Gisele Speaks!

Uber-model(and one of my favorite models) Gisele Bundchen spoke out on the issue of anorexia last Friday, stating that weak families are to blame for anorexia, not the fashion industry. Yep, you heard me right, she points out that it's the weak families that should be held responsible for eating disorders as opposed to the oft criticized fashion industry that notoriously promotes waifish silhouettes. In last Friday's edition of Brazil's O Globo newspaper, she states, "I never suffered from this problem (anorexia) because I had a very strong family base. Parents are responsible, not the fashion industry." Up for until now, all I've heard was that it was time that the fashion industry took some responsibility in this arena. It's good that finally someone within the industry itself spoke out on this, usually to refute the critics who blame the fashion industry unfortunately, but this time it's someone who points out that while thin is the norm in the industry, however, that doesn't mean that the industry should take all of the blame. Something tells me that Gisele does know something about eating disorders, but she also points out that she never had that problem due to her very strong family base, imo.

Gisele states that there are people who were naturally born with the right genes, but she also states that she was teased for being skinny by other kids when she was a child. Once she started to work in the fashion industry, she says that she finally felt accepted, but she also never felt lonely because she always relied on her family.

She DOES raise a good point that the blame should NOT fall entirely on the industry itself, but that both parents and models individually should also be responsible. Now, I'm really starting to advocate that the industry should educate not only models, but designers as well about this issue. Yet there should also be some requirements much like the ones adopted by Brazil, England(London), Spain(Madrid), and Milan here in NYC.

Yet the one thing that pisses me off to no end that there are so many people in the industry who completely deny that anorexia is a problem amongst the models, let alone the fact that it even exists within the industry. One such person(and one of my favorites as well as a favorite designer), Karl Lagerfeld, denies that anorexia is even a problem within the industry's models, stating that "We don't see anorexic(girls). The girls are skinny. They have skinny bones." Okay, Karl, I love ya to death, but I disagree with you on that. First off, there's no such thing as skinny bones...that's like me stating that I'm not overweight; I have big bones(which has been disproven since there's also no such thing as being big boned). Yea, I don't deny that there are some models who are naturally skinny, but if I were you, I'd keep an eye out for those models who have unusually protuding ribs and hipbones, chances are that they may be anorexic.

What do you all think?



Source: Us Magazine, http://usmagazine.cm/gisele_bundchen_0

Hear ye, hear ye...

The US Fashion Council has issued a 'health initiative' for models last week, I know this is a repeat of an earlier post on this issue, but I decided to repost with the actual guidelines that were issued. Now for one thing I was hoping the guidelines would be of the same caliber as the guidelines that were put into action in Madrid or Milan, boy was I wrong there. While I applaud the fact that they also propose more education and awareness about eating disorders in the industry, however, I don't like the fact that they're still allowing models under 18 to still walk the runway. What's worse is that these guidelines are recommendations rather than them being requirements. Well, okay, so they're recommendations....at least we're getting somewhere(I hope). However, they should put out requirements and set them in stone. One such requirement should be that models under the age of 18 are forbidden to walk the runway because they're underdeveloped. Another good one would be have models who aren't total beanpoles walk the runway. What's wrong with allowing a model who actually has some meat on her bones as opposed to a majority of the models currently walking the runway a chance to display an outfit or dress from a designer's collection? Nothing at all, at least there's a person there who isn't skinny for a change. Another good one is the requirement to meet a certain BMI number in order to participate and for a physical to determine if the model is in good health(ie, not anorexic) to be able to participate. So much for progress, which in this case has proven to be a dreaded four letter word(yes, I know that progress is actually an 8 letter word, but to these guys it's pretty much a curse word)for these people. If they want to make progress, one best bet would be to keep Vogue editor Anna Wintour out of this. While she's not to blame for the eating disorders in the industry, however, she shouldn't even have a say in this since she pretty much has a problem with these initiatives to begin with. Another reason why is that the bitch needs to fucking eat for a change since she looks like the poster woman for eating disorders in women who are in their 50s(although she appears to be a full decade older, imo). Another thing though, is any modeling agent who thinks a naturally thin model is still 'fat' or that a model who may not be tall and thin, but they're slim with curves is still 'fat' should be fired because if that's what's driving these models to look like living skeletons, then maybe it's about time the modeling agencies(and the agents) get re-educated on this issue too/

In fairness though, they really aren't solely responsible for the rise in eating disorders, but at least they're recognizing that there are models out there who do have an eating disorder.



When NY Fashion Week kicks off on February 2, a panel on health and beauty with regards to the new recommendations will be hosted. Don't quite know why they're doing that, but maybe it's another one of those meetings where the panelists and designers and any other attendees can voice an opiinion on whether or not these recommendations should be requirements. Let's hope.




Source: Fashion Wire Daily. visit their site @ http://www.fashionwiredaily.com/