Fall Winter 2010: A very thin model at Hervé Léger.
A few days into New York fashion week, and the models are looking scarily thin. I always felt that this was something we saw more of in New York, and so I really hope there will be some meatier flesh in London, Milan, and Paris. Model’s weight has been a major discussion point recently, and I am pretty torn on the subject. Although I feel that the whole size zero debate is blown out of proportion, and that the media should focus more on obesity, there are clearly some very scarily thin girls on the catwalks.
There’s been some really interesting points made in the press recently, starting with this quote featured in a VERY interesting The Daily Beast article about models and size. A former successful model was quoted as saying:
“Sure, we had to be skinny. I lived on Diet Coke and apples for two years. For the couture, we had to get up at 4 am to be sewn into the clothes and there was huge pressure to be thin. But I made a million dollars by the time I was 20, I bought a town house in Manhattan and put myself through Columbia. Does that make me a victim?”
This was a really interesting quote, putting a totally new perspective on starving models.
According to Fashionologie, Australian model Abbie Lee Kershaw “seems to feel similarly when asked what she thinks about the pressure to be ultra-thin: ‘That’s like asking a bodybuilder how they feel about the pressures to be incredibly muscly. An elite performer is always put under some sort of extreme pressure that the rest of society can argue, might not quite understand.’”
Fall Winter 2010: another very thin model at Victoria Beckham.
So after considering these two interesting quotes, how important do you think the size zero issue is? Are models to blame, or is Hollywood worse? I feel that celebrities have much more of an impact on young people than models do, as they tend to be much more in the public eye. Later on in the Daily Beast article, they explain that according to “Clinical Knowledge Summaries 2009, the statistics department of the British National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence, says that 19 out of one million women are diagnosed as anorexic, as opposed to 240,000 per million for obesity.” That statistic really confirmed my thoughts that under-eating is much smaller a problem than over-eating.
On the other hand, there was a really upsetting article in Page Six Magazine about Gemma Ward, another Australian model, who has recently put on 30 pounds and has been shunned by the industry. Apparently there are many teenage models, who are discarded once they experience the natural weight gain women go through when they grow breasts and hips.
Gemma Ward at the height of her fame.
I really don’t know where I stand on this subject. I do know that when I worked in Paris, samples sizes were in 4 and 6, never size 0. But I also worked with a lot of the Brazilian models, who were very curvy. I always thought a curvy size 4 model looks better than a stick thin size zero. I feel it is sad that some models feel such a pressure to stay thin, but at the same time, I believe it is part of the job. I was watching a program about skiers competing in moguls this weekend, and apparently their quads are four times the size of a normal person, and the damage they do to their knees is irreversible. They are guaranteed serious problems later in life, so how is that any different from starving yourself for a few years to make some money?
A more recent photo of Gemma Ward.
Forbes has a list of the top fifteen highest earning models, and many of them are curvy lingerie models (Gisele Bundchen, Adriana Lima, Alessandra Ambrosio are all Victoria’s Secret models, and they make up the top five with Kate Moss and Heidi Klum.) It goes to show that a hot, healthy body is going to earn you more millions than protruding hip bones.
One thing I would like to see is more models and celebrities endorsing fitness, which is beneficial for both the underweights and the overweights. I’d also like to see less deathly thin models on the catwalk, and more Gisele types. And, how about the media reduces their attacks on famous women for being too thin or too fat. That would be a good start.
Gemma Ward images source. Catwalk images from Style.com.
