Skinny models wearing thin in fashion shocker
Tue Sep 12, 2006 11:43 AM ET
Quote:
By Andrew Hay MADRID (Reuters) - The world's first ban on overly thin models at a top-level fashion show in Madrid has caused outrage among modeling agencies and raised the prospect of restrictions at other venues.
Madrid's fashion week has turned away underweight models after protests that girls and young women were trying to copy their rail-thin looks and developing eating disorders.
Organizers say they want to project an image of beauty and health, rather than a waif-like, or heroin chic look.
But Cathy Gould, of New York's Elite modeling agency, said the fashion industry was being used as a scapegoat for illnesses like anorexia and bulimia.
"I think its outrageous, I understand they want to set this tone of healthy beautiful women, but what about discrimination against the model and what about the freedom of the designer," said Gould, Elite's North America director, adding that the move could harm careers of naturally "gazelle-like" models.
Madrid's regional government, which sponsors the show and imposed restrictions, said it did not blame designers and models for anorexia. It said the fashion industry had a responsibility to portray healthy body images.
"Fashion is a mirror and many teenagers imitate what they see on the catwalk," said regional official Concha Guerra.
The mayor of Milan, Italy, Letizia Moratti, told an Italian newspaper this week she would seek a similar ban for her city's show unless it could find a solution to "sick" looking models.
QUALITY, NOT SIZE
The Madrid show is using the body mass index or BMI -- based on weight and height -- to measure models. It has turned away 30 percent of women who took part in the previous event. Medics will be on hand at the September 18-22 show to check models.
"The restrictions could be quite a shock to the fashion world at the beginning, but I'm sure it's important as far as health is concerned," said Leonor Perez Pita, director of Madrid's show, also known as the Pasarela Cibeles.
A spokeswoman for the Association of Fashion Designers of Spain, which represents those at Madrid fashion week, said the group supported restrictions and its concern was the quality of collections, not the size of models.
Eating disorder activists said many Spanish model agencies and designers oppose the ban and they had doubts whether the new rules would be followed.
"If they don't go along with it the next step is to seek legislation, just like with tobacco," said Carmen Gonzalez of Spain's Association in Defense of Attention for Anorexia and Bulimia, which has campaigned for restrictions since the 1990s.
this whole industry is built around these tall thin women, and now, all of a sudden the women themselves are going to be out of jobs because of their body type.
i am glad that fashion is moving toward portraying a more realistic women for girls to look up to, but couldn't this be done a little better?
i want to know what the minimum BMI is going to be.
_________________ cirlces they grow and they swallow people whole half their lives they say goodnight to wives they'll never know got a mind full of questions and a teacher in my soul and so it goes
All they have to do is eat a few meals and they have their job back.
for naturally thin people, it is really not that easy. for those models who are bulimic, it will be a relief. for those with anorexia, it will be a complete shock to the body and brain.
_________________ cirlces they grow and they swallow people whole half their lives they say goodnight to wives they'll never know got a mind full of questions and a teacher in my soul and so it goes
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 5:22 am Posts: 1603 Location: Buffalo
kiddo wrote:
vegman wrote:
All they have to do is eat a few meals and they have their job back.
for naturally thin people, it is really not that easy. for those models who are bulimic, it will be a relief. for those with anorexia, it will be a complete shock to the body and brain.
There are so many people world round being screwed these days that I guess it's hard for me to be that upset over modeling jobs. I wasn't trying to downplay the seriousness of eating disorders. I do agree with you that it would be nice to see models with more "normal" or average proportions. Both female and male.
i feel a little indignant on behalf of the models.
first it was: "you have to be 6 feet and 105 lbs or don't even bother looking for a job"
women all around the world have been starving themselves to meet this standard, and now they are getting booted from the stage, from their careers, because they tried to meet these standards?
no, this is not life and death, this is not a global crisis, but really, fucking make up your mind. the standard for runway models was impossible, the women attained the impossible and now they are being discarded.
like i said, i am glad that the standard may change, but it really should change gradually to let the models have time to adjust.
_________________ cirlces they grow and they swallow people whole half their lives they say goodnight to wives they'll never know got a mind full of questions and a teacher in my soul and so it goes
I don't understand who first decided that clothing looks best on 6' tall waifs. Like was there one dominant designer who said, this is how it's gonna be? Because to me, clothing looks perfectly lovely on regular sized ladies. Oftentimes it even looks BETTER because you aren't disgusted by the model's body.
I don't understand who first decided that clothing looks best on 6' tall waifs. Like was there one dominant designer who said, this is how it's gonna be? Because to me, clothing looks perfectly lovely on regular sized ladies. Oftentimes it even looks BETTER because you aren't disgusted by the model's body.
It's one screwed up world they work in.
amazing that you would say her body is screwed up, yet when told if youre not a size one that youre screwed up, people get offended
I don't understand who first decided that clothing looks best on 6' tall waifs. Like was there one dominant designer who said, this is how it's gonna be? Because to me, clothing looks perfectly lovely on regular sized ladies. Oftentimes it even looks BETTER because you aren't disgusted by the model's body.
It's one screwed up world they work in.
amazing that you would say her body is screwed up, yet when told if youre not a size one that youre screwed up, people get offended
I don't think their bodies are screwed up at all, I didn't say that. The fact is, most of these girls are naturally kinda lanky. However, I don't think the majority of them are naturally rail thin.
The expectations and conformity and standards are screwed up. Everyone should look the same.
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