Archive for the 'fashion' Category

Another model falls victim to anorexia

Published by
Anna
at November 21, 2006 in eating disorders and fashion. 0 Comments

In August Uruguayan model Luisel Ramos died of heart failure due to anorexia at a fashion show. Another model has now been claimed victim by the disease. Brazilian model Ana Carolina Reston died from kidney failure last Tuesday.

So when is the fashion industry going to wake up? Why the hell isn’t there a models’ union campaigning for workplace safety?  Reston weighed 40kg. This starved coat-hanger state is rigorously enforced upon the bodies of women who want to model. It is violence and it is exploitation.

Ultra-skinny models banned from the catwalk in Madrid

Published by
Anna
at September 15, 2006 in eating disorders and fashion. 9 Comments

Madrid’s regional council has banned models who did not have a healthy BMI, or Body Mass Index from performing at Madrid Fashion Week.

I really hope this heralds a change in the accepted norms within the fasion industry. It’s time they took responsibility for the effect the bombardment of images of thin models and actresses has on young girls. And if they don’t, perhaps regulation is the answer. Just as they regulated tobacco advertising and are now campaigning to regulate junk food advertising due to the obesity “epidemic”, as they’ve taken to calling it.

I think that the epidemic of young women having extremely unhealthy views and practices regarding their bodies has been long overlooked. The problem is, it’s not just in advertising, it’s everywhere. The promotion of starvation is everywhere. It will take a major revolution to tackle that and the actions of the Madrid regional council are a good place to start.

Some models claimed last year that if they put on weight they would ruin their employment opportunities, hopefully it gets to the point where if they lost too much weight it would also threaten those opportunities.

And not only are they intending to ban any model who has a BMI of less than 18 but will also urge unhealthily thin women to seek medical treatment.

Esther Cañadas, Spain’s best-known model, does not qualify under the new rules as she is said to have a BMI of only 14. Almost a third of the women lined up appear to have been barred. The council promised that a nutritional expert would be on hand to check every model taking part in the shows, and that any woman found to have a BMI of below 16 would receive medical treatment.

Vice-president of the Spanish Association of Fashion Designers, Jesús del Pozo, said that about 40 per cent of last years models would have been exempt from the event had the rules been in place then.

During Australian fashion week this year, as Salon.com reports, designer Leesa Fogharty went against the grain by using healther looking models to show her swimwear. The event drew criticism and gasps and giggles from the crowd who reportedly seemed repulsed by healthy looking women. And what bodies so offended their sensibilities? See over the fold.

Continue reading ‘Ultra-skinny models banned from the catwalk in Madrid’