14 DAY TRIAL // The size zero model controversy has never abated since it was ignited a couple of years ago. Following the tragic death of no less than three models in recent years due to complications stemming from anorexia, talk of who precisely in the fashion industry is to blame for the new standard of female model has only come to reach new intensity. After British Vogue Editor Alexandra Shulman has openly attacked major designers in an open letter, The Guardian is also taking a stand on the issue.
According to both the publication and Shulman, most of the blame goes to designers who send samples that are simply too small to be worn by a normal-sized girl, which, in turn, forces glossy magazines to hire only skinny girls. This, as one might easily imagine, perpetuates the idea that the skinnier the better, so girls getting into the business strive to attain almost impossible bodily standards through whatever means they can. If designers made their catwalk collections at least one or two sizes larger, the demand for stick-thin girls would decrease and the much-dreaded size zero model trend would inevitably die down.
However, The Guardian points out, it’s hard for designers to accept such a big part of the blame since, they say, it’s not just them who are behind this trend. Standards are generally set by the industry as a whole, so this means glossy and fashion magazines are also responsible, even if their share of the blame is smaller.
They are also guilty of projecting an image that is different from reality, designers defend themselves by pinpointing. Moreover, in order for a change for the better to come to happen, it would require more than just a handful of players standing up for a cause – and, at this point, getting designers to agree to overturn their business completely is nothing short of an utopic dream.
Models also agree that keeping afloat in the business as sizes seem to be downsizing by the day has become the real challenge of the job. “I saw in the space of the 10 years that I modeled, my measurement didn’t change, but the clothes got smaller and I found it harder and harder to get into them. The measurements have changed – I’d say the perfect hip size now is 10cm less that it was in the 90s. All the girls have lost on the hips. I can’t work any more – I do not fit sample sizes, so I can’t work.” Valentine Fillol Cordier, a former model, says for The Guardian.
Even the agencies are complaining that their arm is literally twisted behind their back to hire girls with protruding bones and overall skeletal frames. “The problem lies at the heart of the catwalk modeling industry, which traditionally demands a girl of a very specific shape and proportion. Only about 10-12% of working models have the right look for this type of modeling, and of these 85% are either eastern European or Brazilian. Only a small percentage of them went on to have top-end catwalk careers. These girls concern me. The other 88% of models working have a thoroughly normal time without this kind of pressures. People both in the fashion industry and outside of the fashion industry have to have more realistic ideals. Nobody in this world is perfect. Who needs this kind of pressure?” Sarah Doukas, chief executive of Storm Management (listing Lily Cole, Jourdan Dunn and Kate Moss as its models), shares for the same publication.