Well I have to say we are some big folks, and in the last decade we have gotten bigger. Not to be a size-ist as a cue to country we are getting larger due to poor dietary habits, we have awful diets. The thing that bothers me most is that I see so many over weight children. Poor diet is just a part of it, in this technological age we move less. I bet if there was a study done, we would see that where our waistlines have expanded, our thumbs (from texting and video games) have gotten quite slim!(but we will get to that later. The Huffington Post talked to Tom Ford about his new line and other things and here is an excerpt:
Time Out Hong Kong caught up with Tom Fordto discuss his upcoming film (he mainly kept mum), pressures of the fashion industry and losing perspective (he now flies “on some commercial planes”) and the industry’s obsession with China.
Writer Kawai Wong asked Ford about his decision to cast top Asian models Liu Wen and Du Juan in his spring/summer presentation, to which Ford responded, “Well, both of them I don’t know very well personally, so I chose them for pure physical beauty. Women with strong character. With strong look.” And when pressed further by Wong — “Do you think people regard these Chinese women as beautiful because of their perceived Western features?” — Ford remarked:
No. I think, and don’t take this the wrong way, all of your questions have a very odd racist slant, because you have grown up here. And don’t take that the wrong way; it’s not a negative thing at all. Honestly, growing up in America and Europe, I don’t think as racially as the questions you are asking.[…]
But I was talking about the Western perceptions of beauty in the Asian face. The yardstick that people measure or judge beauty…
[Interjecting again] I find a lot of different women beautiful. Some women, you know…I hate Jewish girls having their noses done. […] I see beauty, or maybe less beauty. But within every race there are very beautiful examples.
Personally I thought it was a valid question and where Ford’s answer seems copacetic It sounds a bit like avoiding the question especially when Asians, and people of color in general are underrepresented in the fashion industry, and when they are present they do tend to have a more Eurocentric look. so…
Writer Kawai Wong asked Ford another interesting question for Time out Hon Kong
Recently Vogue used a full Asian cast for a shoot. Givenchy also introduced a full Asian cast for their haute couture show. Do you think it’s interesting to see what designers and editors really think about Asian models?
Asia has become a more important market and the 21st century is the Chinese century I think. Chinese Vogue is the number two Vogue in the world now. So [from] a business standpoint it’s only logical. Maybe people who didn’t get it before [slams the sofa with his hand] are getting it now, and they are thinking we’re selling to a country and we need to appeal to their aesthetic of beauty. I think that I’ve actually always understood a reason for diversity in everything I’ve ever done.
On whether his line will fit everybody:
Well, I have to say if we have to talk about things like this, Americans are too fat. And in London they are starting to get fat too. So I have to say that if we have to talk about race system and nationalism, I find it refreshing that everyone [who is] Chinese is slim. The only thing we changed [at Gucci] was the width of the nose bridge on eyeglasses because it won’t fit an Asian nose if it’s made for someone’s nose like mine.
I have to say that I think that Tom Ford is a fine specimen of a man but he has always come off a bit pompous and aloof to me. I would have liked to have heard what he really felt about some of thee questions Kawai Wong posited.
Clearly I did not believe his answers to be, let’s say “complete” but these are the questions that we the consumers who don’t see ourselves in the pages of these magazines and on runways want answers to.