Because we get so many questions about our “models,” I thought I’d share some of our guidelines:
Rule #1: If you’ve always wanted to be a model, you can’t model for us. We only use gals with real bodies — no additives or preservatives.
Our “models” have real jobs or consuming passions. Since we spend a LOT of time with our “models,” they’ve gotta be interesting and interested, someone with whom we’d want to spend a lot of time.
And always, unselfconsciously confident.
In the end, our “models” are regular women, leading regular lives, lives not so very different from our own.
Missy Park, Founder
I’ve been meaning to write and this letter has opened the opportunity. I am 60 (on April 23) and I love your clothes. I am a very active senior (ouch!) who runs, walks, gardens, does yoga, goes to Curves, plays with grandchildren, etc. My problem is that, even though I am in shape, my body does not like the low cut and slim fit of many of your clothes. It just isn’t what it used to be no matter how active I am.
Will you ever consider making a line that will accomodate the ageing, active body a bit better so I can continue to wear your wonderful clothes comfortably?
Thanks for listening,
Jane
I just received the Summer 2011 catalog. Your catalogs always inspire me and this issue is no different. I had already made a resolution to get in shape this year, and have lost ten pounds in just over a month. But now, in addition to wearing a two-piece bathing suit at the beach this year, I’ve added to my list of goals to be the oldest Title Nine model. I’ll be 56 in May, have two daughters (a 10-year-old and a 32-year-old), two grandchildren, work part-time, and love to cook, garden, walk, and ride my bike for exercise.
I find it very interesting that the responses to this topic are primarily coming from your older customers. I too would like to see some role models for my age group, maybe even a spotlight on some of the strong women who were in the first generation to benefit from Title IX. It would be even better if you considered adding clothing that was more adapted for the maturing body. I identify with the vigorous young women you use as models, and I admire the clothing in the pictures, but frankly, am finding very little that I would actually wear. Please consider adding some pieces with a little more coverage, a little more give, that acknowledges the “real” bodies of the women who have been your customers the longest.
I just want to add my words of appreciation for your models. I am 64 years old, but even so, I find your models, with their exuberant smiles and their athleticism, to be inspiring! I wanna be more like that! I think they are beautiful, truly. Thanks! Oh, and thanks for humor in the bra catalog – I loved it.
I was frustrated by your statement “if you’ve always wanted to be a model, you can’t model for us.” Just because someone dreams of becoming a model doesn’t mean she is willing to do anything extreme to her body. What about the beautiful, healthy women who dream of modeling for a clothing company such as Title Nine, a company that appreciates a woman’s commitment to living happily and showing off the “regular” woman?
I have to agree with the comments Emily made. I was honestly offended by the comment, “if you’ve always wanted to be a model, you can’t model for us.” I am a 41 year old woman, lifelong athlete, current triathlete, who is persuing her life long dream of becoming a model. At the same time I am a single mother and work full time to raise money for Children’s Miracle Network. I do not starve myself and I have a “real” body. Missy, it’s too bad that you felt it necessary to continue the sterotype of models being fake and “un-real”. I am not fake. I am passionate, have a “real job” and confident in who I am. It seems that being a model excludes me, and thousands of women just like me, from your club. I thought Title Nine was all about inclusion. May I be so bold as to suggest that you open the door a bit wider.
Hi,
I live the Santa Cruz, CA area and wonder if you ever look for women in this area to be a model? I do cross fit and I am a runner and love your magazine. I love that you show strong athletic women in your catalog, it inspires me to be better at what I do. So let me know if you are looking for any rockin women in Northern Cali cause I would love to be a part of your amazing message.
Megan Miller
I am 58 years young and like others around my age and older, live a very active life. I have been taking Classical Ballet with light work on pointe for 12 years. Yes, I wear the pink leggings that show the muscles. I also do Life Drawing modeling. I take care of horses and Longhorns. I walk alot on the ranchette I live on. I love the outside.
I agree that you have beautiful models, but in real life beauty goes beyond the age you limit yourself to.
By the way my body is natural with life characteristics.
What about using older models? So many women who are 40, 50, 60 (like me), 70 and even older are hugely active, adventurous, smart, interesting, fit, etc., etc. And our happy little non-secret is that many of us, as we get older, become even more “unselfconsciously confident.” Talk about role models!
I just opened your catalog and love your models.. they are the kind of women i admire, and the kind
that i strive to be. I am 55, so perhaps a little older than those you have in your magazine, but
still love the clothes you sell and the way you have them pictured. I raise and sell Appaloosa horses in Kentucky and in my 20’s ran marathons. I am a mother of six children all between l8 and 25 years old now. As a young mother, I ran 5 k’s holding my kids hands, until i traded in my running shoes for riding boots and have been riding and raising foals the last l5 years.
Anyhow.. i love your catalog.. and your models. Lisa estridge
palisades appaloosas, Kentucky
Hi!
I am distressed by your very smug, shortsighted excuse for using “real” people in your catalogue. “Models” with “no additives or preservatives”. How very, very insensitive and self-centered of you. Are you not aware that many times “additives” are a part of being a breast cancer survivor? Or an adaptive athlete? Remember the para- Olympics in Vancouver last year? And who more deserving of being one of your models than those who are still active and capable of participating in the sports for which you make clothing than those who persist in spite of barriers, limitations and health setbacks with the help of their manmade parts. Not all “athletes” are 28 years old and healthy. You need to broaden your horizons and include some “realer” people. Oh, and by the way, Gisele Bundchen, supermodel, is an avid surfer, most often from her home in Mal Pais, but I guess you would not consider her to be a “real” person? Rethink it, chick.
Sincerely,
Libby Bell
Breast cancer survivor, (complete with silicon additives), surf camp owner, heliskier
Yup, Libby, I blew it, completely. And believe it or not, I even thought about it before I wrote it. “Oh,” I assumed, “folks will know that I mean all the face-lift, tummy-tuck, collagen-injection enhancements. They’ll know I am talking about the crazy, crazy, crazy pursuit of a “beauty” standard that no one can hit.” As your post proves, I could not have been more wrong. Assumptions: so easy to make and yet, sometimes, so dangerous.
You may not know it, but from the very beginning we’ve featured both adaptive athletes and breast cancer survivors in the pages of our catalog and in the stories we tell at Timeout. When I was talking real, I was talking about those very women. So while there are many things this chick needs to re-think, this is one I hope you’ll just let me re-state.
Thanks for writing.
–Missy