Posts with tag twiggy

The other night we were watching the latest Tim Gunn's Guide to Style. The makeover candidate was being inexplicably bitchy to Tim and Gretta, so we already were disinclined to like her.

We were forced to further downgrade her when, while passing through the jeans section of Neiman Marcus, Gretta pointed out Joe's Jeans and this wench said, "Don't know Joe, don't want to." Clearly she's a fool!

Twiggy was one of the biggest style icons of the Sixties, but don't think for a second that she's done being fabulous. She turned 59 yesterday (Happy Birthday, Twiggy!), and is working hard to be a role model for mature women.

The former supermodel, who is now the face of Marks & Spencer, says that women can absolutely be fashion forward and fabulous well past their 40th birthdays. She said, "For me, getting older is about harnessing all the things I have learned about what does and doesn't suit me. The 40s onwards are when we can really begin to enjoy ourselves," adding, "Successful dressing is mostly about attitude, having the confidence in what you wear, knowing that it's working for your body."

Many of us women out there suffer during the summer because we don't have stems like a supermodel. Unfortunately, you can't think your legs long but you can create the illusion that they're a mile long with the right clothes. So let's put an end to your suffering and take a look at some helpful hints to getting Rockette worthy gams.

I should have seen this one coming.

Express -- the overpriced mall store that everyone has fallen victim to at one point -- wants in on all of this inexpensive designer capsule collection madness. Their first partner-in-crime? Celia Birtwell -- the British printmaker behind the legendary Ossie Clark (her late ex-husband who designed for such pretty young things as Twiggy and Marianne Faithfull in their hay day).

Staying true to Clarke's style of the romantic and beautiful, the Celia Birtwell for Express collection will consist of flowing sheer tops and dresses made of Birtwell's trademark prints, Floating Daisy and Lily.

Twiggy -- aka Lesley Hornby -- has recently added her own two cents to the skinny model debate. Instead of suggesting that the recent trend of sub-zero fashion plates is due to the pressures of editors, designers and modeling agents, Twiggy blames Hollywood actresses. In an interview with Mail on Sunday, Twiggy said, "Most models are naturally long and gangly, while a lot of these young girls in Hollywood have gone on extreme diets. Their concave chests and bony arms are terrifying. It's scary to think that normal teenagers are tempted to copy them."

Coming from a woman who has long been accused of over-dieting, it isn't any wonder that Twiggy is quick to pass the buck onto someone else. It might seem like a chicken or the egg question -- which came first: the models or the skinny actresses. But in my opinion, Hollywood actresses are only mimicking the trends in the fashion world. After all, if you look at the Hollywood contemporaries of Twiggy -- Sophia Loren or Marilyn Monroe -- it seems obvious that the fashion world has been dictating body shape much longer than the film industry.

[via Vogue.co.uk]

When I read Sarah's account of Madrid's ban on models with a BMI of less than 18, I started wondering what that number actually meant in comparison to some of the world's top models. (BMI is Body Mass Index, a measure of weight proportionate to height.) Of course, any person's BMI is a moving target, so all reports of celebrity BMI should be taken as speculative unless made by the celebrity herself while in a startlingly confessional mood. Likewise, the standard healthy-BMI level is a matter of opinion, with some authorities asserting a low ideal of 18-24, and others offering a more relaxed range of 22-26.

No matter the exact range, the reported BMIs of several style icons fall at or below reasonable standards of health, and there is question that 30 percent of the models in the Madrid show flunked their BMI tests -- too skinny. Here are five other reported BMIs:

• Twiggy: 14.7
• Kate Moss: 16.8 (or 15.7)
• Nicole Richie: 17
• Paris Hilton: 16
• Elle MacPherson: 17.3
• Heidi Klum: 18

Part of me wants to commend Madrid for taking a hard stand against this extremely unhealthy standard of beauty. And yet part of me shrugs my shoulders and says, "So what?" After all, for any real change to occur in the fashion industry, designers, stylists, and magazines are going to have to be on board. And that's going to take a lot more than one show's BMI enforcement.

What do you think? Will the fashion industry ever come around?