https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/fashion-poses Style Advice for Fashion Lovers en-US Sun, 26 Apr 2026 13:33:09 +0000 http://bbpress.org/?v=1.0.2 q https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/search.php https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/fashion-poses#post-434969 Sun, 02 Oct 2011 03:52:59 +0000 Fruitful 434969@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>Very well said Kate! This is a truly amazing community.</p> <p>I particularly like this: "For me, YLF has been a place where I can retreat from society's notions of femininity, define my own, and finally embrace being feminine in a powerful way."</p> <p>Kate, that sounds like a tough research question. I'm only an undergrad student (on hold grr) so I can only imagine how hard you are working! Hope YLF relieves the stress a bit ^_^ </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/fashion-poses#post-434956 Sun, 02 Oct 2011 03:12:22 +0000 Mo 434956@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>Kate, I can't say how much I agree with and admire your last post! I may be 'just a bartender', but I was the one who busted all the grading curves in school and have a lot more in my head than I share. I was raised by mostly male figures, and my stepmom who I've seen in a dress twice - her marriage to my father and my brother's wedding. She owned 3 motorcycles and is still, at 67, the captain of and first base player on her softball team. So, feminity, in the traditional girly sense with dresses and makeup, was for me to figure out all on my own. But I learned a strong feminine force, separate from any of the outside trappings, from my stepmom I'll forever thank her for. I love that so many different perspectives can come together here peacefully and joyfully! </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/fashion-poses#post-434953 Sun, 02 Oct 2011 02:55:55 +0000 Kate 434953@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>Fruitful, it's been a pleasure to read your comments, both personally and as a grad student (if the two can even be separated)! I've actually spent some time thinking about audience agency for my research, particularly in terms of how people interpret the news - are we critically engaging with the information or accepting it passively and allowing what the reporters say to change how we understand the world around us. </p> <p>Bringing it back to fashion, I think YLF is wonderful because it creates a space that encourages us to engage with fashion in many different ways. It's a haven where we can simply talk openly about "pointless girl stuff" and discover how untruthful that criticism really is. This is certainly the most empowering community of women that I've found on the internet. At first I just thought that it was just deliciously ironic that a forum about fashion and looks could be such a wonderful place to dismantle so many of our previous ideas. But the more I think about it, the more it makes sense that a diverse community of women with a common interest that is often dismissed as petty is really the perfect place to find support, new challenges, and inner strength, while also having fun and appreciating our own beauty. </p> <p>For me, YLF has been a place where I can retreat from society's notions of femininity, define my own, and finally embrace being feminine in a powerful way. From about age 8 through 21 I rejected most things I perceived as girly (lace, bows, ruffles, etc) because I had created a false dichotomy between being girly and feminine, and being strong and smart. Finding YLF helped me to learn how to engage with a lot of things I had simply rejected for many years. I can be more than just critical, I can also take the parts that I like make them my own. Moreover, YLF allowed me to discover that looking my best and finding my own style is part of my journey towards being a more complete, empowered, and happy person. Hooray! </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/fashion-poses#post-434858 Sat, 01 Oct 2011 22:36:51 +0000 Fruitful 434858@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>RoseandJoan, I actually smell a whiff of misogyny inherent to all those criticisms of fashion. Even when it comes from other women (it's like the girls in the playground calling someone a slut just for flicking her hair). At the bottom of all those accusations seems to be "this is pointless girls' stuff".</p> <p>And those Gaultier photos are fabulous! He did look a bit funny when you could just see the hat, but that's what I like about fashion photography. It has this absurd side and you don't know whether you were meant to laugh - which makes it funnier :)</p> <p>Kate, your friend's study sounds fascinating. I know in my own life I've changed dramatically in how I interpret things.</p> <p>Age 12-14: obsessed with Dolly (a teen magazine), then graduated to Cosmo. Used to do things like bum exercises to get ready for summer, as recommended in my magazines Wore things that looked horrible on my pear shape because I liked it on a model!! Was absolutely in love with some of the models and memorised their names, and stared and stared at them, and hopelessly wished to be like them.</p> <p>Age 15: Read about The Beauty Myth in Cosmopolitan magazine. Bought it, read it, became it I mean, I developed an angry and critical perspective when looking at magazines. All I saw was repetition, hypocrisy and patriarchy. If aliens looked at our media they'd see men clothed and women semi-naked, starving and surgically altering themselves. It would look like the women were society's slaves...</p> <p>Age 18-23: turned away from the magazines and much media. Spent more time with people of subcultures (Wiccans, "ferals", underground ravers). Learnt that my anger and limited perspective was actually a result of letting mainstream culture control me through its images. Learnt to move away from looking, and into being. Learnt that these people actually LIVED instead of watching "life" through TV and pictures as most people do. Learnt that dancing, being outside, laughing, crying, touching, was what my body was all about. Seeing how beautiful people were when they did the same thing.</p> <p>23-36 (now): there's been a number of changing experiences, like having children, and discovering the internet :D. But basically I've come back to the mainstream with a sense that it's something I can participate in while remembering it's not actually the fabric of reality. Not saying it doesn't influence me or that I don't need to challenge unhealthy thoughts about image and femininity. But I find my sense of self isn't anchored in these external things.</p> <p>Enough navel gazing :D</p> <p>Kate, I'm pretty rusty on academic lingo but I dipped my toe into media studies a couple of years ago and found the idea of audience agency was considered incredibly important. The taken-for-granted idea that people soak up media in a passive, uncritical way was seen as erroneous, not based on evidence, and really about scapegoating and demonising (mostly TV). I think any fleshed out discussion of media influences has to challenge assumptions about people reacting to media as if they were blank slates.</p> <p>I also dipped my toe into childhood studies and found a similar critical current: we need to balance the need to protect children with the need to recognise children as active agents, not just the aforementioned blank slates.</p> <p>Kate, this has been a really stimulating conversation. Those "funny" images have been very thought provoking and I'm enjoying the diversity of perspectives, as well as the challenge to try and articulate mine. Thankyou! ^_^ </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/fashion-poses#post-434641 Sat, 01 Oct 2011 17:59:19 +0000 ironkurtin 434641@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>I think the point for the YLFers is more to have fun than to make an editorial point. Fashion magazine poses are ridiculous! I like the old-school glamour poses much more, and I think they would be a blast. </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/fashion-poses#post-434629 Sat, 01 Oct 2011 17:44:47 +0000 Kate 434629@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>I'm so happy with the discussion that's happening here, and am sorry I haven't been able to contribute more (things are crazy busy right now). Thank you all for being awesome!</p> <p>Fruitful, I have a friend who conducted a psych study in college to see whether and how groups of four college freshmen women and four college senior women talked about teen magazines (things like seventeen). I think her preliminary results were that the seniors had a bit more perspective and were far more critical, whereas the images were interpreted for more meaningful for the freshmen. I would imagine there has been more research in this area, and you and Astrid are very right that the "place" where you're at in both society and life really changes how you interpret things. </p> <p>IK, it would be amazing to get pictures of YLF ladies doing funny things in public. I get a kick out of fashion bloggers who write about being really timid taking pictures in public as well as the bloggers who just go for it and get all kinds of crazy looks. It would certainly start some interesting conversations! </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/fashion-poses#post-434588 Sat, 01 Oct 2011 16:20:01 +0000 RoseandJoan 434588@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>With regards to the point that men would not act in the same vein, please take a look at these images<br /> <a href="http://www.designscene.net/2011/09/huben-hubenov-ben-mcmillan-gia.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.designscene.net/201.....n-gia.html</a><br /> or the images produced for Jean Paul Gaultier </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/fashion-poses#post-434587 Sat, 01 Oct 2011 16:11:07 +0000 RoseandJoan 434587@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>Thank you Fruitful, as someone who loves fashion I'm finding that the industry is coming under attack from so many angles that I am starting to become quite defensive about the whole subject. How many times do you hear:<br /> 'The clothes are unrealistic'<br /> The clothes are so expensive'<br /> 'Fashion encourages over consumerism'<br /> 'Fashion is vain'<br /> 'The models are too thin'<br /> 'The models are too sexy'<br /> 'Airbrushing gives unrealistic expectations of beauty'<br /> 'Fashion is responsible for anorexia'<br /> 'Fashion encourages debt'<br /> 'Fashion uses slave labour'</p> <p>and now '(the models) seem dead, twisted, pulled'<br /> Granted some of this criticism is fair but is there any other industry which is torn to pieces quite as ferociously as fashion? </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/fashion-poses#post-434459 Sat, 01 Oct 2011 09:46:06 +0000 Fruitful 434459@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>I do also worry about the models themselves. That's not what the point of the artwork was though, so I didn't address it.</p> <p>Portia de Rossi's autobiography really shames the modelling industry for her treatment as a teen model, and she felt very uncomfortable about the fakeness and dehumanising nature of the experience. </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/fashion-poses#post-434458 Sat, 01 Oct 2011 09:41:11 +0000 Fruitful 434458@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>Astrid, you're right that I'm coming from a privileged position. I wonder if anyone has actually studied women of varying ages and demographics and asked how they interpret these images?</p> <p>I do honestly think that for the average person, fashion photos aren't the most problematic images they face. Seeing someone get popular on a reality tv show, seemingly via having cosmetic surgery, is something I find more close to home - more "realistic" ("I could/should do that..."), and far more troubling. </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/fashion-poses#post-434451 Sat, 01 Oct 2011 08:55:23 +0000 Astrid 434451@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>Interesting read, thanks Kate!<br /> Fruitful, I have to agree with you to a degree. I can follow your reasoning and it makes sense, but it depends on the consumer thinking actively about these questions and having a strong sense of self (as a woman). You can choose to enjoy this photography as an artistic input, but many women can't and therein lies the problem. Many teenage girls and some grown-up women respectively who are still searching and developing their own identity as a woman consume this photography en masse and they are lacking the insight to put them in the right perspective! </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/fashion-poses#post-434415 Sat, 01 Oct 2011 03:30:32 +0000 Fruitful 434415@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>Isis, that's a good question. I think I would have to wrestle with it for longer than I've got time for in order to both properly acknowledge concerns regarding gender-based oppression while unpacking my sense that fashion photos are worthwhile and enjoyable. </p> <p>I do think femininity is socially constructed; fashion photography just makes it more obvious. Femininity is drag, and in the fashion world, it's also camp. I like camp. </p> <p>Fashion photography aims to be arresting and alluring, and this often means it tries to be erotic (although it also includes models jumping, running down the street, making silly surprised faces, doing deliberately absurd things like pumping iron at the gym in platform heels - not always looking dead). </p> <p>Sometimes the erotics is in the model-as-object, and the body is twisted and contorted to highlight its allure - tightening muscles, rounding a shoulder, or appearing sexually receptive; sometimes it tries to convey an (illusory) sense of model as subject, where she appears to be lost in a reverie or having an orgasm.</p> <p>I'm not comfortable determining what that says about women - a fashion magazine can have models posed like dolls, back to back with articles about non-model women who are presented as subjects with agendas other than doing their beauty duty. So I think the photos say more about models than they do about women. A fashion model is a person whose embodiment is used to create an image that women will want to look at.</p> <p>Masculinity does not escape social construction. There are probably a number of reasons men aren't put into these poses, but not just the obvious idea that men would never be expected to do something so "demeaning". </p> <p>At least part of it is that it's not seen as masculine to display one's body, to show signs of mental or sexual abandon, to appear to be fantasising, to be sexually passive. </p> <p>Indeed, with the small exceptions of "metrosexuality" and the glam movement, men are not allowed to look interesting at all. I think we would find men in some twisted, pulled, surrendered poses if we looked at gay erotica. (As well as some tough guy poses because that's a significant trope of gay erotics. But then, we see sexualised toughness in women's fashion photography too).</p> <p>I disagree with the artist's statement that these are virtually the only images of the feminine in mass media. I find fashion photography very removed from daily life (including my daily media consumption) and as such I do not hold it to the same set of rules I might have about the treatment or behaviour of women in daily life. Indeed, in my reality, fashion photography is practically fringe.</p> <p>That might say more about me and my choices of media influences than anything else. Yet, that's relevant too; it shows that I, like at least some men and women, am an active agent in my own media consumption. Fashion photography is something I'm able to enjoy when I choose without having my views of women determined by it. </p> <p>Damning fashion photography as instrumental in the oppression of women assumes I am a passive consumer of it, which I actually find somewhat oppressive. </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/fashion-poses#post-434412 Sat, 01 Oct 2011 03:17:28 +0000 ironkurtin 434412@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>I would love to see some YLF folks doing this, looking fab. </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/fashion-poses#post-434301 Sat, 01 Oct 2011 00:11:55 +0000 Isis 434301@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>But Fruitful, why is that this fantasy and art that poses women so that "they seem dead, twisted, pulled. Why are men never put in these positions? They are always straight, successful, able and healthy…....."</p> <p>What does this say about how we view of women? </p> <p>Love this blogger; thanks Kate! </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/fashion-poses#post-434299 Sat, 01 Oct 2011 00:11:14 +0000 taylor 434299@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>Funny!:) </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/fashion-poses#post-434296 Sat, 01 Oct 2011 00:04:56 +0000 Fruitful 434296@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>Hmm, I actually agree with the blog post comments that this misses the point. High fashion photos aren't meant to be practical, it's a fantasy. These photos are funny but it's mostly because they're taken in public, unlike the intimate feeling of the original photos.</p> <p>I saw a documentary called "The September Issue" about the making of a Vogue issue, and it was heartbreaking to see the effort, thought and creativity that Grace Coddington put into a 1920s inspired spread that got deleted. I really do enjoy the artistry of these kind of spreads and wouldn't like to see them substituted with pragmatic images (which have their place too - can we have both please?) </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/fashion-poses#post-434260 Fri, 30 Sep 2011 22:46:56 +0000 Anonymous 434260@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>That blogger is awesome. I've been saying for years that no woman in her right mind would EVER pose like models are often portrayed. Happy to see that someone made my point....and rather successfully, I might add! </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/fashion-poses#post-434251 Fri, 30 Sep 2011 22:37:15 +0000 Fruitful 434251@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>Janet, that is why some Etsy sellers make me want to scream. *head explodes from the uselessness* </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/fashion-poses#post-434126 Fri, 30 Sep 2011 20:11:01 +0000 Janet 434126@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>Here's one of the things that bugs me about these outrageous poses -- you can't truly see the garment! I kinda get it if it's about the bag or the hat or some other accessory, but there are many times I really can't get a good sense of the cut of the garment being modeled. And you'd think that would be the whole point! </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/fashion-poses#post-434121 Fri, 30 Sep 2011 20:07:50 +0000 Janet 434121@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>Love it! </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/fashion-poses#post-434115 Fri, 30 Sep 2011 19:58:57 +0000 Queen Mum 434115@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>loved the one of the woman in McDonald's with her bag over her face. </p> <p>Love this quote:<br /> [The] poses of the women are ridiculous – they seem dead, twisted, pulled. Why are men never put in these positions? They are always straight, successful, able and healthy… </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/fashion-poses#post-434090 Fri, 30 Sep 2011 19:19:36 +0000 Laurinda 434090@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>Brilliant. </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/fashion-poses#post-434089 Fri, 30 Sep 2011 19:18:24 +0000 rae 434089@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>So funny! I love how the series speaks to the fact that editorial shoots are designed to be the "fantasy" of the brand - images that convey the personality of the brand instead of simply literal representations of the clothes. It reminds us that everything besides the clothes is pure hyperbole - especially the impossibly thin/flawless bodies/complexions of the models. </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/fashion-poses#post-434080 Fri, 30 Sep 2011 18:57:44 +0000 Kate 434080@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>Great question! I would imagine seeming a bit more natural (slightly less weird poses) would be a good start. I have mixed feelings about putting the focus on the women rather than the clothes. In theory it sounds nice, but in practice it tends to result in having celebrities model the clothes, which doesn't end up being more empowering.</p> <p>I do like how the womens' athletic store title nine includes blurbs about their athlete models (<a href="http://www.titlenine.com/category/who+are+we/meet+our+model+athletes.do" rel="nofollow">http://www.titlenine.com/categ.....thletes.do</a>). But I highly doubt that will spread to fashion magazines... </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/fashion-poses#post-434077 Fri, 30 Sep 2011 18:53:22 +0000 Mo 434077@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>Okay, you got me truly L O L - actually guffawed at the one with her fingers in her mouth. BWAHAHAHA </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/fashion-poses#post-434069 Fri, 30 Sep 2011 18:41:18 +0000 RoseandJoan 434069@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>But what may I ask would be a viable alternative? How do women wish to be represented in fashion advertising? </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/fashion-poses#post-434065 Fri, 30 Sep 2011 18:33:55 +0000 DressLover 434065@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>That woman looks *EXACTLY* like one of my college professors. She would do something just like that too. (Speech/drama professor with a crazy sense of humor.) </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/fashion-poses#post-434058 Fri, 30 Sep 2011 18:28:19 +0000 Kate 434058@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>A blog I follow has a post today about an artist who photographs real women doing fashion model poses in public. It's rich social commentary, and hilarious!</p> <p><a href="http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2011/09/30/yolanda-dominguez-exposing-the-artificiality-of-women-in-fashion/?utm_source=feedburner&#038;utm_medium=feed&#038;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SociologicalImagesSeeingIsBelieving+%28Sociological+Images%3A+Seeing+Is+Believing%29" rel="nofollow">http://thesocietypages.org/soc.....lieving%29</a></p> <p>See a teaser photo below! </p>