Matters SHARP a n d


• Men’s. Fashion . -11


Can fat be beautiful?


IF we were not so obtested with being thin there wouldn't be tuoh a futs about a booh (trailing the virtues of fat. Prof. Richard Klein Is very much in demand. After 4 0 years


of being told we must be thin to be attractive and taken seri­ ously, here Is a healthily contoured chap who.dared to chal­ lenge the "slim is beautiftil" diktat with a book which eulo­ gises over fat. His one-man campaign to make the world a fat-friendly place has hit Britain, and it's a measure of how non-conformist his' ideas are that a bosk called Eat Fat is causing a frenzy. As the man says, when science makes It possible for us all


to stay thin, thin will be out, fat will be in and the revolu­ tionary will be the person who dares to suggest thin Is love­ ly. Yes, we are brainwashed that easily.' I t takes a secure and robust personality to hold out against


the popular Image of what's attractive. In our culture for the past four decades we've been told to be thin. Fat, particular­ ly in women, equals out of control no-hoper, not worthy of being listened to, never mind being looked at. , We know i f we have any sense that this assessment is


unkind, fascistic and downright wrong. Yet it continues to lead us by the nose in a world where Image is everything. In some Industries it seems to matter a million times more than what you are or what you have to say. In the last decades writers like Susie Orbach — Diana, Princess of Wales's psychotherapist — have worked tireless? ly to counter the slavish dieting culture led by advertising aimed at women. Largely, they preach to the converted. The perception of what is considered sexy and fashionable,


smart and to some extent affluent is getting ever thinner. It wasn't just Wallis Simpson whs thought "You can never be too rich dr too thin.” "In America SO per cent of the population is now obese —


that's 20-30lbs over their ideal weight," says Prof. Klein, a scholar at Cornell University. "That's In spite of. having a £40bri slimming Industry. We know that 95 per cent of those who diet put the weight back in spades, and they continue to hate their bodies. "What I'm saying is that as cultural appreciation of the beauty of a certain amount of fat, not mammoth amounts,


might help ut to restore the balance. “Most people who are 20-30lbs overweight are perfectly


healthy, and i f they became leas obsessed with food but more active and ate a normal varied diet they’d find they lost the weight anyway." In his wide-ranging travels through the history and culture


of the f-word, Klein outlines how history and fashion have shaped our bodies. In medieval'Cothic paintings Images of Adam and Eve showed them thin and shrivelled, their emaci­


ation a direct result of their sin. There are accounts of Roman feasts where diners gorged -


Pink gingham s h in


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S / » / y; • £19.99); *»ue ba8ie


jeans S


PRING is going to be sharp and sporty for the fashion-conscious


male. Sharp looks with sports


influenced casualwear w ill provide men o f all ages with an endless choice o f stylish and contemporary clothing. For days at the office


there are value-for-money shirts and ties, o r you can


choose a crisp cotton check shirt in • green and navy w orn with chinos fo r a smart day-to-night look. Team stripe y


design t-shirts with essential black or blue jeans o r with c omfo rta b le track- suit bottoms fo r a sporty style.


(waist 30-40, le n g th £16.99); «Wte t -s h ir t


themselves then vomited so that they had room for pudding. The nudes of Ruben were gorgeously opulent creatures, often


stuffing their faces oh a chaise longue. The Victorian age brought figure-enhancing bustles and


shoulder pads to fill out the slim and weedy, although the same culture had some women putting worms down their corsets to eat the fat. The 1890s became known as the "Banquet Years", and a


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S/W/l/*1' £3.99); bools l * '« * 11, £14.99).


best-selling bosk was T.C. Duncan's "Howto Become Plump". A regular feature of the Barnum and Bailey circus earlier in ■ the century was a fat baby competition — fat was bonny and


contented. During the war and post-war years of rationing, exeess flesh was a sign of wealth. Prof. Klein believes that the more we flash up the image of the super-thin model In the super-mod­ ish clothing and souped-up ear the more we are eretieising food. We want it but we feel we shouldn't have it. For some people


it replaces religion In creating guilt, a handy atlek to beat themselves with.


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