Clothing designer Tommy Hilfiger sat down recently to speak with Yahoo! about the people who have had a significant impact on the Tommy Hilfiger brand. Names came up like Snoop Dogg, Ivanka Trump, and Beyonce. Hilfiger spent a bit of time acknowledging all the positive work that model Gigi Hadid has done for the Tommy Hilfiger brand. The pair has collaborated on a clothing line, TommyxGigi, that was released earlier this year. However, just about a year ago at Hilfiger’s 2015 New York Fashion Week show, Gigi was seen walking down the runway in an oversized poncho. This choice was made by the casting director of the show, according to Hilfiger. The casting director had deemed Gigi Hadid to be too different from the other models. She was not “quite as tall” or “quite as thin” as the rest of the women in the lineup.
Gigi Hadid. You know, the girl that has walked on the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show runway and has been on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
While Hilfiger did clarify that the poncho was not his decision and that “Gigi is the epitome of perfection,” the fact of the matter is that there was a judgment made about a person’s body that suggested that their body was not “good enough” to be shown off.
Unfortunately, this is not the first time the model has faced criticism over her weight. Gigi, a size 4, hit back at Instagram haters back in September of 2015 during Paris Fashion Week. She wrote, “No, I don’t have the same body type as the other models in shows… I represent a body image that wasn’t accepted in high-fashion before…Yes I have boobs, I have abs, I have a butt, I have thighs…Your mean comments don’t want to make me change my body…” and she shouldn’t ever feel like she has to change her body. No one should.
For many women, it seems like Gigi Hadid has a body so perfect that it’s unattainable. So it’s crazy to think that to Gigi, other bodies are unattainable. So if we can’t achieve the “perfect” body and Gigi believes that she can’t either, then what the hell is it that we are trying to attain? What is the “perfect” body?
How about instead, we acknowledge that Gigi does have a perfect body. Because she does. We all do. Our bodies are the vessels we use to communicate with the world around us. They let us know that we are alive and well. Therefore, they are perfect bodies. The idea that the fashion industry can’t seem to shake is that there needs to be a standard body type: extremely tall, extremely thin, white, abled, and cisgendered. This is quite dangerous and maybe it won’t be changing for a long time, but we have the power to change our own minds. Instead of comparing our bodies to those of models or looking at them with envy, we can love our own bodies. Look at their bodies and think, “good for you.” Now look at your own body and think, “good for me too.”