The skinny on models

Cosmo

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Jul 10, 2004
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I thought I heard wrong when I caught something on TV about Madrid banning models who are too skinny. Sure enough, it's true. I'm utterly amazed at the bold stand that country is taking!! Hats off to them! Imagine the impact this could have on young people! It's certainly a step in the right direction for the fashion industry.

It seems there has been a shift recently away from that "heroin chic" thin look. Dove did the ad campaign with real women in it and I was impressed by their willingness to step outside traditional definitions of beauty.

Madrid fashion show snubs skinny models

September 10, 2006
BY DANIEL WOOLLS

MADRID, Spain -- Spain's top fashion show has turned away a slew of models on grounds they are too skinny -- an unprecedented swipe at body images blamed for encouraging eating disorders among young people.

Organizers of the pageant, known as the Pasarela Cibeles, used a mathematical formula to calculate the models' body mass index -- a measure of their weight in relation to their height -- and 30 percent of the women flunked, said the Association of Fashion Designers of Spain.

The association said Friday it wanted models at the show running Sept. 18 to 22 to project ''an image of beauty and health'' and shun a gaunt, emaciated look.

The decision was made as part of a voluntary agreement with the Madrid regional government, said Jesus del Pozo, a designer who is part of the association.

Last year's show, also called Madrid Fashion Week, drew protests from medical associations and women's groups because some of the models were bone-thin.

Promoting healthy images for young girls

This time, the Madrid regional government decided to intervene and pressure organizers to hire women who could be positive role models for girls obsessed with being thin and prone to starving themselves, said Concha Guerra, deputy finance minister of the regional administration.

Fashion shows, Guerra said, ''are mirrors for many young women.''

Del Pozo said this was the first time skinny models have been snubbed at a major international fashion show.

Ryan Brown, director of marketing and public relations in North America for the Elite modeling agency in New York City, agreed. ''It is very unprecedented,'' said Brown, who has nothing to do with the Spanish show.

He welcomed the decision, saying, ''I think it is great to promote health.''

Madrid's show, which features mainly Spanish designers, is not as prestigious as catwalks in Paris or Milan, but ''it is not at the bottom of the pile,'' he said.



http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5341202.stm
Madrid bans waifs from catwalks

Madrid fashion week, one of Spain's most prestigious shows, is banning underweight models on the basis of their body mass index (BMI).

UN health experts recommend a BMI of between 18.5 and about 25, and some models may fall well below the minimum.

The Spanish Association of Fashion Designers has decided to ban models who have a BMI of less than 18.

Unhealthily skinny models at last year's fashion shows led to protests from doctors and women's rights groups.

The association agreed to use the BMI - a calculation based on height and weight - in response to local government pressure.

It suggests that 30% of would-be participants fail this test and this year's fashion week, which begins on 18 September, will offer medical treatment to excessively thin models.

Outrage

"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," Leonor Perez Pita, director of the Madrid fashion show, was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.

Madrid's local government says it wants to set a more positive, healthy image of beauty for teenagers to follow.

"Fashion is a mirror and many teenagers imitate what they see on the catwalk," said regional official Concha Guerra.

Spain's Anorexia and Bulimia Association says if designers refuse to follow these voluntary restrictions the government should legislate to ban thin models.

However, some sections of the fashion world have expressed outrage at the idea of weight restrictions.

Cathy Gould, of New York's Elite modelling agency, said the fashion industry was being used as a scapegoat for weight-related illnesses.

"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?" she asked, adding that the careers of naturally "gazelle-like" models could be damaged.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060908/od_afp/afplifestylefashion_060908143012


Madrid bans too-thin models from catwalk

MADRID (AFP) - Excessively skinny fashion models will be barred from a major Madrid fashion show later this month for fear they could send the wrong message to young Spanish girls, local media reported.

Madrid's regional government, which is co-financing the Pasarela Cibeles, has vetoed around a third of the models who took part in last year's show because they weigh too little.

The authorities collaborated with a Spanish health organisation to come up with a minumum body mass -- a height-weight ratio -- of 18 for the models.

Spanish daily ABC said it was the first time such restrictions had been imposed on a fashion show, although a recent wedding dress exhibition in Barcelona banned fashion models who took a dress size below 38 (British size 10, US size eight).

Several models at last year's show provoked a row when they claimed their careers would be under threat if they put on weight.

Organisers said they wanted to "help ensure public opinion does not associate fashion, and fashion shows in particular, with an increase in anorexia, a disease which, along with bulimia, is considered ... as a mental and behavioural problem".

The event will take place on September 18-22.
 

Curiosity

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Cosmo

The "Auschwitz Look"..... is really demeaning to women and as the fashion industry dictates to the rest of us with influence regarding our very health - I hope someone can turn the tables and make curves and softness seem more sexy than the poverty profile.

How sexy can it be when someone is vomiting to stay employable?
 

Colpy

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Yeah.

I love that long, very lean look, and I think banning models for being skinny is simply silly, bureacracy run amok. I happen to think Kate Moss is stunning.

At the same time, I was watching an episode of Fashion Uncensored (I was watching for the clothes, you know, what little there was of them) and one show had two models that literally looked on death's door. You could count their ribs, every one of them, at a distance on camera.

I was shocked.

How could anyone find that attractive?
 

Colpy

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Wednesday's Child said:
LOL Colpy

Your noseprint along with your fingerprint on the television screen ? :p

Hey, as long as there is only three prints, you know Nose, right hand, left hand..............not four..........one can claim they are just interested in a close look at the fall fashions.
 

hermanntrude

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Jun 23, 2006
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maybe the designers just choose thin women because that's the closest thing to a walking clothes hanger? after all that's how their clothes will be sold in the stores
 

tracy

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Re: RE: The skinny on models

hermanntrude said:
maybe the designers just choose thin women because that's the closest thing to a walking clothes hanger? after all that's how their clothes will be sold in the stores
\

I've actually heard designers say that.

I don't think there is anything necessarily wrong with using skinny models, but there is something wrong with using those who would qualify as malnourished based on their BMI and holding them up as the ideal, the only kind of woman that's attractive. Those are the messages we're sending to little girls.

I am convinced men will like whatever type of women they are told to like. My dad was raised with women like Sophia Loren and Marylin Monroe, that's what he thinks is ideal. My brother was raised with Cindy Crawford and Christie Turlington, that's what he thinks is ideal. The only difference between my dad and my brother was the advertising they grew up with.
 

Curiosity

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Colpy said:
Wednesday's Child said:
LOL Colpy

Your noseprint along with your fingerprint on the television screen ? :p

Hey, as long as there is only three prints, you know Nose, right hand, left hand..............not four..........one can claim they are just interested in a close look at the fall fashions.

Thanks Colpy

Later this morning I thought perhaps I had led myself into some trouble on that "print" comment hahaha.....

You didn't mention footprints (oh yes that was in the signature lol)....
 

Curiosity

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Re: RE: The skinny on models

tamarin said:
Maybe Madrid can do something more substantive now, like banning bullfighting for its backward citizens.

Off Topic but tamarin - that was a great comment

Bullfighting - even the other forms of bull "sport" such as riding in rodeos...
has long been an issue for me - total animal abuse as is cockfighting....

I maintain the only "fair" bullfighting would be if the Toreadors, Matadors, Piccadors and Clown would all consent to have their cojones tied up with barbed wire while taking on the bull in the arena....

and...having their shoulders "picked" so the tendons were severed which prevented them from raising their heads.

Sorry about the off topic rant....
 

athabaska

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Dec 26, 2005
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Much ado about very little. I heard a physician comment that he sees over 200 over-indulged porkers in his office every month and rarely 1 patient who is seriously underweight other than because of the effects of a medical condition.

If teenage girls are motivated to get skinny then great. Many of them have rolls of blubber overflowing their pants. Piggies with fries in one hand and a barrel of soda pop in the other. The Big Bertha Butts of this world are epidemic.
 

tamarin

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It's a rant that belongs. My point in the original post is that what Madrid does on anything has to be viewed with a healthy skepticism. Countries that abuse animals like Spain does can't be given brownie points in other areas because they're somehow doing the 'right thing.' Larger issues are involved.
 

Colpy

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I just watched a piece on CTV NewsNet discussing the model issue. They cornered the models at a swimsuit show, and tested their BMI.

Models with a BMI of less than 18 are not permitted in Spain. For a height of 5'9" that is a weight of 123 pounds.

I don't know how many models were there. I do know ONLY one passed. ONLY ONE.

These girls were gorgeous............skinny, yes, but not emaciated.

Perhaps Spain is just another example of power mad bureacrats ruling on things they don't understand......

BTW, my wife was 5'4" and 98 pounds when I met her, she was NEVER a tiny eater, and at the time nobody had heard of "eating disorders". She was 16, and beautiful. I wonder what her BMI was?

Now she is 51, 130 lbs, and she still looks pretty good to me.
 

Colpy

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hermanntrude said:

Thanks.

At 16 years of age, my wife's BMI would have been 17..............

When she was 21, her BMI MIGHT have tripped the 18 mark, but I doubt it.

She never missed a meal in her life, and certainly never puked when she didn't have to.


My guess is the BMI is BS. Just something again that pits the wonderful diversity among humans against some arbitrary "AVERAGE".

My BMI is 32. :D
 

tracy

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Even fans of the BMI admit its flaws. Smaller boned women (usually shorter women like Colpy's wife) often have low BMIs without being unhealthy. A body builder could have a high BMI even though he isn't obese simply because muscle weighs more than fat. It also ignores fat distribution. People who carry fat around the belly are a lot less healthy than people who carry fat in their hips.
 

Zzarchov

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I think it should be banned for a simple reason, the fashion industry had its chance at self regulation and whiped its ass with the idea.

They are in the business of forcing their employees (models) to engage in dangerously unhealthy behaviour or be fired.

This really would be no different than a factory forcing its employees to handle hazardous waste with their bare hands or be fired.

I think more countries should follow this example.

Edit: As for BMI, I agree its arbitrary, body fat percentage would be better..but again, the fashion industry had plenty of time to self-regulate and be reasonable but they didn't.
 

Sassylassie

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Did it occur to the Fashion Industry that maybe we the viewing public don't find extreme thin attractive? The actresses on TV are bags of bones, none of them even have a bum. 5/9 and 98 pounds, that is not a positive image for young women. Using BMI isn't very accurate, I'm in the near death zone. Hubbies on the obese zone, and he doesn't have an ounce of fat. BMI judging is to narrow in its interpretations.
 

tamarin

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The fashion industry is kept afloat by an army of preteens, teens and befuddled young adults who somehow think this is an important part of the world. The models should be pinkslipped and told to earn a real living and lead a real life.