Fashioning Fat: Inside Plus-Size Modeling

by Amanda M. Czerniawski

Overview

For two and a half years, Amanda Czerniawski was a
sociologist turned plus-size model. Journeying into a world where, as a size
10, she was not considered an average body type, but rather, for the fashion
industry, “plus-sized,” Czerniawski studied the standards of work and image
production in the plus-sized model industry.
Fashioning Fat takes us through a model’s day-to-day activities,
first at open calls at modeling agencies and then through the fashion shows and
photo shoots. Czerniawski also interviewed 35 plus-size models about their
lives in the world of fashion, bringing to life the strange contradictions of
being an object of non-idealized beauty.






Fashioning Fat shows
us that the mission of many of these models is to challenge our standards of
beauty that privilege the thin body; they show us that fat can be sexy. Many plus-size
models do often succeed in overcoming years of self-loathing and shame over
their bodies, yet, as Czerniawski shows, these women are not the ones in charge
of beauty’s construction or dissemination. At the corporate level, the fashion
industry perpetuates their objectification. Plus-size models must conform to an
image created by fashion’s tastemakers, as their bodies must fit within
narrowly defined parameters of size and shape—an experience not too different
from that of straight-sized models. Ultimately, plus-size models find that they
are still molding their bodies to fit an image instead of molding an image of
beauty to fit their bodies. A much-needed behind-the-scenes look at this
growing industry, Fashioning Fat is a
fascinating, unique, and important contribution to our understanding of beauty.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814770320
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	01/30/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Amanda M. Czerniawski is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Temple University."

Table of Contents

Contents 

Acknowledgments ix 

1. From Books to Looks: Journeying into 1 Plus-Size Modeling 

2. How to Become a Plus-Size Model 35 

3. Models of All (Plus) Sizes? 51 

4. Disciplining Corpulence through Aesthetic Labor 71 

5. Agents as Gatekeepers of Fashion 101 

6. Selling the Fat Body 129 

7. Stepping Out of the Plus-Size Looking Glass 159 

Notes 173 

References 183 

Index 197 

About the Author 205 

Editorial Reviews

11/03/2014
Sociology professor Czerniawski goes undercover as a plus-size model in this exposé to find out the truth: is it empowering or exploitative to strut one’s size-14 (and up) self in front of the fashion industry’s cameras? The answer is as complicated and obscure as our relationship to food and our weight, since, as the author states, “Frankly, fat means different things to different people.” Most of the women interviewed for the book aren’t career models; they supplement their incomes by attending go-sees and open calls in the hopes that their measurements will add up to what the client desires. One model accidentally loses weight band, in doing so, loses her main account. She then drinks weight-gaining powders and shakes to return to the larger measurements listed on her agency’s calling card. The book’s personal asides and insider information are enlightening. Segments of semisalacious gossip, however, are hindered by the author’s lengthy tangents commenting on “affective labor” undertaken by the various models in a “dominant heteronormative framework,” while fashion itself serves as a “‘cosmetic panopticon,’ shaping norms and expectations of physical appearance across the spectrums of race, sexuality, and class.” Though this is indeed the academic jargon of gender studies, it still weighs down what is otherwise a fascinating read. 17 b&w halftones. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

"We need, she suggests, not models of different size and shape, but a more fundamental questioning of the fashion industry itself and its current domination of our conceptions of beauty, especially the beauty of women."

First Things

"At once a sociological adventure and a moving personal voyage, Amanda Czerniawskis striking study of plus-size modeling shows the intense aesthetic labor that disciplines the body and shapes the self. Engagingly written, Fashioning Fat addresses the sociologies of work and the professions, of gender and the body, as well as the emergent field of fat studies. Like all good ethnography, this one takes us to a new world and insists upon its connections to the worlds we know."

Priscilla Parkhurst Ferguson

"Fashioning Fatis an engaging, well-researched book which provides a much-needed critique of the limitations of a politics of visibility."

Cultural Sociology

"[H]er book is...honest, thoughtful and insightful."

Pacific Standard

"Fashioning Fat is a notable work that gives readers an inside look at the plus-size modeling industry. The author succeeds at giving the plus-size model a voice and offers some fashion alternatives."

American Journal of Sociology

"Fashioning Fat is an excellent book and will make important contributions to fat studies and sociology. an extremely interesting read."

Esther Rothblum

"Fashioning Fatis one woman's courageous attempt to redefine beauty. It is a readable indictment of the American Fashion Industry. It is very well-argued and beautifully written."

TheWashingtonBookReview.com

"Fashioning Fatis a well-written and thoughtful book that offers an interesting contribution to feminist understandings of the body. Czerniawskis narrative writing style is engaging and accessible, making this book well suited for both undergraduate and graduate syllabi. It will be a valuable resource for scholars of gender, work, embodiment, sociology of culture, and the emerging field of fat studies."

Gender & Society

"[]Fashioning Fatis absolutely worth reading."

XOVain.com

Sociology professor Czerniawski goes undercover as a plus-size model in this expose to find out the truth: is it empowering or exploitative to strut one’s size-14 (and up) self in front of the fashion industry’s cameras? The answer is as complicated and obscure as our relationship to food and our weight, since, as the author states, ‘Frankly, fat means different things to different people.’ […] The book’s personal asides and insider information are enlightening.” -Publishers Weekly

“Fashioning Fat is an excellent book and will make important contributions to fat studies and sociology…. an extremely interesting read.”-Esther Rothblum,co-editor of The Fat Studies Reader

“[…] Fashioning Fat is absolutely worth reading.”-XOVain.com

“Fashioning Fat is a notable work that gives readers an inside look at the plus-size modeling industry. The author succeeds at giving the plus-size model a voice and offers some fashion alternatives.”-American Journal of Sociology

From the Publisher