I don't think it‘s under debate by anyone who is supremely beautiful over whom, you‘re reading too much into it.
More so, it baffles me that the choice of Hedi‘s models is still a topic for a heated controversy a good 20 years when he never presented his models in a vulnerable, sexualized place before. Compared to that, we have photographers like Bruce Weber or Mario Testino who managed to get away after numerous accuses of male models who were sexually harassed during shoots.
As I was mentioning before, I think people are enforcing double standards here, as nobody questions the widely common body and age standards for female runway models where putting a tall and skinny teenage girl in a sexy dress has for decades been an acceptable standard. We know why it happens and as a designer, I would also choose to present my designs on fashion models with an otherworldly quality, rather than on the kind of commercial male and female models we commonly find relatable, attractive and desirable.
It was not really controversial 20 years ago. Weight was, the age of female models 100%, but male models' age has never been anywhere close to controversial, or even a topic from what I recall.
Bruce Weber and Mario Testino fell down as a result of a wave of accusations pertaining their field, and these accusations made it to court so they did not necessarily get away with it. This movement never really crossed into designers and when it did years later (e.g. Wang), it just wasn't strong enough to exile anyone. Photographers also lack the same machinery behind them as corporate designers, who are highly protected.. just look at Demna, they've poured more money on his 2-year Apology World Tour than on just getting someone new.
I largely agree with what you're saying and there's definitely a double-standard in age and weight, it's just that it HAS been a major conversation among women for decades, and with Celine in particular, it was one of the main arguments during the transition from Phoebe to Hedi and how the Celine woman, who looked confident and self-sufficient, suddenly shrunk and became a frail ingénue whose sartorial choices come from trailing after the male musicians Hedi likes.
I do think there is a certain angle of the topic where these double standards run much deeper and that has not been a part of any conversation and it's regarding the difference in enforcement of these age/weight ideals. There is a gigantic difference between how far you go with womenswear vs. menswear, with the latter being heavily guarded. I started to think about it when designers dived into cartoonesque commodity activism by throwing in a plus size female model in shows/campaigns/eds with some
'look! REAL beauty!' tagline, but the male models.. still looked like male models, no chubby balding guy in sight, because.. for the powers that be, the people heading these companies (mostly men), that is less negotiable. Similarly, that ideal of youth/weight is expected to
at least be in your agenda as a woman, certainly in your financial agenda, but the moment you apply this to men, pearls will be clutched, and as someone hilariously attempting to gaslight some months ago here said "It'S oMg sO cReEpYy". So just to recap it's okay to successfully promote the idea that some clothes in womenswear are reserved for some body shapes, and that, say, you need to be under x size to wear a see-through dress, or a miniskirt with no massive thigh cellulite.. but when it comes to Hedi, whose aesthetic is often treated by men as off-limits and borderline sacred, I cannot say you should NOT have a short dad bod if you're going to wear his clothes?. He is explicitly saying make my predatory dreams come true and be childlike (especially in this collection, nothing otherworldly or noncommercial in these facial features other than not being fully developed), but if you can't and are too damn old, at least be as skinny as you can get (something Karl certainly understood and worked hard for) so you can compensate for lack of height and honor his vision. The fact that most men who could afford head-to-toe Saint Laurent (and now Celine) looked like Jojo Siwa in jeans and a bomber (shape-wise) in real life makes me wonder why only the wallet and not the body is committed..? commit both just like we all do. It IS a lifestyle, not literature.
