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Women's Feature Service

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UK - DISABLED & NON-THIN MODELS PROMOTE DIVERSITY

Shannon Murray, the differently-abled model-actress who is
the face of the British high street retailer, Debenhams this Fall.
(Courtesy: Debenhams\WFS)

By Barbara Lewis

London (Women's Feature Service) - The start of each new fashion season in Britain has a tendency to reopen the debate on how much size, shape and conventional ideals of body perfection matter. The most recurrent theme is how thin models have to be, but this Autumn/Winter fashion season has confronted a greater taboo than being fat. Actress and model Shannon Murray, 32, a wheelchair user, has become the first differently-abled model to star in a nationwide advertising campaign for a high-street retailer.

"I'm really excited. There are over 10 million disabled people living in the UK. We all wear clothes; we shop in stores and have money to spend. But we don't get the same inclusion in fashion that we should," the new face of chain store Debenhams' Autumn/Winter collection has been quoted as saying.

The choice of Murray followed an approach to the store by the hit British television show, 'How to Look Good Naked'. The Channel 4 programme's philosophy is to encourage all women to accept their bodies as they are to boost their confidence and overcome complexes often blamed on a media obsession with a narrow ideal of physical perfection.

A pilot campaign featuring Murray, who was paralysed by a diving accident when she was 14, drew "some of the most responsive and positive feedback" the retailer had had, a Debenhams statement said, prompting it to roll out nationwide advertisements from the start of September. How to Look Good Naked's presenter, Gok Wan, a stylist and inclusivity campaigner, was effusive in his praise. "After months and months of hard work, this is some of the best imagery I have seen on the British high street...ever," he said, adding, "It is so inclusive and fabulous! This, for me, is bigger than anything else I have ever personally worked on, and I have never been so proud in my entire life."

Debenhams has said this is just the start and it called on its competitors to follow its lead. It also said the advertisements were a natural sequel to campaigns earlier this year that included using swimsuit models, who had not been airbrushed, and size 16 mannequins.

Although it has taken years for a breakthrough for the differently-abled, the acknowledgement of a need for inclusivity is gaining ground, even if one of the reasons could be hard-headed commercial logic. As Murray noted, the differently-abled represent a large share of the UK customer base.

Controversy about how thin or fat models should be could ultimately prove as difficult an issue to quell in a nation where obesity is a serious health issue and anorexia is also significant. According to figures from the British Nutrition Foundation, 24.1 per cent of the male population is obese and 24.9 per cent of women, while 1.6 per cent of men and two per cent of women are underweight.

The Foundation's Dr Elisabeth Weichselbaum emphasised the risks associated with both extremes. "A healthy weight is the range of weight, which is associated with the lowest risk of developing various health problems. Being a healthy weight, however, does not always correspond to what people perceive as being their ideal weight," she said.

The greatest fashion pressure is still to be too thin and the success of Crystal Renn, a U.S.-born "plus size" model, who has appeared in campaigns for designer brands, such as Dolce & Gabbana, is an exception. Renn became "plus size" after abandoning attempts to drastically reduce her natural body weight, narrated in her memoir, 'Hungry'. In the fashion world, plus size equates to anything over size 12 - which is normal for many in the population and is very gradually gaining acceptance in the fashion world.

She has chosen her words with caution, but Renn observes there have already been shifts in what is considered beautiful. "I believe there is a cycle to everything - Wall Street, the housing market, and modelling, too. Back in the Victorian days, it was all about a full figure, in the '50s, it was about the boobs, in the '80s it was shoulders and in the '90s it was waifs," she has said. "It can only go up from here."

Fashion photographer Corinne Day - who helped to launch British superwaif Kate Moss - died at the end of August, aged only 48 after a long illness following a brain tumour. Day's death prompted soul-searching into the superficiality of the fashion world and the obituary notices hailed her role in seeking out inner beauty and emphasising the real over the glamorous. Her photographs dared to portray models with acne, for instance, and her cover shot for influential fashion magazine 'The Face' - that kicked off Moss's career focused - on a cheeky, unsophisticated, good-time-girl grin, rather than a sultry pout, while she wore a native Indian head-dress over straggly hair.

If Moss's appeal is obvious now, that is at least in part because Day saw beyond the fashion tyranny of the times. Admittedly Moss was thin, but she also had an ordinariness that was not fashionable until seen through Day's lens. Former editor of 'The Face', Sheryl Garratt credits Day with "changing our perceptions". "Glamour never interested her, so rather than papering over the cracks, she focused on them. In the process, she pioneered a new kind of imperfect beauty," Garratt wrote of Day just after her funeral in early September.

The fashion world needs more risk-taking photographers and more chain stores to follow Debenhams' lead.