undeadmodels.com

A Satirical Send-up of a Fashion Photography Phenomenon

Since I am a self-confessed catalog and internet shopper, I receive a lot of catalogs in the mail. Most of these catalogs I think of as my own sort of pornography - things I can look at, but not touch. And once I have perused them, they head straight to the recycle bin.

I mostly get women’s clothing and fashion catalogs, and have noticed a disturbing trend. After consulting a small focus group, my husband, Nick, and my best friend, Angela, we all came to the startling conclusion that the models used to sell such beautiful clothes were dead. Beyond heroin-chic, the models are either in the act of being killed, or so disinterested as to have become deceased.

At first we were afraid that the models died as a result of extreme anorexia. However, on closer inspection, we suspect fowl play is afoot. The photographers must be killing the models in order to get the shot!

Inspired by our initial results, our small crew of devotees, have tirelessly been on the lookout for zombie models. We scour catalogs and the internet for fashion photography that could be construed as zombie-ish. And thus undeadmodels.com was born. Within months, we hope undeadmodels.com will be a fully functioning web site that reflects our new found mission.

On a serious note...

Zombie models are not sexy. In some of the world's most influential fashion pages, readers can find anemic, dead-looking models. Some common offenders:

• Victoria's Secret
• BCBG Max Azria
• GQ

To take on the entire fashion world and the absurdity of female imagery therein, is outside our current scope. But understand, undeadmodels.com is a very real project, tackling a very small issue of body consciousness within our culture. We hope to change the narrative about some of the images we are inundated with. We would like to expose them as the unhealthy and ridiculously sexualized dead-girl images that they are. We are serious when we encourage you to check back to the site to see our progress, or perhaps send us zombie images that you have run across in your own life.