They've always been thin, but some of the models on the catwalk these days are not just skinny, they're downright skeletal.
“I see bones. I don't like the idea of a knee being the largest part of the body. I don't wanna see and count people's rib bones.
When Brazilian model Anna Carolina Reston died last year of complications related to anorexia, she weighed just 88 pounds. It was front page news, and the fashion industry responded, introducing health requirements for models in parts of Europe. New York responded, too. No models under 16 on the runway. Models with eating disorders are ordered to get help. And designers are encouraged to feed the models backstage. The problem is these are guidelines. And designers are free to do as they please. At least one designer has resorted to weighing models.
“What we're looking for here?”
Betsey Johnson says, that's not her style.
“There is a healthier approach, and I think that's good. But treating the girls like jockeys or sports figures, making them weigh in, oh, I think that's horrible.”
Many in the industry believe the real issue isn't weight, but age. With models as young as 13 on the runway, editors say, of course they're thin. They're not fully grown. Actress Raquel Welch, who at 66 is MAC Cosmetics new Beauty Icon, says she doesn't fault the models. She blames designers for not making clothes big enough for the average woman.
“Nothing fits. You can't get the zippers up. And you say, well, are they just, they just don't want me?”
And the models themselves, they say “we should focus less on super skinny and more on obesity”.
“The world in general has the opposite problem, I think.”
“Models are never going to be average. They're models. And so, that alone, they're gonna be thinner and taller and younger than the average American woman, but I still think that they should be representatives of health.
Alina Cho, CNN, New York.