Kim
Gee-yang is taking on the beauty industry in a country leading the world in
cosmetic surgery. "When I was in LA, I was too skinny to do plus size
modeling, but in Korea, I am just a fat woman, yeah," she said.
SEOUL —
Kim Gee-yang struts down the runway dressed in a black corset and leather
skirt.
She
doesn't fit traditional catwalk standards: At 1.66 meter (5ft5) tall and about
70 kilograms (154 lbs), she is average height and, well, curvy compared to many
other South Korean women in their 20s.
Gee-yang
got her break in modeling after sending her photos to the 2010 Los Angeles Full
Figure Fashion Week. "When I was in LA, I was too skinny to do plus-size
modeling, but in Korea, I am just a fat woman, yeah," she told me.
And in
image-conscious, plastic surgery crazy Korea, there’s also a lot of pressure
for women to be skinny. Gee-yang says Korean women like her have a hard time
finding clothes that fit them.
Anything
above an American size 6 or European size 40 is considered plus-size here.
"I’m
kind of an alien in Korea. People who are plus size in Korea, they are not
interested in a social life, they don’t go shopping," says Gee-yang.
"They don’t want people staring at them."
And
everyone constantly reminds them how big they are, she says. “My mother always
told me, 'you are so fat and you have to lose weight,' and when I met my
friends they said, 'you are fat' or 'lose weight.'”
Gee-yang
says at first her parents didn’t want her to go into modeling, but now they’re
proud of what she’s accomplished.
Gee-yang
has done runway shows in Miami and the Caribbean in addition to LA. She’s also
been a finalist in photo contests for Benetton and American Apparel. But she
has yet to find work in fashion magazines or on the runways in her home
country.
In the
end, Gee-yang started her own magazine featuring plus size models. It’s called
66/100, the maximum sizes respectively for women and men’s clothing sold in
Korean retail stores. Gee-yang is an 88.
I went
with her to a printing house as copies of her magazine came off the presses. On
the cover, Gee-yang is clutching a chunk of boiled pig’s feet with her
manicured fingertips. The picture accompanies a feature article titled
"Innocent Pleasure."
Gee-yang
writes that you shouldn’t feel guilty for eating what you like. She also says
you shouldn’t feel ashamed of what you look like – 66/100’s motto is "No
Matter What, You Are Beautiful." And her magazine has inspired other women
here to give modeling a shot.
Twenty-three-year
old Lee Hyun-gyeong poses for 66/100’s online clothing shop; she wears a Korean
size 99. A year ago, she won the magazine’s makeover contest and now she says
modeling changed her life.
"I
was afraid to have my picture taken. Compared to other people I looked bigger,
I always looked sad in pictures, I thought I was ugly," said Lee.
"Now
my friends and family say I seem so much happier and they say they never knew
how pretty I am."
Gee-yang
has many supporters for her magazine, but there are still plenty of haters. And
the harshest remarks appear online. "Those comments, I get really upset
cause they hurt other people who support me, or other people who are plus
size," she says.
But
Gee-yang thinks she’s taken away the power of those online insults by printing
them in the latest issue of her magazine. It’s given her the ability to laugh
at them.
Jason
Strother
No comments:
Post a Comment