Killer Fashion: An Industry in Denial

[marmar]

from In These Times:



Killer Fashion: An Industry in Denial
Eating disorders are rampant, and models are dying.

By Libby Rodenbough


On Nov. 17, 2010, anorexia nervosa claimed the life of 28-year-old French model Isabelle Caro, who had spent the last years of her life publicizing the horrors of the disease. Her mother, devastated by grief and guilt, committed suicide several weeks later. In 2007, Caro had appeared in “No Anorexia,” an ad campaign by provocative fashion photographer Oliviero Toscani, shown above on a billboard in Rome. The images of her naked, grotesquely

emaciated body, shocked and revolted. The campaign, intended to disassociate unhealthy thinness with connotations of glamour, sparked controversy, in part because some pro-anorexia and -bulimia websites used its ads as “thinspiration” (collections of images or videos of slim to skeletal women used by those suffering from eating disorders for weight-loss motivation). Despite her commitment to heightening awareness of anorexia, Caro could not escape its demons.

Caro’s unsettling death recalled a string of fatalities in 2006 and 2007 of fashion models who suffered from eating disorders, which, while highly publicized at the time, had since largely faded from the public’s—and the fashion industry’s—memory.

On Aug. 2, 2006, moments after stepping off a catwalk in Montevideo, Uruguay, 22-year-old fashion model Luisel Ramos collapsed and died from heart failure believed to have been triggered by self-imposed starvation. Ramos’ father reported that she had been subsisting on a diet of lettuce and Diet Coke in anticipation of the show. On Nov. 15, 2006, 21-year-old Brazilian model Ana Carolina Reston died in a São Paulo hospital from generalized infection. Her body had been rendered powerless to fight it by an extended battle with anorexia and bulimia. And on Feb. 13, 2007, Ramos’ sister, Eliana, also a model and only 18-years-old, was found dead at her grandparents’ home, apparently having suffered a heart attack linked to malnutrition. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/7072/killer_fashion

[Cassandra]

1. Makes me glad I'm shooting pinups...

where curvy is in.

[cui bono]

2. This is why we need stricter gun laws.

;)

[pansypoo53219]

3. and yet they feel the NEED to photoshop them in

ads to be THINNER. last time i looked in vogue, some of the ads were scary thin and UNNATURAL.

[HockeyMom]

4. As a 100 lb. size 0 woman, this makes me FURIOUS

because ALL of us are being lumped in with these runway models. What is the HEIGHT of these models? Those of us PETITE, barely 5 feet tall and 100 lbs. women are not going to look ANYTHING like a nearly 6 feet tall and 100 lb. runway model.

I weighed 100 lbs. 40 years ago and the only time I weighed more was when I was 9 months pregnant and 127 lbs . My wedding dress from 1974 is a size 5 and still FITS me, yet now thanks to the garment industry, this OLD LADY is now a size 0. I have never been on a diet in my entire 62 years. I eat what I want, when I want it. If I STARVED myself to be 100 lbs, I would have died DECADES ago.

For what it's worth, I had a bagel with cream cheese and coffee for breakfast, a slice of pizza and soda for lunch, and making spaghetti with meatballs for dinner. Starving myself? I will confess, though, that I don't eat in between meals and tomorrow will probably eat lighter (bought chef salad for lunch and making grilled chicken and veggies for dinner). I LOVE salads, but know I cannot OVERDO that, or I would weight 85 lbs. and become very, very sick. Been there, done that one. When you have lived in your body for over a decade, you get to know it.

[Left coast liberal]

5. They aren't talking about you, Hockey Mom...

...no offense but most people do need to watch what they eat to maintain their weight, slower metabolism, etc.

I would save your fury for more important thing rather than your size 0 pants.

Sheesh...

[HockeyMom]

6. This is discrimination too

I cannot find clothes to fit me. Years ago I did not have this problem. It's the pattern of one size fits all and it goes beyond fashions.

More importantly, I also had to deal with this with my daughter growing up because she too is small. Teachers followed her into the bathroom to see if she was throwing up after lunch. They couldn't believe she could eat the way she did and still be skinny. She would come home CRYING. "Tell them to stop following me into the bathroom all the time." That is what she told me. I had to go to her school, just to show MYSELF and prove to them that it was in our family GENES. Accuse ME of being bulmic too? I guess I never got over the anger from then. All this size 0 models stuff just brings back all the past.

Just as they shouldn't TARGET overweight young girls, they shouldn't do an about face and focus on the skinny girls instead.

If you are healty, be who you are MEANT to be. We are not, and cannot be, clones of one another.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

7. all about you?

This article is not.

[rpannier]

8. By the standards of today Marilyn Monroe would be considered fat. nt