The too skinny model debate continues
jen hunter & Marianne Berglund make me a supermodel
The debate over super thin models started a few years back after models started dropping due to starvation and has continued since with restrictions put in place on what was too skinny to model.
In 2007 the show “Make me a Supermodel” brought the issue into the National TV spotlight even more with this episode…
When 2 finalists, Hunter and Berglund, wore the same swimsuit. Jen Hunter looks as if this outfit was custom-made for her, Jen Hunter looked amazing in the outfit.
But finalist Marianne Berglund appeared painfully underweight in the same suit and grotesque with her hip and rib bones sticking out through the fabric.
During the show Miss Hunter was criticized for being overweight while Berglund was praised for her perfect physique.
from an article by
Judge Tandy Anderson, managing director of Select Model Management, criticised her for having “stocky” legs while supermodel Rachel Hunter, a fellow panellist, reprimanded her for saying she wanted to prove larger women could be successful models.
Swedish blonde Miss Berglund, 18, who made it to the final with her, was meanwhile praised for having a “sensational” body for modelling despite having a body mass index of 16.1.
It fell well below the minimum BMI of 18 for models taking part in Madrid Fashion Week in September, set after catwalk model Luisel Ramos dropped dead from self-starvation.
The skinny-model debate raged on today thanks to Bradley Bayou. The former Halston designer started fighting the good fight after watching his own daughter battle anorexia. He stopped using size-0 and size-2 models, but still witnessed his daughter collapse from the disease. “There are two ways to become a size zero,” Bayou said Tuesday night at Harvard. “Starve yourself or take drugs. Or both. And yes, they all do it.”
The designer said the CFDA is ignoring the problem. CFDA officials, however, feel the guidelines drawn up over a year ago to help designers and casting directors identify eating disorders and ensure runway models are healthy are in fact working:
Responding to Bayou, CFDA executive director Steven Kolb said Wednesday the organization’s education and awareness efforts are causing a culture shift. “There is no question there has been movement,” he said. “I see it already on the runways. I’m getting calls from designers and casting agents who are not using girls who don’t meet our criteria for health….Getting involved in the complexity of a standardized law [regarding a mandatory minimum body mass index] is not the answer.”
Maybe New York should finally start taking cues from our Euro counterparts? Milan Fashion Week prohibits models with a body mass
index below 18.5 from the runways; Madrid rejected 30 percent of models from walking its recent Fashion Week because they were unhealthy; but we have no such regulations, and watching the New York shows this season often felt like an exercise in bone counting.
It’s great people are still talking about this issue, but we’d guess that until a designer like Marc Jacobs decides flesh is in, it’s just all talk.
Posted: May 2nd, 2008 under Model News, Reality TV shows, make me a supermodel.
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