"Fat mummies." That's how designer Karl Lagerfeld describes the magazine editors, journalists, health care professionals, models, and feminists who criticize the gaunt heroin-chic look popularized by high fashion. In Lagerfeld's world, the only conceivable reason any such criticism occurs is due to jealousy women feel when they see angular shapes ambling down catwalks from Paris to New York.
In a recent interview with the German magazine Focus, the designer blasted best-selling magazine Brigitte's decision to use "ordinary, realistic" women instead of professional models. He proclaimed, "These are fat mummies sitting with their bags of crisps in front of the television, saying that thin models are ugly." He further explained the use of underweight models as a pragmatic appeal to women's self-loathing. The fashion industry, he opined, supports "dreams and illusions," and those dreams presumably don't include expanding beyond a size 2. "No one wants to see round women," he declared with the arrogant authority. Guess he missed the numerous fashion shows put on by retailers like Lane Bryant.
Good ole' Karl hasn't been in the photo labs with editors struggling to Photoshop the emaciated appearance of conventional models. Brigitte's editor Andreas Lebert decided to end his photographers' exasperation at airbrushing protruding bones and adding curves to their frame. Effective January 2010, the fashion mag will feature "real" women.
Despite Lagerfeld's denial of widespread anorexia among fashion models, the disease is all too real both in and outside his industry- a fact freely admitted by fellow designer Giorgio Armani, Australian fashion label Marajoara, and Madrid's fashion show Pasarela Cibeles, all of whom refuse to use underweight models. Although obesity seems to take center stage in the United States, the carnage from its dysfunctional siblings (anorexia and bulimia) can't be denied: Uruguayan model Luisel Ramos, age 22, Brazilian model Ana Carolina Reston, age 21, Uruguayan model Eliana Ramos, age 18. When Israeli fashion model Hila Emalich died of heart failure in 2007, the corpse she left behind was the average weight of a seven year old child. Fashion icon Donatella Versace hopes that her daughter Allegra avoids that tragic outcome as she battles publicly with anorexia.
Yeah, Karl. Those of us who criticize this madness are jealous. Jealous of an early grave.
Despite Lagerfeld's denial of widespread anorexia among fashion models, the disease is all too real both in and outside his industry- a fact freely admitted by fellow designer Giorgio Armani, Australian fashion label Marajoara, and Madrid's fashion show Pasarela Cibeles, all of whom refuse to use underweight models. Although obesity seems to take center stage in the United States, the carnage from its dysfunctional siblings (anorexia and bulimia) can't be denied: Uruguayan model Luisel Ramos, age 22, Brazilian model Ana Carolina Reston, age 21, Uruguayan model Eliana Ramos, age 18. When Israeli fashion model Hila Emalich died of heart failure in 2007, the corpse she left behind was the average weight of a seven year old child. Fashion icon Donatella Versace hopes that her daughter Allegra avoids that tragic outcome as she battles publicly with anorexia.
Yeah, Karl. Those of us who criticize this madness are jealous. Jealous of an early grave.
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