have been considered beautiful in the past- and I think they still can be- but that's a very different issue than whether or not they can really "pull off" high fashion clothing- which goes for a certain look- because thinness is the fashion right now- clothing is designed FOR thin frames- so they don't really fit right on bodies that are bigger.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My Personal opinion is that

-very skinny, fine boned women can look "cool"- wear really "IN" style clothes and looks.
-somewhat larger women, with breasts and a larger bottom are more sexy looking- but have a more difficult time doing the cool look-

really larger girls can look sexy sometimes, but look like fashion victims if they try to do "high fashion looks", and have to work a lot harder just to not look lumpy...

 

[kanita]

I don't know if this looks are 'high fashion' but some of the looks are definately chic and/or cool.

elle.co.jp

hel-looks.com

stockholmstreetstyle.com

streetfancy.blogspot.com

More of this here: http://www.thefashionspot.com/forums/f89/plus-size-streetstyle-48126.html

 

[factory girl]

Kan-i-ta those women are absoutley gorgeous, and all look evry stylish and chic so i diffently think it proves it doesnt really matter what shape you are,cos all those women look fantastic xx

 

[leyla m.]

great look for that girl in red and leggings

 

[Yasmin]

The most stylish girls I've known tended to be a bit heavier. Not overweight. But like those girls in stockholm. But, the thread is about high fashion clothes right, which don't come in "normal people sizes". Except the shoes and bags (well, those are really good parts though!)

Anyway, maybe the madrid thing about no models that are underweight according to the world health organization will catch on, and designers may have to increase the sizing of their runway clothes. That would probably mean more people could actually wear them, but you'd probably still need to be rather tall and rather thin to wear them.

As a tall, pear-shaped (no matter what I weigh) person, if they did this I could probably wear some of the tops, but could never wear runway bottoms. But c'est la vie! Anyway I find most runway stuff pretty hard to imagine wearing anywhere.

 

[laika]

Here are some runway looks on non-models

The first is Consuelo Castiglioni, who is obviously slender, but also very short.
The second is Prada, who is not slender, also quite short, and is also wearing clothes right off the runway.
I think they both look great.

{style.com}

 

[classic1908]

Some "high fashion" (if you are talking expensive RTW) does go past a size 14, particularly among American designers who have an older clientele. Think Oscar de la Renta, Bill Blass, Chado Ralph Rucci, Carolina Herrera. I've even heard that Chanel's suits go up to a misses 20, which of course, Kaiser Karla doesn't want you to know.

And to the America = thinness, I'd say it's valued in the wider culture, not among some cultures of color. For the most part, African-Americans, of which I am one, are much more accepting of larger bodies. We have room for Queen Latifah as well as Joy Bryant as beauty/style icons.

 

[Multitudes]

... But i love the surprise that emerges when you see different types of bodies interacting with designer clothes.

... The rest of us dress ourselves for a host of other reasons--to invoke a mood, fulfill an inspiration, express our personalities, look attractive, whatever.
Most people don't wear clothes for the sake of showing them off.....
And they certainly don't want to disappear into their clothes (i.e., display the clothes at the expense of themselves)

Pulling it off has a lot more to do with comfort and confidence. And that comes from knowing your body and knowing what you want to say with the way you dress.

but no one can "pull off" a straight-off-the -runway, duplicate look (including models!)....because there is nothing there to pull off.

Aaaahh! you're touching on some key points in this discussion, which I find quite compelling, but that shouldn't come as a surprise ...

Clothing and its interaction with different body types, is indeed where we can find something surprisingly beautiful, something unexpected, and maybe if I dare to say, something uniqued... we shouldn't strive to imitate what we see on the runway, we should strive to reinvent what we see, we have to make it our own, and that emerges in this interaction which appears in the connection between cloth and body ... so, in away for me, this question if certain body types can pull off runway look has no significant at all ...

beautiful said Laika! ...

 

[cekla]

i think its all down to proportions...

 

[kissmesweet]

^^ Thank you.

I think that Galliano's shows are always great as he shows that fashion looks good and anyone and everyone.

Well, I'm skinny + petite, but I think that if you're not slim/slender, you'll still look great no matter what as long as you wear it with an air of confidence and a warm smile. Besides, high fashion is completely overrated. Street style works best most of the time.

 

[eternitygoddess]

I think it's much easier to pull it off if you're slender. Some things like evening column dresses only fit slender women.