Comments (15)

1. Does this mean I can drop the cigarette and celeri diet?

   posted by Marika on 10-4-2006 at 5:00 pm

2. I don’t understand how sending an obese woman down the run way would be a positive turn for the fashion industry. Obesity is not preferable to being underweight. I agree that having size zero women on the runway is not a good image to send to young people that would be watching the show but sending a woman of the opposite extreme is not sending a positive image to women either. We shouldn’t be condoning obesity or starvation.

   The other thing about the fashion industry is that the models that people actually know by name (think Giselle, Tyra, Heidi Klum, Adriana Lima) are not size zero. The are healthy women who are in awesome shape and no one can deny their beauty. The fashion industry hasn’t shunned these women away. People still look at these women as the beautiful and desirable, but that is because they work to look that way. I will never support sending “real women” (ie overweight women) down the runway because the fact is is that designer’s clothes look better on longer, leaner bodies. Let’s advocate fashion designers using models with desirable (not “real”) bodies.

   P.S. I think that designer using the obese model on the runway was actually just ridiculing this new rule set in place in some fashion shows.

   posted by Isaias Torres on 10-4-2006 at 5:13 pm

3. ridiculous. Uber-skinny isn’t attractive (to me anyway) or healthy. Niether is being obese. Why does the fashion industry insist on going to extremes to sell their crap?

   posted by jim bob on 10-4-2006 at 7:24 pm

4. I think this is delicious, Kudos for a designer actually vocalizing that all women are not made equal. We are not all a size 0-6. And most of the guys I know don’t want women who have boyish bodies, they want something they can hold and a little “meat” on them.
   I really think that the niche market he is catering to, is much more vast than the tiny waif like clothing that is out there these days.

   Point and case, diet books outweigh ( no pun intended) any boooks out there on the shelves today. Baring health issues, a woman can be beautiful, wear couture, and just happened to have extra weight on her. Why should this be so controversial. Because of health issues? Would it be just as controversial sending out a thin woman who smokes? I am sure no one would say, “ohh that so unhealthy” but ” oh how sexy”…

   6 of one half dozen of the other.

   great article…

   posted by atomicapril on 10-4-2006 at 7:36 pm

5. I think sending an obsese woman down the runway was to protest the new “no size 0″ rule. What fashion designers should be doing is designing clothes for women of healthy weight…not drastcially under or over weight. I think the fashion industry has gotten way out of hand in showing and setting the example for what is a “desirable” woman. Skeletal people are not attractive, no more so then obese people.

   posted by Patricia on 10-4-2006 at 9:37 pm

6. Women and men come in all shapes and sizes, regardless of what the fashion industry seems to think. For too many years, we’ve seen nothing but women falling within a very narrow range of size, height, weight, and proportion when it comes to the advertisements which barrage our everyday existence. What we see is what we believe.

   What teenage girl or woman’s (or even some men’s) self image has not suffered at least in part because of the rail-thin models that continue their spindly jaunts down the catwalk each year?

   That Jean-Paul Gaultier has perhaps “overcompensated” for the dearth of healthy, positive images within the pages of every women’s magazine for the last thirty years can be easily overlooked.

   The majority is surely entitled to its opinion, but attractiveness is certainly not objective. I find Gaultier’s model much more attractive than any model I’ve seen gracing the cover of Vogue for as long as I can remember.

   Not that long ago, we saw our first “token black model” walk down the runway. That doesn’t set a bad example for white girls; it sets a good example for African-American girls. Why can’t we have our first obese model as a positive role model for women who can’t shop at Bebe?

   posted by Billifer on 10-4-2006 at 10:39 pm

7. That model that died had a BMI of 18. That really isn’t that bad. That is literally the first number that is at the underweight level. I am a guy and I am about her height and I weight about 130 (roughly the same weight as her) and I always bordered on the same BMI. She really wasn’t “rail-thin.” I think it is interesting that in the article they only show her face. I am kind of confused on how she is a size 0. I don’t wear women’s clothes but I am almost certain that I am not a size 0 (and I have a really thin waist line). What I am trying to say is that this girl most likely didn’t die from being too thin. She died because of heart failure and her really horrible dieting in the week adding up to her death.

   Like I said earlier, I think we should have models that look a lot better than regular people. I don’t want to see people that look ordinary in fashion. Since when did we ever decide it was okay to just be content and not want to improve ourselves?

   posted by Isaias Torres on 10-4-2006 at 11:10 pm

8. I am a beautiful woman, model quality, but I am by no means rail thin. I am not even remotely close to “normal”, though I’m still gorgeous. What I’m finding offensive in Isaias’s comments, is that he’s equating “beauty” with size. For example: “Like I said earlier, I think we should have models that look a lot better than regular people.” That model pictured, is positively gorgeous. Just because she’s not a size 0-4 doesn’t mean she’s not beautiful. This is the exact mentality that women of ALL sizes has been fighting for years now- that men (and consequently, other women) judge us by our size.

   The other comment was this: “I will never support sending “real women” (ie overweight women) down the runway because the fact is is that designer’s clothes look better on longer, leaner bodies.” BREAK THE MOLD. The reason these clothes look better is because they’re MADE TO. Make clothes that are made to grace the rubenesque. Bring back the goddessness to the zaftig. There are so many fabrics that can flow and decorate the full womanly figure, flattering each exquisite curve. All women should be able to be beautiful, not just those who fit into this stick mold.

   Just as you wouldn’t like to be called “malnourished”, those of us with fuller figures don’t particularily like the word “obese”, regardless of how “health correct” it is. Both are words subject to opinion. One woman’s healthy is another man’s “obese”.

   Heart failure is a condition brought about often times by anorexia. If sustaining this “really horrible dieting” for too long, chances are good that she may have been anorexic. To say that she was “on a diet” is just laughable.

   I whole-heartedly embrace this. I look forward to seeing more of real women on runways.

   posted by Betwixt on 10-5-2006 at 3:56 am

9. Anyone insisting that the public-at-large is irreversably damaged by observing slender models in print and on the runway are giving themselves away as being hopelessly maleable and cheaply insecure.

   I’m bypassing the point of whether Gaultier was being inflammatory or not for placing an enormous woman in his show. That can hardly be addressed, however, without acknowledging that I can’t help but cringe with derision as folks become so wrapped up in themselves that they can’t divorce their perceived shortcomings from the requirements of someone else’s job. Models must be tall and slim: they’re clothes-hangers. They must be eye-catching: they are expected to help sell not only the garments, but the entire image. Designers and models did not sign up to be your role models. They want to make fantastic clothes.

   I swear I’m not being naive in that people are affected by media; that kind of thing can hardly be helped. But one sounds grossly immature to be pitching a fit over skinny folks’ influence over their own shoddy self image. Grow up, get in shape, and when you’re finally happy with your body, let’s see how vehemently you rail against slim people.

   posted by Amanda on 10-5-2006 at 11:53 am

10. P.S. I’m bored to absolute distraction with overweight women referring to themselves as “real” women. Given a healthy diet one’s entire life would ensure that a “real” woman or man would most definitely be slim, barring some metabolic curse. Therefore, I’m confused by this epithet. Wouldn’t it be more a propos to refer to overweight people as “overweight people?” Or perhaps, “those who have succumbed to a poor diet and who now must arm themselves with a euphemism in order to appear confident?” Who knows.

    So, I don’t consider myself falsified to any degree, thereby maintaining some level of real-ness. But I’m also 5’1″ and 100 lbs. So what does that make me?

    posted by Amanda on 10-5-2006 at 3:12 pm

11. Isaias Torres: that girl was TOO THIN. According to the story, her weight was down to 98 pounds (7stone)when she died. 5’9″ and 98 pounds!?! That is frightening.

    posted by happy like I am on 10-5-2006 at 3:20 pm

12. Hmmm It seems like they changed a lot of that article recently. Previously it did say that she was 9stone, which isn’t that skinny. But 7stone does make more sense to me. I didn’t understand originally how she could be size zero and 9stone.

    Oh and I agree completely with Amanda.

    posted by Isaias Torres on 10-5-2006 at 9:43 pm

13. This is ridiculous. Why would you put out an obese model on that runway?? Since rail-thin models influence girls to be rail-thin, putting an obese model on the runway is not going to make them want to be obese!! Maybe, if they want to show that you don’t have to be super skinny, why don’t they put people that are the average size of women??

    Well I don’t think it helped the fashion industry at all… pointless.

    posted by Stephanie on 2-22-2007 at 9:15 am

14. There are few persons on this planet who have the privilege of being, or choosing to be “healthy” in shape and in day-to-day life. Still, we who profess or aspire to be in that minority will demand that the fashion industry designs clothing for such healthy bodies. You are veiled by your narrow concerns and foolish to think you can demand anything from merchants in the “artist” class.

    posted by Jem on 1-26-2010 at 1:36 am

15. I’m surprised no one has mentioned this, but this instantly screamed PARODY! to me. The fashion industry is getting so much scrutiny for using super thin, tall models and telling them to use “real women” (which by the way, is the most idiotic term in the world. Is a woman fake because she is thin? There are many women who are simply naturally thin. It is just as much of an eating disorder to overeat to the point of morbid obesity. And for those that argue that being heavy is genetic, well so is being thin. Some women have difficulty gaining weight, this does not make them “fake”.) so as I was saying, Gaultier probably thought to himself f*** this. They want a real woman? Well here is a “real” woman. Is this what you wanted? And good for him. It is just as negative of a message to ban thin models, not in the name of eating disorders but in the name of art. Anorexia is not something you get from looking at models, it is something that is not only genetically influenced but is far more influenced by people actually close to the person like friends and family. Even so, it is a disease and not a product of influence. People love to find scapegoats. One could argue that pornstars are far worse of an influence with their fake breasts and fake tan but yet nobody is banning them because they are the essence of what porn is. Fake, trashy, and fun. You can’t have a porno without a silicone filled blonde. Thin models are every bit as essential to the fashion world, they are fundamental. Supermodels that are not a size 0 are almost more of celebrities than they are models, they’d be out of place on a runway now. They are not health models, they are fashion models. And just because women who aren’t a size 0 don’t want to hear it doesn’t make it untrue.

    posted by Melody on 8-18-2011 at 10:34 pm

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