But the NYT fashion writer, Vanessa Friedman, says it's because runway models are under so much pressure that they can't smile convincingly. It's been tried, but they just look weird. If, as sometimes happens, the designer instructs the models to look happy, "it turns, very quickly, into a frozen rictus that doesn’t reach the eyes — a facial disjunction that can be very disturbing to watch."
October 3, 2023
They're hungry.
That was my instant answer to the question in the headline of a NYT fashion article, "Why Do Runway Models Always Look So Grumpy?"
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29 comments:
I’m not sure there is a difference other than the professional writer using vague words to make a similar point. What is the pressure that causes their grumpiness? Perhaps it is pressure to skip the food table, put on another ridiculous outfit, and do another walk?
I dislike that the fashion industry chooses human clothes hangers to display their work. The closer to bones and skin, the better the canvas for their art. It's an abomination, and I'm not surprised that the models must remain as inhuman as possible in order to do their jobs.
I thought it was because they had to wear those often ridiculous clothes.
They may be hungry, but 832,592,591 autopsies of runway model brains found that they are most often made from cotton wool and frog guts. Smile? What is that?
Le Tigre.
Ferrari.
Magnum.
Blue Steel.
https://3.bp.blogspot.com/_jCezSwnBkXA/TCEX--JcyeI/AAAAAAAAAAc/3LRCFSdea6o/s1600/zoolander.jpg
https://beauty.vogue.it/notizie/eventi/2015/11/13/zoolander-2-dalla-magnum-alla-duck-face/
"it turns, very quickly, into a frozen rictus that doesn’t reach the eyes — a facial disjunction that can be very disturbing to watch."
A lot of politicians smile that way — mouth in a “frozen rictus” of a fake smile while their eyes are sizing you up as to what they can get from you.
it's the same problem as the world in general..
People are using Adderall instead of cocaine..
Cocaine is a euphoriant. All Adderall is is amphetamine. This is called "progress", it's NOT
No smiles are very old news and have nothing to do with the arduous and inhumanly stressful life fashion models are subjected to according to Vanessa Friedman.
My mother was a fashion model before she met my father. She was trained to wear a bland expressionless face and not make eye contact with the customer so as to not distract attention from the garment. Look in any fashion publication since the first mail-order catalogs or at a full-body mannequin in any boutique that hasn't been ransacked. Whether living or just an image, fashion models don't smile.
By the way, my mother didn't make a career in modeling. She found it generally boring except when she modeled a cocktail gown for Maureen O'Hara, who had the good manners to warmly thank her for her effort, whereas most women she modeled for didn't even acknowledge her presence. Mom really admired Maureen O'Hara and got fired from her modeling gig after she henned her hair to look like O'Hara's without permission from her manager. So she got a new job where met my father.
You’re supposed to be looking at the clothes…
I don't like the skinny shaming. I had a girlfriend in high school that ended up doing the Paris pret-a-porter shows for a while. She had the look I guess but never had to diet. Kind of a hollow leg in fact...
What rehajm said. I suggest they've been told to look impassive as they walk.
mezzrow at a fashion show: "...somebody ought to give that girl a sandwich. Look at her."
I think a certain moodiness is considered more alluring. Smiling, that's a Miss America kind of look, A runway show is not a scholarship program.
"I’m not sure there is a difference other than the professional writer using vague words to make a similar point. What is the pressure that causes their grumpiness? Perhaps it is pressure to skip the food table, put on another ridiculous outfit, and do another walk?"
They have to walk in difficult shoes that are often not even the right size.
"My mother was a fashion model before she met my father. She was trained to wear a bland expressionless face and not make eye contact with the customer so as to not distract attention from the garment. Look in any fashion publication since the first mail-order catalogs or at a full-body mannequin in any boutique that hasn't been ransacked. Whether living or just an image, fashion models don't smile."
In the 1970s, it was a big thing that they models gave big smiles, especially in the editorial section of the magazines. These days they don't, but they could! The article I'm quoting is restrictively about *runway* models, who have a very stressful task walking down the runway with bright light. I don't think they even see the "customers." Catalogue models are a different category of model, and it depends on the product. These models are often smiling, looking approachable, but obviously they're not making actual eye contact.
Shorter ’splainer: gameface.
What your mother did sounds like in-store modeling where you really are close to the customer. I've seen that in movies.
That’s what my mother did. I don’t recall the store if she ever mentioned it — one well-heeled customer shown garments being modeled.
We're about 5-10 years away from the "how to dress so the revolutionaries won't notice you" article, aren't we?
“They have to walk in difficult shoes that are often not even the right size.”
Just like the One-Oh-One in Bastogne. Them runway models got it tough and they don’t even get jump wings.
Vitamin D deficiency. Perhaps Vitamin B12, too. Steak, and make it fatty, and cholesterol laden. Stat!
"... it turns, very quickly, into a frozen rictus..."
Rictus? Damn near killt us!
The models are instinctively? true to their roll. Mannequins don't smile. A smile is an expression from within. It could clash with the clothes. I guess. I could be wrong.
Robert Palmer - Addicted To Love
"it turns, very quickly, into a frozen rictus that doesn’t reach the eyes — a facial disjunction that can be very disturbing to watch."
Just like Biden. It is indeed disturbing.
one well-heeled customer shown garments being modeled.
In the book about Jackie O's wedding dress maker, I think there's a scene like that.
My partner left modeling over 40 years, after refusing her agency’s repeated insistence to move to NYC (she was a Powers Girl model in Las Vegas). She didn’t diet, because she danced for 4 hours a day. But many of the women she worked with.
When I asked her about smiling (her smile was why photographers loved her), her response was that she smiled when striking poses on the runway. But that most of the models didn’t because they didn’t have great smiles. For example, some had big teeth, etc. And indeed, many of them aren’t really that attractive, without their professionally applied makeup.
Heroin.
Because the model is there to sell the clothes, not their winning smile or personality.
They are human mannequins of a certain size and shape upon which the clothes of a gay designer are draped.
Nothing more...
Re: Models - I have recently returned to the Land of Body Mass from the Land of Size 4 Women. I'm having a hard time readjusting.
Also, why can't the Hub of Multiculturalism in The U.S. manage to employ competent English speakers? That did not seem to be a problem in Size 4 land, despite their being taught the language in public schools.
a facial disjunction that can be very disturbing to watch
More than the skeletal remains of heroin hookers in post-apocalyptic clothing wobbling up and down the runway!!!
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