Have you guys been hearing about the kerfuffle surrounding the proposition Vogue magazine gave designers Kate and Laura Mulleavy of Rodarte? Basically, an editor called up the sisters--unsolicited!--and offered them a free four months of personal training and meal-delivery--and they'd chronicle their experience in a diary published in the magazine. They agreed; these are the before and after pictures published in the April issue:
I hadn't had a chance to read the article until tonight and I was prepared to get really worked-up about the fashion industry. But, I have to admit, I didn't have the reaction I expected to have. Do I still think the offer was a little awkward? Sure. Had my own boss approached ME about writing a shape-up blog (instead of the way it actually went down--me asking if I could blog about my weight-loss journey), the only lunges I'd be doing would be out the door. But once I actually read the piece--and not just the press coverage about it--I was inspired, mostly because the self-esteem of these two women seems unbridled in a way mine never was, even long before they lost an ounce. In fact, when they first got the call from Vogue, Kate wrote in her diary: "We've always had pretty good outlooks about our bodies. As a designer, one of the things you learn is that everyone has issues with their bodies, even people who seem the most perfect. When Vogue called and suggested that we see a trainer and go on a diet, Laura and I thought only about internal changes, not external ones." Clearly they weren't shamed by the invitation to lose weight (or they would've said no, right?) and if they saw it as an opportunity to get what so many of us need but don't know how to ask for--HELP!--then wasn't this a win-win?
Kate and Laura, like me, are in their 20s. Like me, they work in an industry where homogeny is the name of the game--and the scoreboard doesn't usually go past a size 8. Like me, they don't work a 9 to 5--and as Laura says in the piece, "Balance is not easy when you live for work." Writing this at my desk at 10:30pm on a Thursday night, tempted to give in to the Girl Scout cookie warehouse explosion in our offices, I WISH a healthy dinner from a meal-delivery service would just appear so I wouldn't have to think about it--and so right now, I'm less offended by the idea that someone would call up a pair of brilliant designers and offer a no-brainer plan for trading in their candy cravings for cauliflower.
By the end of the piece, the sisters talk about feeling more energized and happy--and, what seems like an afterthought for them--losing over 50 pounds combined. Kate writes: "The coolest part about this process is that you can change your physical self without changing your internal self. I'm still the person I was when started; my self-esteem doesn't rise or fall with my weight."
Sweet perspective, don't you think?
