There’s the old joke with models, “you can never be too young or too thin.” Well someone took the old words a little too seriously. By someone I mean Tom Ford, and I’m referring to his fashion editiorial in French Vogue.
The blogosphere is alive today with chatter about Ford taking fashion one step too far in showcasing young girls dressed up to look like women.
Now the usual reaction would be – “oh, it’s just young girls playing dress up.” Well, if this were for American Girl Magazine that would be just fine. We’d all say it was a little vulgar and we’d move on from there. But this wasn’t for a young girls magazine. This was for a magazine read around the world by grown up men and women. When you look at it like that things become a bit troubled and foggy.
Then again, every day in America there are thousands of women that dress their daughters up in grotesque frocks, pile on tons of makeup and parade them up and down catwalks for beauty pageants and no one blinks an eye.
In my honest and humble opinion, I think the photos are amazing, the style is fabulous and the artistic direction is inspired. Had this been with regular models it would have just been another winning 15 page editorial.
Rather than cutting up the magazine and adding these photos to my mood board, I have left them in tact. I may love the editorial but there is something wrong about staring at a six year old girl who is dolled up in such a way. I can appreciate what Tom Ford has done and the statement that he is trying to make but at the same time, I’m uncomfortable for the girls in the shoot. I can only hope that their day in front of the camera was just a like a day of dress up and that they were made to feel as if it was fun, not work.
These could be the diva darlings of tomorrow but honestly folks, give your children a childhood.
Photos from French Vogue, Photographed by Sharif Hamza and styled by Melanie Huynh
