Robot Models

[Luxx]

I know thats like the oddest thread title but I can explain

This quotation was in a NYT article about emerging fashion trends:

Models who were vacant optimistic cheerleader types prevailed in the politically clueless 1970s (Christie Brinkley, Patti Hansen, Shelley Hack); brooding brunettes took over during the Age of Reagan (Linda Evangelista, Cindy Crawford and Yasmeen Ghauri); and off-kilter aristocratic types (Guinevere van Seenus, Stella Tennant, Erin O’Connor), emblematic of upper class women, came to the fore during the second Bush imperium.

What fashion now prefers as a beauty ideal is another type, the robot, personified by the stunning Raquel Zimmerman, a blond Brazilian of German heritage whose physical proportions are so symmetrical that many designers use her body as a template. That Ms. Zimmerman also has a kind of vacant cyborg aspect cannot be altogether incidental. Possibly this is the reason why Louis Vuitton hired her for a new ad campaign in which her face has been made up and manipulated so aggressively as to render her less humanly expressive than Lara Croft.

I had never thought about Raquel that way but now that they point it out she does look a bit like a robot. Her face is almost too perfect, there is something very futuristic about it. Her features are incredibly symetrical but they're also quite sharp and aqualine. She lacks the softness that someone like Anja or some of the other classically pretty girls have.

As such I was wondering, with almost all the clothing (and advertising and photography) these past few seasons looking to the not so distant future are we on the brink of another model movement? We've had the glamazons, the waifs, the dolls, etc is this a new look? NYT seems to be hinting at it but are there other models who can fit inside this category? Raquel is very popular right now but she cannot be an army of one.

My question are: Is this a new model category? If so what are the physical qualifications for it and which models would fit into it?

Off the top of my head I would say that Raquel, Freja and Coco would all be girls who could fit this description.


Robo-Raquel



Freja


Coco


Credit: Freja_Beha Community, V Magazine.com, Style.com, Bellazon

 

[supermodel]

well, that's an interesting subject..but now i think about it, you're right! they're the girls who can always pull off the futuristic looking photoshoots, and the futuristic looks at balenciaga and dolce & gabanna this season.

i don't know who else would fit in there.. they have to have a strong, unique bone structure.....

 

[masquerade]

i just dont get it. i dont think any of these models have a blank, cyborg-esque expression. and if anything, the models and the editorials are more expressive than the baby doll models of the past. sure some photographers like that, but if you look at Raquel's Fendi ads, you can see expression and energy even with Karl Lagerfeld's lackluster photography


scanned by LucyInTheSky

 

[Atelier]

i just dont get it.

Me neither. I think Trebay is just reaching for something to write about.

...even with Karl Lagerfeld's lackluster photography

 

[leggy_e11e]

I like robots.

 

[supermodel]

shes not talking about how the models photograph, or their expressions or anything, wether they have emotions in their eyes...
she's talking about their facial structure, girls like raquel and freja, their structure is so strong and clean, it looks almost TOO perfect.

thats not a bad thing..it's just interesting, i think. i kind of see it lol