So, the apparent inspiration behind the cover shoot for the September 2011 issue of Vogue Italia is a woman by the name of Ethel Granger. The small waist on the model is supposed to mirror the real life 13 inch waist of Granger- you read me right thirteen inches - the smallest waist in recorded history.
The whole process was initiated and encourage by her husband William Arnold Granger. Ethel wore a corset pretty much 24 hours a day to reshape her initial 24 inch waist – which already seems tiny to begin with! The whole idea of doing something so disfiguring to your body is beyond me. I can see the artistic value with the fashion photography angle used by Vogue for their cover shoot, but I struggle to see the value of physically doing this as a human being.
I know these shrinking waists were all the rage in centuries past but they were never a healthy approach to fashion, they just fed into the accepted ideals of body image back then. The fact that someone would bring this into the 21st century troubles me, but to each their own I guess!
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| Images courtesy of Vogue.it |
All I can say is that I got shivers up my spine contemplating these images. Why is it that we humans don't think of our internal organs until it's too late? Love your blog, Ash--and that you're not afraid of saying what you mean. I'm just catching up on all your posts.
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