I think it was around Spring 1995 when I started to think a bit about all these things seriously. I was “between girlfriends” and thinking why the women I knew — colleagues, friends, even family — simply lost that magic. Sure, many of them “dressed up” for things like marriages or perhaps put some lipstick on for a Christmas dinner. They would also often get a very sexy bikini for summer, and wear some scanty clothing. And, well, that would be it.
But I wanted to look at a feminine figure that took care of herself — one that would not stop at every detail to look awesomely great, and stimulate the visual (and tactile) nervous systems 🙂 Sadly, mere pictures weren’t enough; as many of you might also know, pictures in magazines are often retouched, and obviously people on the movies never look like that outside the studios. In a sense, I felt cheated — why would women just dress up for “special occasions” (and, as said, more often than not, they are so untalented that they either need professional advice, or they don’t even dare to do anything about their own appearance, afraid to show their lack of skill…), but live the rest of their lives “casually”?
This is the sort of thing that always makes me think a lot. Here they are, more than half of the population of the Earth, with their unlimited choices in terms of what they can wear, the textures and colours and designs that they are able to use, the way they can use their faces as a canvas for their creative skills in painting… their whole bodies are works of art, in rough, but just needing the artist to bring out the best of what they have. As a woman, you really don’t need to have a gorgeous body to dress impressively — what Nature hasn’t given you, creativity and all sort of techniques can enhance what you’ve got, and still display a fascinating final result.
Guys, in contrast, only have to pick a tie to go with their dark suits. That’s the amount of creativity that they have left. What difference from the 14th-18th centuries, where males were expected to be creative with their clothes as well!
And what do the women in my generation do with their freedom of creative expression?
They pick up a pair of jeans and put a T-shirt over it. Sometimes not even of the right size to enhance their natural beauty; “sloppy is modern”, seems to be the fashion cry. Well, as said, the younger generation disagrees (at last!) and starts to look critically at their own self-image.
At that time, I was a bit frustrated, and I thought to myself if there was a way out of this dilemma. And there certainly was: I could use my own body. After all, as said, it doesn’t take a gorgeous body to dress up; only a very few are lucky enough to have those perfect bodies anyway, and for ages, human creativity has supplied women with all sorts of tricks to enhance their figure. You have padding and corsets; high heels to correct the posture and give the illusion of longer legs; stockings to hide imperfections on the skin; dresses cut to enhance certain curves visually, and hide others; ways to play around with your hair — give it more volume, correct a too-long or too-short face — and, of course, the ultimate toolkit to change your face completely.
This idea had suddenly a lot of appeal to me. How close would I come to my proposed goal? How good are all these tools and tricks really?
Look around yourself. Watch and observe the women you see. They come in all shapes. Just like men, they aren’t perfect. But like the proverbial butterfly that emerges beautifully out of a cocoon, nobody remembers how it looked before the transformation.
So I decided to experiment.
