Studying fashion has made me feel good about my body

A few days ago while I was getting dressed I looked down and saw that I had a little bit of a belly. I patted it, hoping it was an optical illusion, and sighed for a moment feeling sorry for myself that I don’t have a flat stomach like I should. But then I came to my senses and remembered the lessons I've learned from fashion history.

I’m not about the make the argument that fashion celebrates women of all body types. In fact, in every era, fashion has promoted a certain type as ideal. During my first semester at FIT I learned that the fashionable body is, and always has been, a distorted one. Limbs are elongated in paintings, waists are made wasp thin in fashion plates, and photographers use angles and lighting to play tricks. Today, of course, we have photoshop.

The real problem is that in every era we assume that this year’s standard of beauty is universal. Today we believe that that big boobs, flat stomachs, small waists, and a toned physique make up the absolute, universal standard of female beauty. But frankly that isn’t true. In the 1920s the ideal body was flat and without curves. In the Renaissance it was fashionable to have a bit of a belly, and women would dress with extra fabric in the front of their gowns to enhance the effect. Later Renaissance nudes usually show the torso as barrel shaped (much like the effect of the corset at the time) making the breasts small and the chest/waist/stomach all roughly the same size around. Today we have this idea that bodies should be toned and skin look like it is smooth and tight. But a 17th century woman would have hated looking that way. During the time of Rubens, women were supposed to be soft and “fleshy.” Nothing was more alluring that dimpled, rippling, squishy skin.

When you look at the history of fashion ideals you realize something: women have always had women’s bodies. We all have different attributes and sometimes some of us are lucky enough to be alive when one of our things is “in.” A girl with the ideal look of the 1920s would have hated her body in 1900, and would probably have spent extra money on “bust enhancers” and hip padding. Conversely, someone with the perfect “Gibson Girl” form from 1900 would be unhappily trying to flatten and minimize her curves in 1925. In one era fashion told these ladies that they were beautiful, and in another that they were shamefully incorrect. But in the end, they were both just two kinds of natural body types.

As with the study of any historical subject, learning the history of fashion helps you step out of your own time and see the bigger picture. And let me tell you, the bigger picture has lots of sexy belly fat.