So in the wake of award shows across the globe, from the AMAs to the British Fashion Awards, the usual furore of outfit-bashing has plagued the internet, as per usual.
A brief peruse of the coverage and my lasting thought was an internal sigh: 'oh look, all these women have got it wrong again. Of course it’s all about your body – not your clothes. Okay the dress might be fine, I suppose, but so frumpy. You can’t see more than 10% of her skin! And flat shoes? Frumpy.'
The F word is one of my least favourite when it comes to fashion coverage. I think it says far more about the body underneath than it does about the clothes, and usually applies when a thin person is covering up more of their flesh than is deemed ‘necessary’ by the popular press. It’s like – she’s got a body worthy of my gaze… so why isn’t she showing it to me? This is often the opposite reaction received by the minority of (even slightly) larger women on red carpets. Showing skin? Bit much, love, leave something to the imagination… Skin tight? Unflattering ensemble. I’m a little bit sick of it – and so is the internet.
Instagram in particular has provided a platform for women of all shapes and sizes to provide their own visual commentary on what is fashionable and what is attractive. While it can’t be denied that a lot of what we see is highly edited – and I’m not just talking filters – the freedom to upload un-airbrushed and unapologetic selfies and portraits is proving a powerful, and empowering, platform for a new wave of ‘alternative’ models. Speaking to i-D as part of their ‘Size Matters’ video series, 18-year-old model Barbie Ferreira is like a poster child for this new generation of models.
Currently totalling 198k followers @barbienox is providing for others what she lacked at a young age – a role model who looks like them. Sick of the identikit collection of models she saw, a younger Barbie began taking pictures of herself at home and then sent them across to American Apparel, kick-starting what's turning into a promising modeling career. Praised as the 'queen of the in-between', size 12 Ferreira is a representative example of far more eighteen year olds than most of the supermodels on billboards, and I know who I’d rather be following on Instagram. She herself has a huge amount of praise for the online movement towards wider representation.
Whether you identify with style, body, personality, or whatever, I think being able to look to people like Barbie online is so valuable. The sense of self-worth and confidence exuded in her profile is something hopefully everyone can absorb a little of. I personally find it makes me stop and take a look at myself a little more kindly. When other people are standing up and saying, yeah, I like my body, it makes it more acceptable to follow suit.
I was standing with two friends in front of a sink, getting ready to go out on the night before Thanksgiving. Without even being conscious of it, we were stood there taking it in turns to nit pick at our own faces and select a string of faults out of a swirling mass of insecurity and doubt until one of us said 'STOP. Everyone say something you like about yourself right now!'
And that's the new thing - we actually realised what we were doing and stopped it - something that never would have happened before. I think that girls are starting to be more aware of our own tendency to self-hate and the Instagram babes are helping to subconsciously encourage the self-love. There’s now a running joke among my friends where someone will shut down an intense self criticism session with the Mean Girls line 'my nail beds suck.' Highlighting how mean we are to ourselves is just so much more useful than reading endless comments being mean about other people. By embracing a variety of bodies and complimenting the beauty in them all it gets easier to recognise qualities you like in yourself.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.