Unsmiling faces on the ramp

See any model sashaying down the ramp, and chances are that he / she would be parading elegant evening wear, swimwear, prêt lines, ready-to-wear collections, you name it - all with poker straight expressions on their faces.

Some of them look straight out of the pages of a magazine which is dedicated to grim, sombre, serious expressions – such are the deadpan looks plastered on their dour faces.

The others look straight ahead, hands in pockets sometimes, the women gracefully keeping their hands on their tiny waists – unseeingly walking towards a wall ahead, tossing their pretty curls disdainfully, towering on their strappy stilettos.

The number one reason why most models pout, sneer, half-smile patronisingly, or look sneeringly at the front-row socialites dripping with diamonds, is that often many designers themselves forbid their models from showing their pearlies on the ramp, lest it distract the audience from the clothes.

True.

With the number of beauties and hunks who parade on the ramp, many of whom look like perfect Grecian specimens of graceful womanhood / manhood, it would indeed be distracting to tear one's look away from the sheer dazzle of their sparkling smiles, and try instead to concentrate on the clothes they are modelling.

There is also the opinion that smiling makes one look younger, and that may look a tad out of place from an elegant collection of formal evening wear.

There is of course the group of funnies who swear that sales would boom if only the models would flash (their teeth, sillies) on the runway, and bet that many women models don't smile because of the sheer pancake plastered on their faces, all in the name of beauty cosmetics.

Smiling, in that case, would cause cracks in the makeup.

There are others who are willing to believe that most models don't
smile on the ramp, because they are:

a) stressed out
b) hungry (not eating for the last two days, all to fit into that
ouch-inducing corset)
c) in pain (blame those footwear and clothes that pinch, all in the
wrong places)
d) scared of developing wrinkles
e) a dentist's delight (what with bad, jutting, maybe uneven teeth) –
a little far-fetched, this one
f) all of the above

Whatever the reasons, the truth is universal – models rarely smile on the ramp.

Even the most theatrical setup for a show will seldom have models who smile dazzlingly.

Instead they prefer to keep stoical, solemn, sneering looks on their expressive, high cheekboned faces, a condescending look plainly evident to all who can see.

Making us go Oooohing and aaahing over their 'attitude,' the clothes they model, and making us wonder about how similar they are to blank canvases displaying an outfit.

What if they traded their expressions, making us think they were animated clothes hangers?

Would that really be such a disaster?