This post is a very late post.
In fact, this topic has been done way before. However, recently, one of my favorite people in the world, The Fashion Law, tweeted an Oscar Dela Renta quote "To be well dressed, you must be well naked."
Now of course, this can be open to interpretation, but it did get me thinking. One of the issues in the plus size community (since last year, if I got it right) is that since the boom of the global plus size fashion world, a lot of plus size features in the mainstream magazines featured them... naked. Well some almost naked, while others showed a lot of skin. It spanned from tasteful to questionable, depending on one's view.
But if we think about it, women being naked has always been both looked up and down upon. Again, it all depends on who is looking at it. Some women are saying that this is exploitation of our gender, while to others, this is just empowering.
We can all go on debating this forever but that is not the focus of my post. It's more on what one of my favorite designers of all time, Oscar Dela Renta, said. "To be well dressed, you must be well naked." Again, it is open to interpretation. But for me, I believe that what he meant was that you should just be comfortable in your own skin. It doesn't necessarily mean that you have to show your skin to the public. It is more of being comfortable actually looking at yours.
So maybe that is what all the naked plus size women are all about? It's to get other plus size women feel comfortable about their body. Maybe it was a small hint and nudge to them that it's okay to be naked, not necessarily in front of other people, but maybe in just the privacy of your own home.
But recently, I have observed that the naked plus size women on the mainstream media has died a little. It has gone quiet again. I think it has reached its epitome when Vogue Italia splashed them all over the covers. From then on, it just rolled off. But if there is one thing that I do feel happy about is that after that, not all plus size models on the cover of the magazines were naked after that. Some where just amazingly stunning, posing glamorous plus size clothing. Unfortunately, their naked counterparts have more impact to the social blog-o-sphere than the clothed one.
It was then that I was thinking, maybe because a naked plus size woman is so brave to do, it switches more heads and makes more tongues wag. And of course, media has to sell and if this is what gets the people's attention, then they will do it. And so to answer the age old question why majority of the plus size models on the covers of mainstream media naked --- it sells because it gets people talking on both side (pro and con).
But then, the other question we must face is --- is this right? That's another post, but I'm pretty sure that I won't be able to resolve it with myself. Personally, I am okay with all the naked plus size women plastered on the magazines. As long as for me, they are tasteful, I welcome myself to look, but if it is otherwise, I can always look the other way and allow other people who wants to enjoy it, enjoy it.
Cheers!
Aries
