Lingerie Body: Full is Beautiful

When many actress and women alike are spending their days sculpting their bodies as small as possible in the gym or at yoga, Christina Hendricks, the voluptuous, vulnerable, sometimes viper, always a vixen secretary she plays as Joan Holloway on Mad Men, is okay with her full figure, choosing to avoid all this talk about her body.

In an interview with New York Magazine, Hendricks says that "(She) thinks all the talk about her body is a little embarrassing. It’s not as if she has an extra limb, after all. She just has an especially attractive version of the same thing women have had forever—curves—but she happens to have them in a profession where women haven’t for quite some time.

“It kind of hurt my feelings at first,” she says. 'Anytime someone talks about your figure constantly, you get nervous, you get really self-conscious. I was working my butt off on the show, and then all anyone was talking about was my body!'

You can see why all the focus on how big the chest, how narrow the waist, how round the hips could drive an actor—anyone—insane, but people were only noticing Christina Hendricks’s body because they were finally noticing Christina Hendricks...'It might sound silly,' she says, 'but I didn’t realize I was so different. I was just oblivious. Sometimes I would go on an audition and someone would say something like, Girl, you’re refreshing! That was it.'

And it’s not Hendricks’s fault that she’s come to everyone’s attention as an actress at a time when bodies are very much an issue—if not the issue—as far as fashion is concerned. There are the various attempts by fashion cities like São Paulo and Milan to police model weight; there are press conferences, BMI restrictions, mandatory turkey sandwiches backstage at every show. But lately there have also been baby steps taken toward the (unfortunately) radical idea that looking good need not involve so much rejection of the naturally occurring female shape. Glamour has begun to mix models of various sizes into its regular editorial shoots. A recent issue of V concerned itself with shape, pointing out that clothes—even fashion clothes—can look good on differently sized people...

...As for the body question, she’ll answer it when asked, but mostly it bores her. 'It just leaves a bad taste in my mouth,' she says. 'Back when I was modeling, if someone said "I’m fasting," I would say, "Can’t we talk about something else?"'

To read the complete interview, click on Spring Fashion 2010 - Christina Hendricks on All the Talk About Her Body -- New York Magazine.

Lingerie Images on this page of Christina Hendricks in a corset are courtesy of New York Magazine.

Here is to Christina embracing her own hourglass body and its unique beauty, reminiscent of Botticelli's women and Hollywood's golden era. The important tip here is that no matter what your body shape or type, embrace it. Learn to love your curves or lack thereof, they are what make you unique and stand out from everyone else.