Body Beat | Is Rita Ora Shaped 'Right' For DSquared2? | Christie Brinkley At 60 | Spring 2015 Hair Trends

Rita Ora Spills Out of Control In DSquared2

Rita Ora looks anything but confident, as she makes her way towards the red carpet for the launch of The Voice UK. Ora is the newest judge, replacing Australian singer Kylie Minogue. Rita chose to wear a jaw-dropping, cobalt blue dress from DSquared2’s Pre-Fall 2015 collection.

It’s not often that real people of every size have the opportunity to compare a dress on the fashion industry’s preferred model body type of super slender with minimal breasts and hips, and then worn by a woman like Rita Ora, who — for better or worse — has both.

Anne of Carversville has written about this topic of on and off the runway since 2007, primarily as a reflection on fashion’s misogyny against breasts and hips. Over the last two decades, average model size has shrunk from size 4-6 US to size 0-2. There have always been exceptions, of course. Yet, any 80s supermodel from Cindy Crawford to Naomi Campbell will tell you that their 1990s bodies — achievable by 25% of American women with exercise and diet — are considered gross by today’s standards.

Research confirms that only 8% of American women can today achieve a runway figure. I doubt that the Brits are far behind us in that reality. French women and Italians, too, are more blessed — if the look is your personal preference.

More Reading:

Cindy Crawford: 90s Size 6 Supermodels Would Be Plus Size Today

A Formerly Fat Karl Lagerfeld Again Lashes Out At Curvy Women With The Kaiser’s Cruel Misogyny

Just Say ‘No’ | Programming Your Brain’s RAS System to Hate Size Zero Fashion Ads

Why Fawn Over Imperious Fashion Designers When We Have Choices?

Christie Brinkley: Swimmingly Sexy at 60

Positive aging powerhouse Christie Brinkley soaks up the rays on the Caribbean islands of Turks and Caicos, drifting in a shower of sunlight and unpolluted water.

The vast majority of AOC readers don’t have a Christie Brinkley body at any age, but if seeing is believing in the power of potential, then Christie inspires us to connect with sun, spirit and swimming at every age.

Swimming and water activities are fantastic as low-impact exercise for women of every age.

* Increased endurance? Check.

* Toned muscles? Check.

* Increased oxygen consumption feeding muscles and cells throughout the body? Check.

* Injuries in need of rehab? Check.

Vigorous swimming — versus drifting along in a wonderfully meditative state — burns 500-650 calories per hour. Believe it or not, flopping around in choppy moves can burn more calories than an olympic glide.

Most studies say that swimming burns 10% fewer calories than vigorous running and 3% less than biking — with no negative assaults on joints and muscles.

Cooler Heads @ Allure

Patrick Demarchelier captures models Esther Heesch and Hedvig Palm in ‘Cooler Heads’ for Allure Magazine January 2015. Hair editorials rarely go poetic, but Models.com (or Allure perhaps) sets the mood:

Let it fly as unconfin’d
As its calm ravisher, the wind,
Who hath left his darling th’East,
To wanton o’er that spicy nest …
Do not then wind up that light
In ribands, and o’er cloud in night.

Translated, ‘Lose the uptight, uodo, babe. Windblown, tousled, tumbling, undone: These are the braids, ponytails, and blowouts of 2015,” says hairstylist Odile Gilbert. Welcome to freedom hair, baby! See all the Spring 2015 hair trends.

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