April 22, 2005
London: "Getting your teeth fixed is no longer as crucial as it was in, say, Cheryl Tiegs's day in the 1970s, when it was all about the grinning face of Charlie Girl," says Russell Marsh of today's modelling requirements. As the man responsible for casting the models for both Prada and Miu Miu's catwalk shows and ad campaigns, he should know.
"In fact, you simply don't see smiling very much on the catwalks these days."
Whereas, according to the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry, 96% of adults believe that a brilliant smile makes a person more sexually attractive, while 74% of adults feel that an imperfect smile can sabotage career success, the reverse would appear true in fashion.
Indeed, it's safe to say that, come National Smile Week in Britain, beginning on May 15, fashion folk will, no doubt, be mooching about with this season's hottest accessory, a sullen expression, because smiling is this summer's biggest fashion faux pas.
"Even at the recent Paris collections, there was not a smile to be seen," says Richard Gray, press manager of Harvey Nichols. "No smiles allowed. That's the law. Only a dark, Gothic, pouty mood."
Woe betide you if you flout those rules, as Jessica Ogden discovered to her cost after her upbeat autumn/winter 2005 catwalk show. It was savaged by one newspaper - not for the clothes, but for the fact that the models were (shock, horror) smiling.
"What we were trying to do was communicate a feeling, an emotion rather than just a reading of the clothes for next season," explains a bemused Ogden of her intentionally naive, naturalistic presentation style, which, for the first time in the five years that she's been presenting shows, caused offence.
With the catwalk becoming an increasingly clinical environment, such displays of emotion now seem out of place.
"Most people don't work with emotions or attitude. However, we do," confirms the catwalk-show producer Alexandre de Betak of Bureau Betak - the man renowned in fashion circles for his trademark emotive cue- boards that are designed to instruct models on the correct emotion and attitude to display on the catwalk.
Still, of all the autumn/winter runway shows he produced, even De Betak has to admit that Jennifer Lopez's aptly named "Sweetface" catwalk extravaganza was the only one for which he cast girls for their ability to show a sunny, toothy smile.
"We felt that smiling was a representation of the American dream," explains De Betak, who believes that cultural differences lie at the heart of the acceptance and ubiquity of smiling in US fashion editorial, advertising and on the runways.
Nevertheless, of the more than 200 catwalk shows that made up the recent international collections, Jessica Ogden's and J-Lo's shows were the only two to feature smiling models
.
Russell Marsh has a theory for the current dearth of grins. "Smiling is now seen as something that distracts from the clothes," he says.
"The way that shows are presented now revolves around an austerity in which models should be like shop-window mannequins showing no emotion," he says. Indeed, so stylised is the runway format these days that any flicker of humanity on the part of the models risks breaking the fragile spell that holds reality at bay.
"It's as if smiling crosses an invisible line because it signifies a connection with the person that you are looking at," says Marsh. "Fashion doesn't always want to engage because fashion is about creating a fantasy."
"An open-faced smile denotes friendship," agrees Charlotte Cotton, head of cultural programmes at the New York photographic agency, Art and Commerce.
"The difficulty about that is that friendship doesn't really figure as a grand narrative of fashion. Also, smiling just isn't considered sexy enough."
In fact, the only time that smiling wouldn't appear to contravene catwalk protocol is when it's used to signify a model's social standing in the style community.
"Smiling equals accessibility and commerciality whereas not smiling creates an illusion of privilege, mystery and exclusivity. Whether a model smiles or doesn't in a fashion editorial or an ad campaign also points to a hierarchy," Cotton explains.
"For instance, Uma Thurman is known for having a radiant smile but I bet she won't be showing it in Louis Vuitton's autumn/winter 2005 campaign. There's something about smiling that is today associated with cheesy, chav-style, D-list celebrities."
Such suspect classist issues aside, Cotton maintains that the smile's fall from fashion grace ties also into a very specific watershed. "After 9/11, smiling disappeared almost entirely, in that an awareness of the flippancy or irrelevance of consumption meant that there was a much more cautious attitude to light-heartedness," she explains.
Still, there's hope for smiling yet, if the latest Harvey Nichols campaign is anything to go by. Poking fun at the notion that must-have fashion items are worthy of any sacrifice, the advertisement comes in a calendar format that suggests that April, for example, is the month to forgo lavatory paper in order to afford a Luella bag; while for March, the suggestion was to eat baked beans for a month in order to save up for a pair of Christian Louboutin heels.
"We do try to laugh at ourselves and show that we don't take things too seriously," says Richard Gray, of the department store's brave stance.
"And we feel that humour cuts through the often dour, serious, affected nature of fashion." - The Independent
  
 
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