ADELE SHOULD NOT BE TOO BIG FOR VOGUE TO DRESS

Posted by Fashion Editor at Large

Yesterday I Tweeted "Dear Vogue UK, why, when photographing celebrated size 16 Adele in your October 2011 edition, did you only snap her from the neck/chest up?" Cue an avalanche of replies in agreement; "I was thinking the exact same thing" was the majority reaction. While others tweeted about the seeming hypocrisy of Britain's ultimate high fashion glossy using our current greatest British music artist (and export) on its cover, and then not delivering her in full-length fashion shots inside.

Adele's cover (image from gossiponthis.com)

What a missed opportunity, when there are so many Vogue reading women who would love to see how the magazine and its stylists would deal with beautiful Adele's voluptuous figure. Well, truth is, they didn't. And the clothes she is wearing are not available to buy at all, which adds insult to injury if you are a woman who likes fashion and is larger than a size 14.

what, no clothes? (Photo: Solve Sundsbo/Vogue)

Two of the dresses are "to order" from Burberry, which means they were custom made for the shoot. The other dress (barely visible, but described as 'metallic silver dress', £1280) is from Clements Ribeiro, but unhelpfully at the back of the magazine there is no listing for where Clements Ribeiro is sold. We called Clements Ribeiro's PR, who said the label and the dress are available on Net-a-Porter. In fact, they had been misinformed. The dress is not on Net-a-Porter, and when we called them, their press office said "the dress is not on our current list", so that one is not available either. The message here is, "we might be a fashion magazine, but, er, we couldn't find much for Adele to wear, so we got a few bits made, lets hope no-one notices..."

The Clements Riberio dress is here somewhere....

Well, busted! I love the photos of Adele by Solve Sundsbo, the hair by Samantha Hillerby is stunning, the Charlotte Tilbury make-up sublime and those nails! Anatole Rainey, I salute you! Christa D''Souza's interview is, as always, frank and open, but I think Vogue are leaving themselves open to criticism over the way they handled the fashion shoot. I'm no disgruntled size 14, and have been slim my entire life, but I feel short-changed. Hey Vogue, why not demonstrate how to celebrate Adele's shape, and give fashion confidence to legions of shapely women?

Nice lace, same about the dress.... (Photo: Solve Sundsbo/Vogue)

For her part, Adele loves fashion. In the piece she tells Christa; "Before I got into Johnny Cash and discovered June Carter [his wife] and decided to wear nothing but black from there on, I wore loads of colour, and like, miniskirts over jeans. But, like, now I love old school. Chanel, Prada, you know. And Burberry, definitely."  Adele changed her style from colourful to old-school black after being dressed for the Grammys by stylist Barbara Tfank on the suggestion of Anna Wintour.

Chanel's largest size is a French 50, or a UK size 16/18. Prada's largest size is Italian 46, or size 16, and Burberry and Clements Ribeiro goes up to a 16.  So why couldn't Vogue put her in off-the-peg?

Q Magazine managed to show full length photos of Adele.... (from Q: July 2011 issue)

Anyway, for interested parties, I think I have found the "invisible dress" by Clements Ribeiro from the Vogue shoot (photo above), Adele wore it on Tuesday night for the Mercury Music prize, and indeed has been wearing lots of Clements Ribeiro on her recent tour of US and Canada.  Doesn't she look lovely?

Adele wearing Clements Ribeiro on Tuesday to the Mercury Prize

What do you think? Please share your thoughts with me...

(Friday 9th September update: Scroll down to see the comment made by Inacio Ribeiro of Clements Ribeiro, staing where the dress can be bought)