Crystal Renn for Vogue Paris (NSFW)

Tom Ford and Vogue Paris Editor-in-Chief Carine Roitfeld smoked some Crystal Renn and decided to put an editorial together. Fair warning: it's a button-pusher.

Vogue Paris December 2010/January 2011 Issue
Editorial: "La Panthère Ose"
Photographer: Tom Ford
Stylist: Carine Roitfeld








Okay, let's start with this: staging a fashion editorial around plastic surgery is kind of brilliant and subversive. We applaud the idea. Anything that eschews the fantasies of the industry in order to shine a light on the reality of it is something to be commended. On the other hand, both Tom Ford and Carine Roitfeld like to get people talking by pushing their buttons, so this is pretty expected from the two of them. What got us thinking, looking at these pictures, is how much Crystal Renn apparently likes to push those buttons too. We'll admit, our very first thought upon seeing these pictures was "What does this industry have against this girl?" A lot of her work lately seems to have her naked, gorging herself on food, or being compared to smaller models. You have to have some mighty thick skin to be a model (not to mention an inability to be humiliated), but there's been an undertone of, well, mean-spiritedness to a lot of her work.

But then it hit us: the common denominator in all her editorials is Crystal herself. We were set to trash this for once again giving the impression that the girl who has most successfully challenged the sizism of the beauty and fashion industry is being punished, but when you look over a lot of her work, it's obvious that Crystal herself likes to push both boundaries and buttons. She seems drawn to editorials that don't default to a generic standard of pretty.

Our point? If you're offended by this (and remember, it was designed to offend you), it's too easy to blame one person or even the industry itself. You put people like Tom Ford, Carine Roitfeld and Crystal Renn on a project together and you're going to get something that stops you in your tracks. Pretty? No. A showcase for fashion? Not really. But if you were flipping through a magazine and saw this, you'd stop and stare.

[Photo Credit: fashiongonerogue.com]

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Labels: Carine Roitfeld, Crystal Renn, Fashion, Magazine Cover/Editorial, Tom Ford, Vogue