Magazine fashion images: fantasy or insulting?

As my holiday winds down, I couldn’t help but be aware of the shitstorm around the French Vogue photo shoot of girls as young as 6 dressed like, well, not 6 year old girls. You can see the images below and come up with your own words. Then yesterday, someone sent me some shots from the new Harpers Bazaar which features a fashion shoot of a ‘mother’ with her kids at Bondi. Pram, sky-scraper heels and all.

Co-incidentally, I roll just like that when I’m with my kids.

Fashion and magazine people would say that’s exactly the point. It’s IRONY. It’s GLAMOUR. It’s FANTASY. But is it? Or is it an insidious recalibration of what’s normal that infects us and makes us feel like crap?

We’ve spoken before about magazines here at Mamamia. Oh so many times (for example here, here and here). You’ve heard my views about it endlessly so I thought I’d ask MM site co-ordinator and journalism graduate Nicky Champ for her take on it.

Nicky writes:

Carine Roitfeld has now stepped down from her position as editor of French Vogue, but one of her final issues at the helm has featured models as young as six wearing lipstick, heels and posing on an animal print covered bed. As well as a mock spread of model Crystal Renn, recovering from plastic surgery.

Designer Tom Ford worked on this issue with Roitfeld doing everything from the writing to the photography to posing, himself with 15-year-old Daphne Groeneveld on the cover.

Yes, 15 years old. Except she doesn’t look 15. Magazines have been accused of promoting everything from eating disorders to society’s obsession with youth. But a magazine that features children barely out of kindergarten, plastic surgery, and a 15 year-old cover star, one has to wonder about the motives of the editor.

Roitfeld has held her position at French Vogue for a decade, and has made it her job to push the boundaries. Including painting Dutch model, Lara Stone in black makeup in 2009. In an interview with Womens Wear Daily, Roitfeld defended her decision:

“We were accused of being racist, which was totally untrue, since I once did an entire issue on a black model.” [Liya Kebede in May 2002],” Roitfeld says.

Oh, okay then.

But are magazines for all intents and purposes just glorified catalogues, showcasing what is new and available in fashion and beauty?  Should we not take them too seriously?

It seems that in trying to push boundaries in order to create new and unseen images, magazine editors are moving further away from reality, the reality of what readers want.

Magazine readership is declining, and I can’t help but draw the conclusion that readers are getting their fashion and beauty fixes online. Unfiltered and away from unachievable, unrealistic body shapes and unaffordable clothing.

In Australia, Harpers Bazaar’s latest issue features a model with an incredible body on the beach with a toddler, one assumes it is her toddler. Together they run errands, while she pushes a pram wearing some pretty high designer heels. I’ve seen mums and toddlers. This is not how it goes down.

This angered me when I first saw it, and I don’t even have children. I think because I realised I will never have a body like that, let alone after having children. I can’t even imagine how it would make someone feel who had just had a baby and was already avoiding the beach. Avoiding the beach because they hadn’t achieved that almost normal expectation we now have that you can magically shrink back to size, an hour after giving birth.

But that’s just it, isn’t it? The images we see do become our reality.

What do you think, do you find magazines pure fantasy or insulting?

More images from the legacy of French Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld: