Boundary of fashion and reality is hard to discern

It's art meeting science fiction.

THE comments of WORLD co-founder Denise L'Estrange Corbet, that clothes look better on skinny people, betrays the arrogance and disdain the fashion world has for people who are supposed to be its customers.

Her comments, on TV One's Breakfast show on Tuesday morning, has created a public outcry, but it seems she is unrepentant about it.

I guess you have to allow for the idea that the fashion world, at its extreme level, is a completely bizarre and surreal exercise; and if you have designers who treat fashion as some kind of purist art, then perhaps it is not surprising that the gap has widened between what customers realistically need and the artwork draped over a model with her ribs showing.

Corbet argues the fashion world is not about to change, and it's always been like this. But she's not right in that comment.

Modelling in the 1940s and 50s featured women in plus-size shapes by today's consumer ideals. Back then, the pop art ideal, featured on the sides of American bombers, was voluptuous and full. These outfits are seeing a minor resurgence and, worn properly, they look amazing. I have often wondered if the trend for thinness in models today is due to male designers who, being gay, want boyish figures, not feminine ones.

People who have read my editorials will know my sympathy for those who are genuinely overweight is minimal. If you can't fit into a certain size, and you're unhappy about that, do something about it, rather than blaming the skinny model and the cruelty of consumerism. If you're obese and Corbet's comments hurt, just think how much worse it hurts to have diabetes.

But do not believe in Corbet's comments, or believe that fashion modelling has any basis in realism. It's art meeting science fiction. Some have argued her comments send an unhealthy message, but it's an irony that, considering the obesity epidemic, the stick-figure consumer appears safely out of reach for many.

Being a customer who wants the right size in clothing is reality. The fashion shows, with thin models, is not. They are little more than coathangers for art, and should not be emulated.