LIZ JONES FASHION THERAPY

Vogue giving schoolgirls lessons in self-esteem? Don't make me laugh!

New 'school's initiative' to teach girls what goes into making glossy images
Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman argues that fashion is fantasy
She fails to understand how seductive and convincing fashion can be

PUBLISHED: 16:13 EST, 8 September 2013 | UPDATED: 16:14 EST, 8 September 2013

View
comments

Switching on breakfast television last week, I was startled to see Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman discussing a 'school's initiative' of which she's part.

At first, I thought that instead of jetting around the world attending fashion shows in new season heavily discounted or free designer gear, Ms Shulman herself would be making appearances at comprehensive schools the length and breadth of the land.

But no, it turns out that all Vogue is doing is sending out a video and lesson plan to schools for teachers of Year Nine pupils (aged 13 to 14) to use in order to unravel, explain and put into context the smoke and mirrors that go into the making of its glossy pages.

In Vogue: Kate Moss on holiday (right) and on the cover of the June issue

Or rather to peddle its wares in a scheme perfectly timed to coincide with the latest round of international fashion shows.

Let me unveil just what Vogue's curriculum consists of. Shulman's lesson plan asks that teachers tell students that 'only a very small percentage of the population have the natural build and appearance of a model'.

It details each stage of a fashion magazine shoot. It lists, too, for teachers to read out unquestioningly, the diverse, 'normal' people who have been shot by Vogue, including Adele - without mentioning that the magazine failed to show any other part of her body than her carefully airbrushed head!

It is, frankly, laughable.

More...

What all this amounts to is not Vogue admitting that it needs to evolve, and respect its readers a little more.

Instead, they are asking young women to change their response to what they see in Vogue - to change a response that is often visceral, emotional and unwitting.

Shulman says the pictures in her magazine 'aspire and entertain', but she's being disingenuous. They are designed to sell things.

If readers were to disbelieve the dream they were sold - that if they wear a certain dress, they, too, will look like a model, and get a boyfriend, and find happiness - then Vogue would go out of business. It's as simple as that.

Laughable: Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman on breakfast TV last week - her 'school's initiative' reveals how little the magazine respects its readers

I don't buy Shulman's premise that what Vogue, and other magazines, designers, photographers and post-production studio wizards are doing is fantasy, and somehow to be separated from real life.

Fashion is seductive and convincing. It chip, chip, chips away at our self-esteem. Not every young woman's self-esteem, of course. If you have a protective bubble of a loving family, and good friends, and eagle-eyed teachers, then you have a chance to repel these images, like a very good Burberry mac.

But for Shulman to say 'the problem, if there is a problem, comes when people judge themselves against the models they see on the pages of a magazine and then feel that in some way they fall short' is staggering.

I know from experience that even being fully aware of the reality behind these images - seeing first hand that models have thread veins and acne, that images can be airbrushed, with heads being placed on entirely different bodies (it's revealed in the short film that it takes 20 professionals to produce one photo) - does not help.

It cannot reverse what has been affected in the deepest part of your brain, the reptilian cortex buried inside your head, that 'does not respond to talking therapies' (thank you, Janet Treasure, professor in psychiatry at Guy's Hospital).

And the rational part of your brain, the bit that understands Kate Moss doesn't really look as she does on the June cover of Vogue, cannot override the subconscious that says you simply do not measure up.

I was taught to hate my body by an industry that I loved, but that never loved me back.

It's crushing to see my story being repeated, over and over again, by girls coming after me, who believe the same lies that Shulman repeats in this new film: oh, it's fantasy, you are not supposed to want to look like these cover girls, they are just an escape, not an aspiration.

Yes, we do need education about this sort of thing in schools. But not from the gamekeepers, the very people who have so much to lose from opening our eyes to their sophistry.

LIZ JONES SPIES ON... Diane von Furstenberg, 25 Bruton Street, London W1

Small and quiet: Diane Von Furstenberg's shop scores well

The legendary Diane von Furstenberg is celebrating 40 years of the wrap dress next year with a new, capsule collection for spring 2014.

Actually, the wrap dress was really born in 1972 (who says designers were ever good at sums). It was inspired by the needs of the feminist movement: light and made of unwrinkling silk jersey, the wrap worked in the office, was easily squished into a suitcase, and could be put on or stepped out of in seconds. 'Simplicity and sexiness, that's what people want. At a price that's not outrageous,' DvF told Vogue in 1976.

When I visit, the shop is small and quiet, with polite, eager sales assistants, and a couple of customers whose faces have been pulled taut.

The thing is, today the wrap dress - meant to be worn over a tan and cowboy boots, with Jerry Hall's hair and the sheen of youth - has instead been adopted by Everywoman, and can be frumpy if you don't accessorise it with killer heels.

There are lots of variations on offer here, priced from £300 to £500, but the most ubiquitous seem to be in leopard or snake print. I like the fact a designer has a USP, and sticks to it: DvF's body con dresses and lace shifts work less well. And, of course, you can buy variations on the wrap everywhere, from Issa to Asos.

DvF only loses one point for the very pedestrian, sub-LK Bennett shoes.

LIZ'S VERDICT: 9/10

MOST WATCHED NEWS VIDEOS

Add your comments

Comments (40)

The comments below have not been moderated.

View all

There is nothing of interest in Vogue. It is just full of ads and features for apparel the average person can't afford to buy. Nice pics though.

- elgar61 , Fife, 09/9/2013 23:03

Click to rate Rating 7

I still don't understand for the life of me why women are drawn to Kate Moss.

- BisonJones , London, England, 09/9/2013 22:39

Click to rate Rating 8

Vogue may not be aimed at teenagers, however 'teen' vogue is, and sends out the same message as its older sister mag, Liz is right.

- lizzy , warwickshire, 09/9/2013 19:06

Click to rate Rating 25

If Vogue REALLY wants to help young girls' self-esteem, they'll show the models as they really are. Oh, wait, that would tank sales, wouldn't it? Never mind... let the fakery continue...

- lisa , new haven, 09/9/2013 16:45

Click to rate Rating 24

I think it's sad that so many readers hate Liz Jones so much that they can't acknowledge the truth when she writes it. Advertising surrounds us from birth. Television, print, computer, billboards everywhere. All of the true images faked and airbrushed to sell sell sell. Do YOU look at all of this advertising and say to yourself 'look at all the trick photography'? Or do you look at the images and wonder if you'll look that good wearing or owning the product they're pushing? And letting Vogue run this program is like letting the fox guard the hen house. Not liking the truth does not make it any less true.

- Kelly , Ontario_Canada, 09/9/2013 16:00

Click to rate Rating 49

These catty articles are getting so tiresome

- kommitt , Hamilton, Bermuda, 09/9/2013 15:32

Click to rate Rating 19

Just wasted another three minutes of my life. Why did I bother when I read who the writer was?

- usednurse , Borders, Scotland, 09/9/2013 13:46

Click to rate Rating 1

Am on Shulman's side on this one..fashion is a fantasy and if some one wants to live that fantasy it is really their lack of judgement ..its like watching an action movie where a handsome man with an eight pack shoots all the bad people and you decide to work out , buy guns and shoot Liz Jones..

- Wilhelme-Kampala , Kampala, Uganda, 09/9/2013 13:41

Click to rate Rating 7

Is Vogue aimed at teenage girls? Thought not. Liz Jones likes to make sweeping generalisations about every subject but she couldn't be more wrong about this. I applaud Vogue for producing material that will lead to debates in the classroom, it can only be healthy. The majority of girls and grown women do not believe that magazine models are portrayed realistically and do not have their self esteem destroyed by looking at the images. In fact over the years Ms Jones has done more harm with her nasty sneering at anyone overweight or "badly dressed" than any fashion magazine. I do hope that she has take out of context the comment by Janet Treasure as I do not believe she was talking about responses to fashion magazines. Liz, no magazine taught you to hate your body, you have stated you were "anorexic" from aged 12...were you reading vogue then?

- serenity , nottingham, 09/9/2013 13:18

Click to rate Rating 7

I think that the editor of Vogue looks lovely and very natural, and is doing her very best to help educate the young. Liz Jones clearly wishes she was editor of Vogue, but never came close and in fact was fired as editor of Marie Claire...!!

- KarlLagerfeld , Paris, France, 09/9/2013 13:15

Click to rate Rating 5

Share this comment

The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.