BellaOnline Forums TV and Movies Drama Movies Fashion is the topic of Coco Before Chanel

I think we need another Coco Chanel today to change the current fashion industry.

This week there are two more stories of models suffering to get into size 2 demonstration clothes.

Worse than that, girls and young women think that dressing sexy is the requisite style statement, whereas in reality this whole "hot" look is a new phenomenon.

What do you think? Do we need a Coco to change the face--or body--of the fashion industry?

{Controversial topics are fair game as long as we remember our metaphoric "please" and "thank you" and "if you please."]

I don't understand the dressing sexy phenomenon. I don't want people looking at my bits. I want them to look me in the eyes and reckon with my brain.

Too many girls don't have enough self worth to feel like their brain is worth as much as their body.

And sadly Hollywood and fashion does keep the stereotype up of you must be beautiful 1st and foremost - and THEN if you are smart it is a bonus. Look at what they did to that poor model's body in the Ralph Lauren ad - and she was gorgeous before they retouched her. Afterwards she looked sick!

I would love to see the classic designers come and bring back the elegance.

Jordan and I watched a special on Audrey Hepburn the other night - talk about your beauty. There was an elegance there - and she didn't show off everything she had.

Hmmm, weren't some of Hollywood's greatest and most dynamic actresses not beauty queens. You don't think of supermodel looks when you see Katherine Hepburn or Bette Davis. You see great acting. Most of the great actresses were not and would not be considered super models, but they sure made us watch the movies. I can't think of one good or great actress that was a supermodel or had supermodel looks. Many were pretty or attractive, like Audrey Hepburn, but they weren't supermodels. Besides as pretty as she was Audrey Hepburn could do what supermodels can't do, she could act and do it marvelously. Audrey Hepburn was pretty, but she also had wit, charm, grace and a style unlike anyone else. Audiences fell in love with her in movies like Sabrina, Roman Holiday and My Fair Lady because she was a wonderful actress with a style and grace all her own.

Supermodels don't make good actresses. Smart creative women with unique talents make great actresses. I challenge anyone to name a model that has made more than one good film as an actress. I am sure the list would be very short.

Can't. Brooke Shields came the closest.

Brooke Shields has developed into a decent, possibly even good, actress. She is not by any means a great actress.

This controversy has been raging for a long time, being mentioned even in Tolstoy's literature. The name of the short story (I believe it was) escapes me now, but Tolstoy makes a point that young women dressed like "ladies of the night" to snag a man. And is this not true of clothing styles today?

I think in some regards, culture pulled out of that for a time here and there and in bits and pieces (not when Josephine was ruling fashion from France, however--those dangerous little white dresses of hers were killing women from pneumonia in the northern climes, especially Russia and England and such).

But without question, fashion designers have dragged womanhood back down the back alleys with attention-getting, confining shoes, skirts, jackets, shirts, undergarments, everything. And the hypnotic effect of commercials and authoritative opinion does its job and women follow along in hoards.

Compare men's clothes to women's and it is no marvel that it has taken--is taking--women so long to get from metaphoric point A to point B socially, culturally, politically and economically.