Anna Scholz Blog

Fashionista recently published some lovely photos from the new promotional book put out by Ford+, the plus size division of the Ford modeling agency. The models of Ford+ are anywhere from a US size 8 to 18 (UK 12 to 22). The images are slick and high-fashion and, as Leah Chernikoff of Fashionista rightly observes, hopefully represent a trend toward incorporating curvier models into the world of mainstream fashion, beyond the pages of catalogues.

(left to right) Michelle Olson, Inga Eiriksdottir, Leah Kelley, McKenzie Raley

Gary Dakin, who has headed Ford’s plus division for the last 13 years, says that there have been great changes in the plus size model market during his career.  “There are better clients, jobs, photographers, rates, etc.,” says Dakin. “The girls have evolved too…they are challenged now more than ever to be better and they challenge the industry right back.”

Some models, however, still wish that they didn’t have to be labeled as “plus.” Not that they are ashamed of their bodies, but as rising star Marquita Pring says, they feel “the term ‘plus size’ has a negative connotation.” She prefers the term “curvy.”

Marquita was recently featured on Vogue Italia’s website as “a new star in the curvy universe” and walked in Jean Paul Gaultier’s Spring 2011 runway show.

Marquita Pring

“I hate to be categorized. I am a model,” Marquita told Fashionista. “I do many of the same jobs as others models regardless of their size, race, or gender. I don’t feel a need to specify my size when telling people about my job. … Personally, I wouldn’t even refer to a woman who’s a size 26 as ‘plus size.’ I find it interesting that if ever I do refer to myself as ‘plus size’ when describing what I do for a living people always have the same reaction. ‘WHAT!?! OH MY GOODNESS I WOULD NEVER CONSIDER YOU PLUS SIZE!!!’ And I always agree with them. I’m proud to set an example for women of all sizes as a bigger curvier model, and I’m so thankful to get letters from women of all sizes thanking me for promoting a more realistic healthy image. As for the word ‘curvy’ I see nothing wrong with it. I don’t need to stress it as my title but I am a curvy, voluptuous, sexy woman and I think the word ‘curvy’ relays a much more positive image. You can be a size 4 or 14 and be considered ‘curvy.’

What do you think about the terms “plus size” vs “curvy”?

Here at Anna Scholz, we celebrated the Royal Wedding in our own way by offering customers the opportunity to win a £500 online shopping voucher in a prize draw.

The crowned winner of the draw is the lucky Regine Collee from Germany.

Congratulations, Regine– we can’t wait to see what you spend your voucher on. Whatever you select, you’ll be camera-ready for all of your public appearances. Now you’ll always be poised and stylish, even when the paparazzi catch you unawares. (Sorry we can’t help you with what fork to use for salad at that important state banquet though–we’re not very up on our etiquette…and we’d really struggle with that rule about having to stop eating whenever the Queen is finished with her food…I mean, what’s up with that? Anyway, enjoy your voucher!)

Customers, stay tuned for more such offers in the future. You never know what we have up our sleeves.

Amanda sent us this photo of her wearing Anna’s orange floral silk cowl neck dress (shortened for salsa-ing!) when she performed in a music video in Havana, Cuba for the famous salsa band, Los Van Van (the Rolling Stones of Cuban salsa music).

She traveled to Havana and performed in the video as part of a holiday package with Key2Cuba travel agency (hence, the Key2Cuba Dancers credit).

Here is the Los Van Van video for the song “Me Mantengo.” See if you can spot Amanda shakin’ her thing!

Amanda sent us this photo of her in Anna’s crepe jersey jumpsuit and lace crop jacket.

There have been a number of artists who have grabbed and presented compelling images from Google’s Street View, but I really enjoy Jon Rafman’s selection.

Here are a few of my favourites from his Nine Eyes of Google Street View project. Some of the images are funny. Some are disturbing, some are poignant or haunting. They remind me, as I sit at my desk, that all sorts of things are going on in the world at any given moment.

As everyone is by now aware, several years ago, Google started a project called Google Street View, attempting the gargantuan task of photographing every single street in the world as an additional feature to Google Maps. Google sends out fleets of cars, each vehicle armed with a GPS, three laser range scanners and nine cameras on a single pole. Every ten to twenty meters, the nine cameras take a photo of whatever happens to be within their frames. Computer software then links the photos together to create a panoramic image. This allows Google Maps to provide access to 360º horizontal and 290° vertical panoramic views of any street on which the Street View car has cruised.

Google’s mission is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful;” but Rafman’s fascination is with the Street View camera as a “systematic pursuer of fleeting moments.”

Though their identities are blurred, most people captured in Street Views seem to tolerate or even enjoy being caught on camera. Rafman reckons that it’s quite a recent development for online surveillance to be not mistrusted by people, but almost welcomed as a friendly invasion, a little taste of fame. Street View photography, writes Rafman represents our search as humans for a sense of “connectedness and significance” in an “uncaring, indifferent universe.”

Rafman also was attracted to the immediacy and rawness of the Street View images and how the Google cameras are impersonal and so seem to genuinely deliver fragments of captured reality.

Jon Rafman is an artist who lives and works in Montreal, Canada.

To see more of Rafman’s Street View images, visit http://9-eyes.com/.

To read his essay on his Nine Eyes of Google Street View project, click here.