Tyra Banks is back on the prowl promoting her America’s Next top Model show, which really should be called something like ‘America’s next part-time model who goes back to her normal job is six months’ and feature that Flight of the Conchords song. You know the one, about being the ‘most beautiful girl in the room, depending on the room.’
The show is yet to produce a real, strong international success story in modeling, so in order to create some kind of interest (we are up to season 12) Tyra is looking for short chicks for season 13.
Banks is ready to push industry boundaries on the show’s next season, due in September.
Women on the comparatively short side will be the focus: Nobody over 5-foot-7 (1.7 metres) need apply for the shot at a modelling contract.
Supermodels usually tower over mere mortals, with only a handful of less-than-statuesque beauties like Kate Moss making the cut.
Banks already has encountered scepticism from industry insiders.
“A couple of designer friends said, ‘Look, girl, you better make sure that winner is fierce if it’s not going to be a joke. You’ve got to make sure her face and body photographs like a tall model. She has to be really amazing.’
So basically Tyra is looking for a non-conformist model, that is as thin as a model, photographs like a model and won’t be allowed within spitting distance of a catwalk. I’m sure Tyra thinks that she’s pushing boundaries here, but a lot of models (particularly lingerie models) are shorter and heavier than your average catwalk model. She basically conforming to the same ideal but trying to sell it as a big departure – although I think even under 5ft is small for a model.
Season 12 begins March 4, and will also feature some less-than-likely supermodels.
Banks said she created America’s Next Top Model, back with a two-hour episode airing in the US on tonight, to counter stereotypes of who and what is considered beautiful.
The show has included minorities and women dubbed “plus-size” by the fashion industry.
Banks, who also leads the show’s judging panel, challenged convention herself as one of the few African-American supermodels.
This time around on Top Model, one contestant bears scars on her body from an accidental scalding she suffered as a child and refuses to hide the marks. Another has startlingly large, mesmerising eyes. A third is a street preacher.
“This is a very special group of girls,” Banks said.
“I want them to connect with viewers, and not just with their looks, but with their personalities.”
Tyra says by using these kinds of people she wants to counter stereotypes of who and what is beautiful, but she is walking a fine line between good taste and freakshow. I’d just love to see Tyra, instead of this hurtful elimination show (I can’t stand any reality show where people are eliminated) just take a beautiful, size 14 5’4″ model under her wing and make her a star of the catwalk. I come from a small town and buy a lot of my clothes online because they aren’t available, it would make a big difference to judging the fit if it was fitted to a normal shaped person.
Tyra Banks is shown at an America’s Next Top Model event on 1/12/09. Credit: PRPhotos
I hate to say it but I used to adore this show. LOVED it when it first came out and it was really about high fashion models. But now…jeez. A chick with burn scars can be beautiful but what agency will keep her? What company will hire her? Modeling isn’t about the girl, it’s about the clothes and if the girl has extensive scarring the focus will no longer be on the clothes.
It also troubles me to say this but I’m not a size 14; I hover between a 2 and a 4 in dresses and I am a normal shaped person. I despise being told that I am not a “real” woman or somehow abnormal because I’m not plus-sized. Models are “real” women too.
I’m 5’4″ and tend to gain weight evenly. If I were a size 14, I’d be overweight and feel the need to lose some. I’m not saying a girl that size couldn’t be a runway star, but she’d have to do plus-size stuff.
Plllleeeeeaaaaassssseee!!! Not another season of ANTM! – i cannot think of anything more boring ….. It just goes on and on and on and on, catfight after catfight, bitchin’ and moaning all the damn time…..
I’m 5’4 120 lbs. i eat pretty healthy (vegetarian) but don’t deprive myself of desert, wine, butter etc but in moderation. a couple of times a year soda or chips but that is it. that stuff is SO bad for you! I work out a few times a week but not all the time. I think that size 14 at 5’4 sounds really big. I’m not saying people should starve themselves -Lohan looks disgusting – but i think this country is too fat. there is a big industry for fat people – that to me – is enabling them to stay fat. living on the east coast and traveling to the middle of the country, you see a huge difference in body weight. i don’t understand why people should just accept being overweight.
Damn. I’m too tall to apply.
What I don’t get with her is this tokenism disguised as forward-thinking, or so Tyra would have people believe. If the search is for a campaign model rather than a catwalk model, then great, far more scope for a variety of shapes and heights. But if ‘Top Model’ means ‘Catwalk Model’, then no 5’4″ size 14 model, regardless of how beautiful or shapely she is, will ever stand a chance of winning. Catwalk, whether we like it or not, will always favour ‘tall & thin’ for its ability to showcase clothing to its best advantage.
@ notblonde I think it’s all in where you shop.
@ Michael Kors I’m a zero @ Macy’s I’m a 4 @ Walmart I could be an 8 @ Target I could be a large @ Everlast the large tee I just bought is a little small. The more expensive the clothes the smaller size I need.
God what a slow gossip morning if I’m actually reading a Tyra post.
i dont think shes trying to break boundaires to break boundaries, but more to do that she will create controversy so people will focus on HER. hell, considering how i’ve seen her talk to the contestants on ANTM i’d say she’s even doing this for her ego-have a few more people who she can talk down to and consider herself still relevant. she’s still a beautiful woman-shame her personality stinks. one of the biggest hypocrites out there.
the show sucked after crazy janice dickinson left…she made it worth watching!
“Modeling isn’t about the girl, it’s about the clothes and if the girl has extensive scarring the focus will no longer be on the clothes.”
Then why are models considered beautiful human beings that walk the earth? Why is the media touting them as a variation of the “ideal” woman? I mean if a guy wants to screw a girl that resembles a walking skeleton that’s his kink, but young impressionable girls, and even some older girls, that models are…perfection.
The whole system is revolting.
The show started sliding downwards after Janice Dickinson left.
becca: Models are not touted as ideal beauty by anyone. I don’t know where you are getting that from. They feature them in magazines and on runways to wear clothes and demonstrate make-up and hair looks. How you get “ideal beauty” out of that is your business.
The “media” may say this person is beautiful or that person is beautiful but the fashion industry sees models as living, breathing hangers. The “media”, by the way, represents a LOT of different body types as beautiful. Just look at any recent red carpet event and you’ll see women who range from super young to old and thin to rather large all being called beautiful by the “media”.
Tyra’s show does a good job of showing these “impressionable” young idiots that you can be beautiful no matter what. But you cannot blame the “media” for saying that some models are beautiful because some of them are.
She should just give up!
Season 13 and there has not been one star model yet!!!
Who care what size clothes anyone wears, its what is inside that counts.
I was actually thinking of applying. I’m 5’3 and 112 pounds, but I would have to be away from my 7 month old baby. The longest I’ve ever been away is 7 hours. And it would interfere with college, but it would be so much fun!
i am so glad i am not tyra banks.