The world of modeling is fascinating to most of us, even those of us who are artistic but not especially fashionable. I peruse though magazines such as Vogue and am excited by the ads and what they say about our Pop Culture. I look at the fashion layouts, which, to the insiders who create them are called "stories" and see if I understand that story.
If you're like me and can't afford the most expensive selections from top designers, well, you read a fashion magazine and maybe you are impacted by the trends in your selection of color for your winter wardrobe, or you notice the change of shape in eyewear or the new heel for shoes, or update your hairstyle or your bag. Or you may read around the subject, reading books on cosmetics, hair, putting together classic looks to wear to work.
Now let's face the fact that fashion insiders all know what's ahead a year or more in advance and keep it a secret. They may wear a trend the moment it appears but don't want to spoil the surprise. Even those on top of the subject know it's too soon to wear some things because if they did they'd be letting those of us who are on the other side as consumers would know what changes are coming. Others in fashion determine their own style early and stick with it: consider Anna Wintour, the Vogue editor who has barely changed her hair in years. I hear that she has dozens of the same style shoes made for her. Some of these fashionistas wear black and more black, as if their bodies were only the background for more exciting clothing that is offered for sale. One day one of these people told me, "We consider models to be just hangars!" I felt for the models.
I wonder about those few people in the world who have such influence on us - the world! They are powerful people and many of them are heterosexual women or gay men.
We women, whatever our sexual orientation, also look at those models and we notice their beauty and have our favorites. (Kate Moss is mine! She once owned being a model without any agenda to also be a spokesperson or actress, but I hear her alter ego is actually a Rock Star! Kate is known for keeping her privacy, making her more mysterious!) Some women, like some of these models, starve themselves hoping to measure up (or is that down?) to be skinny enough. One designer featured such unhealthy and famished looking boney teenager models in one spread I saw in a Vanity Fair magazine ad, that I pledged that I would never ever buy his clothing; he had to know better. Does he even like women? Very thin women modeling clothes two sizes smaller than you aren't actually showing you what those clothes will look like on you, but it seems designers don't want the challenge to design for lovely women's bodies.
As the MeToo Movement exposes sexual predators and harassers and demands equal pay, I always think about the fashion world because for years I've heard that it's full of them. I've heard that models find sexual demands to be simply the way it is; if you don't like that get out, if you don't comply you won't get booked. I wonder - is modeling so objectifying that a model looses her self worth as her looks and body are discussed in front of her as if she were not there? Is that why there are always rumors of models who were or become prostitutes in Southern California? Does a model go to Milan to become experienced sexually? One top model, who no longer needed the money, is rumored to have been selling herself to Saudi Royalty for $10,000 a night!
I'm going to be focusing on the world of fashion in the next few weeks as a special edition of Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot, taking more time to do so because I have wonderful books to recommend to you, which, if you read them, will reveal to you the insiders world of fashion - photographers, stylists, magazine editors, and of course the models!
While you read these books (all available as e-books or audio books by the way) you might begin to understand that world without having to enter it. Or you might "try on" what you read and decide this is the career for you!
I'm focusing on the modeling business because there are so many models who allow themselves to be Kept, particularly when they make it to the Big City (New York City, Paris, Los Angeles, Milan, London) and find themselves in the equivalent of a flop house for models. Starving is made easy by not having money for food. (One ex-model told me she only ate when someone took her out to dinner.) All that rushing about and unending feeling of competition with other women!
Every case is different, but as we know here at Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot, Mistresses - Kept Women (Kept People) come from many different reasons why - from desperation to choice, from poverty to wealth, from the nunnery to the houses of prostitution. Certainly equal pay or economic disparity based in sexism is a factor, but so are love and lust, which I predict will not go out of style!
So, stick with me over the next few weeks as we move through the holidays here at Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot!
Missy
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