Are Models Too Skinny?

By Caroline Evans

In the early 20th century, the first professional fashion models were called “l(fā)iving mannequins1mannequin： 人體模型，時(shí)裝模特。”. They took their name from their 19th-century predecessors2predecessor： 前輩。, the display mannequins used by dressmakers. The term suggested that these early models were no more than animated dolls, and this was born out in reality.3animated： 活的，有生命的；be born out： 誕生，實(shí)現(xiàn)。Uniform in their mechanical modelling styles and standardised body shapes, they stared glassily4glassily：（眼睛等）無表情地，無生氣地。ahead, paying no attention to onlookers. One critic in 1910 described their “industrial smiles”.Forbidden to speak unless spoken to, when asked by the client,“What is your name?” the living mannequin would answer not with her own name but that of the so-called model dress she wore:Pleasures of Love, or The First Yes, perhaps. Resembling both a talking dress and the inanimate mannequin she mimicked, the fashion model cut a disturbing and uncanny figure in the luxurious couture salons of Paris.5resemble： 類似，像；inanimate： 無生氣的；mimic： 模仿；cut a figure：嶄露頭角，出風(fēng)頭；uncanny： 神秘的；couture salon： 時(shí)裝沙龍。

Among the first women to go uncorseted in the early 1900s,fashion models were slender and supple, but nowhere near as thin as today’s models.6uncorseted： 未穿緊身褡的；slender：細(xì)長的，苗條的；supple： 靈活的；nowhere near： 遠(yuǎn)不及。The fashionable ideal remained statuesque until 1910-1914 when it became tall and willowy, in tandem with the burgeoning craze for dance and sport.7statuesque： 高大勻稱的，修長優(yōu)美的；willowy： 苗條的，婀娜的；in tandem with： 與……同時(shí)進(jìn)行；burgeoning： 迅速發(fā)展的。The new, slimmer silhouette was spearheaded by professional models whose narrow skirts and flimsy fabrics put the body on display in novel ways.8slimmer： slim的比較級，更苗條的，更修長的；silhouette： 輪廓；spearhead：帶領(lǐng)，帶頭； flimsy： 輕而薄的；fabric：織物，布；on display： 展覽，公開展出；novel： 新奇的，異常的。Then as now,both journalists and the public complained that models bore no relation to9bear no relation to： 與……完全不相稱。ordinary women. The British designer Lucile advertised in an American newspaper for “the thinnest model in the world” to drape in heavy fabrics.10advertise for： 登廣告征求；drape： （用布）裝飾，遮蓋。She found“Arjamand”, described by Lucile’s assistant as “a slender,swaying reed, so thin, I often feared, as I watched her pace the long rooms in the divinely draped brocaded gowns,she would bend, then break, and dissolve into a graceful,luxurious heap upon the floor”.11露西爾的助理如是形容她：（她就像）一根細(xì)長、飄搖的蘆葦，那么瘦，看著她身著優(yōu)美的垂褶錦緞禮服在長長的房廳里緩行，我總怕她會被壓彎，折斷，然后融化在地，變成一堆優(yōu)雅奢華之物。swaying： 搖擺的；reed：蘆葦；divinely： 極好地；drape： 使（懸掛物、衣服等）呈褶狀；brocaded： 織成錦緞的；gown： 禮服；dissolve into： 融化成；heap：堆。Far from it: Arjamand so hated being thin that she was on a constant diet to gain weight.

大眾的審美是隨著時(shí)代的變遷而改變的。原來模特不是一直都如此骨感，豐滿的模特也曾在時(shí)尚舞臺上走俏，一如唐朝崇尚肉感美。如今模特的體脂含量一路下降，但這些看似不食人間煙火的衣架子們真的要為那些病態(tài)追求身材的虛榮心負(fù)責(zé)么？

In 1920s, New York, the uptown retail stores employed svelte models while the downtown wholesalers used fuller- figured ones, especially to model fashions for“stouts”.12svelte： 苗條的；wholesaler： 批發(fā)商；fullerfigured： 體型更豐滿的；stout： 矮胖的人，這里加了引號，是指相對于那些苗條纖細(xì)的模特而言。As with display dummies, the first fashion models represented a range of body shapes and sizes, but these were standardised to correspond with the increasing standardisation of mass-produced clothing sizes.13與人體模型一樣，最初的時(shí)裝模特展現(xiàn)了各種各樣的體型和尺寸，但這些體型和尺寸都為了迎合大規(guī)模服裝生產(chǎn)標(biāo)準(zhǔn)化的盛行而統(tǒng)一了。as with： 正如；dummy： （陳列服裝用的）人體模型；correspond with： 符合，一致。In Paris,Coco Chanel chose models in her own, slender, image, even fitting the fuller- figured ones with a whale-boned brassiere14brassiere： 胸衣。to flatten their bosoms. The fashion for extremely thin and androgynous15androgynous： 雌雄同體的，這里指中性的。models lasted from 1924-8, peaking in 1926.After that, the press announced that “boyish form is passé”,spurning the stick-thin flapper.16passé：〈法〉過時(shí)的，落伍的；spurn： 摒棄，冷落；flapper：（20世紀(jì)20年代后期穿短裙、留短發(fā)、思想被認(rèn)為十分現(xiàn)代的）時(shí)髦女子。One Paris newspaper contained an apocryphal17apocryphal： 不足憑信的，可疑的。account of 200 mannequins who had lost their jobs because they were too thin. But,in reality, the slender ideal was well established by the late 1920s and has varied only slightly in the intervening18intervening： 發(fā)生于其間的。decades. (In fact, the first calls for a slenderised body came not from fashion designers but from doctors who attempted to make a medical case for dieting from before the first world war.)

By the 1920s fashion writers were generally advocating a slimmer figure. Presaging today’s fashion for a lean and youthful physique, the Countess de Noailles wrote in 1926, “our epoch favours the appearance of permanent youth”.19presage： 預(yù)言；physique： 體格，體形；the Countess de Noailles： 諾瓦耶伯爵夫人，即安娜·德·諾阿伊（Anna de Noailles，1876—1933），羅馬尼亞-法國作家，著有小說，自傳與詩集；epoch： 時(shí)代，時(shí)期。

Clearly, the debates about models’ bodies and their in fluence on the rest of the population have been raging for more than a hundred years. In all this time, while it has often been asserted that skinny models are the cause of extreme dieting and exercise in pursuit of a slim, toned, and youthful-looking body—and in recent decades whether models’ bodies inspire eating disorders—there is little hard data to support the claim,and we still await a de finitive,scienti fic study.20長久以來，人們都宣稱瘦骨嶙峋的模特為了追求身形苗條、健美和顯得年輕而極度節(jié)食和鍛煉，但這一論斷卻并無有力的證據(jù)支撐。在近幾十年里，模特的身材究竟有沒有引發(fā)飲食紊亂，我們還需等待明確的科學(xué)研究。in all this time：在這么長的時(shí)間；assert： 宣稱，聲稱；toned： 強(qiáng)健的；de finitive： 決定性的，明確的。There is unarguably a relationship, but whether it is causal is moot.21causal： 因果關(guān)系的，有原因的；moot： 有討論余地的，未決的。As the fashion sociologist Agnès Rocamora says,“While images of thin women may well in fluence us to desire certain clothes, and even thin bodies,whether that translates into actual eating disorders is another issue. I don’t know if it’s ever possible to substantiate22substantiate： 證實(shí)。.”