Skinny models: Delving into the weight debate

The debut of a plus-size model at Paris Fashion Week

The debut of a plus-size model at Paris Fashion Week just days after Spain banned super skinny models sent the fashion industry into a tizz. Carolyn Enting delves into the weighty issue.

They call them fattipuffs in Britain. Unkind, for sure, but the larger than life outing of Paris-based American artist Velvet d’Amour, all 132 kilograms of her, is being touted as a turning point in modelling circles.

The 39-year-old’ s appearance has created a new frame of reference, encouraging world wide debate on an issue that can no longer be ignored.
D’Amour is today’s super-sized hero for ordinary women everywhere. Sending her down the runway was Jean Paul Gaultier’s reaction to the whole "thin-is-in" issue.

It raises the question of what is healthy, what is not, and whether the use of waif-like models sets unrealistic standards of beauty that encourages young people to crash-diet at the expense of their health.

The current controversy was fuelled by the death of 22-year-old South American model Luisel Ramos, who suffered a heart attack just moments after she stepped off a runway. Apparently she had followed a three-month starvation diet of green leaves and diet Coke after being told she could be an international sensation if she was thinner.
The Spaniards responded by enforcing the world’s first ban on overly thin models. Outraged modelling agencies called the ban "thin discrimination" , but organisers of Madrid Fashion Week said they wanted to project an image of beauty and health, not the gaunt heroin chic look so beloved of the industry.
It had a responisbility to portray healthy body images, they said.

The new ruling was that models must have a Body Mass Index rating of around 18, a level that would disqualify Kate Moss, based on unofficial records of her height and weight, and dozens of other runway regulars.
The standard size for a model in this country is a 10, a size bigger than their international counterparts, and positively huge compared to the size zero of the celebrity world.
The largest model Wellington’s The Agencie has on its books is a "good size 12", the slimmest a size eight. A spokeswoman says none of its models have eating disorders; if they did, they would not be put out to work.

Auckland based model Delwyn Cummack, 27, is a standard size 10. The former Wellingtonian has modelled on and off for 13 years and says she has "never been on a shoot and seen a New Zealand model turn down food or say I’m not going to eat".
"We don’t have size zero (New Zealand size 4) here and it probably wouldn’t work at that size because clients want girls that are a size eight at least. A lot of girls are very skinny but that is just because they are very young and have great metabolisms, not because they don’t eat."

Still, Cummack works hard to keep trim – running or walking five to six times a week and eating a healthy diet.
"I eat lots of healthy food (fruit, vegetables, sushi and Thai) because I like to put good food into my body. I never eat fish and chips, burgers or pasta, but I am not crazy, I don’t follow a Posh Spice diet. There has never been any pressure in New Zealand to be super skinny. The message has always been ‘be healthy, be toned and look after yourself’."

The Agencie booker Chantelle Visser argues that to suggest models are just naturally thin is a myth. Most models have to work at keeping slim, and often don’t eat as much as they should in an effort to keep their body shape, she says. What goes on behind-the-catwalk is often hidden.
"There is a lot of maintenance and I don’t think it portrays a good image over all. We put our models on a course and teach them about fitness, nutrition and cover what the body needs to function. We are all about promoting a healthy lifestyle."
Wellington designer Laurie Foon chooses not to use very thin models either on the catwalk or in her shoots for her Starfish label, though she recalls receiving a letter some time ago from someone saying they wouldn’t buy her clothes because a model she had used was too skinny.

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"We had used a wide angle lens so the model looked bigger on the top and smaller on the bottom," Foon says.
The latest catologue features a size 10 model. Another Wellington designer, Andrea Moore, used a "wonderfully curvy" size 10 to 12 model for her runway show at Air New Zealand Fashion Week last month. The smallest she would use would be a "generous size eight" but any smaller and her clothes would not be shown off to their best.
"If a model has no curves then the clothes just look like sacks."
However, it works the other way as well. If a model is a size 12 she has to have the height to carry her on the catwalk because staging and camera angles add width to the clothes, Moore says.

The obssession with thinness doesn’t stop with the fashion industry – check out the music, film and celebrity industries too, says World’s Denise L’Estrange-Corbet.
The company has had its fair share of skinny models stalking the catwalk but it also uses shorter – and older – models.
Some have been in their 70s, says L’Estrange-Corbet, adding that while World would still send smaller size models down the catwalk there is a "vast difference" between a healthy size 10 and someone with an eating disorder.
"World is about character and personality rather than following mindless trends and I am so over brands that send models down the catwalk who look like they have spent months in a Belsen camp."

"There is no doubt about it, clothes do look better on a slimmer person and they do show the clothes to their full advantage, but having said that, if I loved the look of a bigger girl I would have no hesitation putting her on the catwalk.
"As the mother of a teenager (17-year-old Pebbles) I am very aware of fads and would be horrified if she or any of her friends felt they had to starve for self image and worth. Things have certainly changed from the 1950s and the Marilyn Monroe body shape, which would now be considered fat by today’s standards.

"It seems odd, I am sure a survey of men would come up unanimously in favour of Marilyn over Nicole Ritchie or Victoria Beckham, but it is girls like them who are now setting the body shape standards.”
Pebbles, a size 10, appears to be unaffected by the craze for thinness despite having been sumersed in it since she was a toddler, attending hundreds of model castings and fashion shows alongside her parents.
She believes it’s why she is so grounded: "I understand that to be a model you have to be thin and fashion has always been that way. I have been around it for so long that I don’t compare myself to them. I also know that other people are not going to compare me to a fashion look.

"None of the models in New Zealand are disgustingly skinny. I know a lot of models. Their genes are ridiculous – six foot, tiny as, and they eat a ton. A lot of people see it as a really unhealthy environment to be around but when you are there and amongst it, you understand that that is just the way it is and that is their job to look a certain way."
Which begs the question – do girls know the difference between reality and fantasy, as the fashion industry so often purports. Are we silly to be constantly comparing ourselves with skinny models, beating ourselves up about a little bit of extra weight? Is it our fault? Should we know better?

L’Estrange-Corbet attaches a lot of blame to the media.
"It is perpetuated by the media more than anything else, and should, God forbid, a model or actress put on a few pounds they are branded across the cover of every magazine as an oompha loompha pig with no control over what they shovel into their mouths," L’Estrange-Corbet says.
And Wellington designer Andrea Moore agrees: "Our culture is obsessed with thinness which is exasperated by the silly celebrity magazines – who’s thin and who’s thinner," Moore says.

"It has become fashionable to have an eating disorder. These influence the young girls terribly. It is really important that the fashion industry encourages beautiful girls not skinny waifs."
And the inside skinny? Velvet D’Amour, who has modelled in two catwalk shows to date, says her size acceptance came into play when she began photographing models.
"I was not feeling good about myself (and realised) ‘they’re not happy with themselves’ that was a huge revelation that here I was with these ideals of feminine beauty and they hated their bodies. Now if these women who are the ideals of feminine beauty of our society hate their bodies, then what exactly is going on?"
She says diversity is the key.

http://www.stuff. co.nz/stuff/ 0,2106,3833791a1 1215,00.html

About Editor-in-Chief, Madeline Figueroa-Jones

Madeline hails from a close-knit NYC family and started her plus size modeling career with a spread in BBW magazine. In early 2003 Figueroa was selected to appear as the spokes model for the "Hips, Heels & Curves" Fashion Show, continuing on to casting director for the Dangerous Curves 2003/2004 Tour. After appearing on several television segments including Aqui Y Ahora for Univision she began reaching out to the plus size community by serving as a moderator for VenusDivas.com, Empowerment Editor for AmaZeMagazine.com. Madeline and her husband Luke reside in the Battery Park city area of NY and operate lucaspictures.net.

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