Fashion Reflection

02.09.2009

The perfect woman in today's fashion world is still extremely skinny and has no curves! We're talking here about the un-feminine (and un-real) shape of a pre-pubescent boy. Is this what real men want?

I don't think so! And I want to stand up for real women – women that don't meet the catwalk stereotype. Gorgeous women who turn men's heads in the streets of Barcelona, Berlin or Belgrade. In short, women like us.

Guess what? I am 31 now (the style gurus say that I should be maximum 23 and some even suggested that I lie about my age if I want to be on Milan or Paris fashion scene). I wear shoes size 42-43. And I ain't 90-60-90 (I'll probably deviate even further from the ideal after holiday at my parents' house in Serbia due to my mom's irresistible cooking). But guess what? I believe in myself! I believe that if I want it, I can not only be a model, but a top-model too!!! One of those you see on the pages of Vogue, Elle or Cosmo. That is my conviction so what if I decide to follow it? To heck with the so-called rules.

I'm in Paris running here and there collecting documents to prolong my "carte de sejour" (I'll talk about this injustice at some other occasion but let me focus now on my modelling observation). So I go down the glamorous streets of the City of Light and look at all these girls on the perfume and make-up posters. And I'm thinking, "Who's choosing them?", "Who's deciding that Skinny is great?","Who said 90-60-90 or often even 85-60-85 is what we must be in order to be models?", "Who decided to make other beautiful girls' lives miserable because they cannot look like the boyish, anorexic individuals on the posters?"

The Director of one of the top modelling agencies in Brussels told me that a human stick represents the male homosexual ideal. Now, I'm not here to judge one's sexual preference. Each to their own, I say! But the problem is that gay men dominate the fashion business. And gay men select the models! And they don't select them to be curvy like us. I say – fine – let a few waifs strut their stuff. But let there also be space for other thoughts and opinions about what is feminine and beautiful.

In the world of rules I am one of the exceptions. I bet you are, too. Once more women stand up for their own "exceptions", new rules will be created. Trend-setting brands like Dove and Benetton have pioneered this in relation to feminine shapes and racial stereotypes. Yet, how many of these faces on the photos do you remember? I bet, NONE.

If you don't mind, I'm here to change that, too.