Last weekend I hit the hills of Bangalow in northern New South Wales with my girls for a long weekend of … well, I can’t really say because what happens on tour, stays on tour, but there was plenty of sunshine, cheese and pool time.
Thanks to the peeps at Togs Swimwear, I strutted (yes, strutted) around our gorgeous little hilltop cottage in swimmers that had all kinds of fancy powers and left me feeling like some kind of 1950s sex symbol (thus the many, many photos).
When it comes to sizing, I can fit anything from a size 8 to a 14 (my togs are a 12) depending on where I’m shopping, what I’m wearing, what I’ve been eating and about 100 other factors that most women will understand.
I like to think I dress well for my shape, most of the time, especially given I pack a decent set of lady lumps (they’re currently 14DDs if we want to get down to the nitty and gritty of it) and I didn’t even have a thigh gap when I was a baby.
Now, I’m not here to start a debate on what is and isn’t curvy (okay, I am totally going to say what isn’t, but bear with me) or what is and isn’t sexy, because like most things in life, it’s subjective; you say tomato, I say salsa.
So I went straight to the source of all the knowledge, Google.
Because my inner journalist always needs at least two sources, I also looked up the Macmillan Dictionary, which defines ‘curvy’ as something which is forming or full of curves (shocking, right?) and goes on to say, “a curvy woman has an attractive body with large breasts, a small waist, and wide hips”. That’s more specific than what I was thinking, but let’s just roll with it.
In short, anytime a woman is described as curvy, I assume she’s got boobs, hips and/or a butt and I picture the likes of Beyonce, Kate Upton, Drew Barrymore, Salma Hayek and Christina Hendricks (#babealert).
Which is why I’m finding it a REAL struggle to understand how the marketing team at international fashion retailer Zara thought it was a good idea to use these models to promote their new ‘body curve’ denim range.
A range with the tagline “Love your curves”.
Sure, they’ve got bums, but I don’t think anyone would describe them as curvy. Athletic, yes. Lithe, yes. Gorgeous, yes. Curvy, not really … at least not according to Google and Macmillan Dictionary’s definitions.
Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not objecting to having thin, fit models (and yes, curves come in all sizes and we ALL want our arse to look great in a pair of jeans), but surely when you’re asking women to love their curves, you should at least use someone who fits the definition of the word.
The bottom line (ha!) for me is that these ads don’t make me want to even try on their new jeans (and I have two pairs of Zara jeans in my wardrobe).
Get real, Zara. There are thousands of absolutely gorgeous women of all ages and sizes who have curves and could rock the shit out of these jeans.
