When Is Thin Too Thin?

[ShaE]

When Is Thin Too Thin?
By ERIC WILSON, The New York Times




THEY were alarmingly thin. Snejana Onopka, Natasha Poly and Hana Soukupova, models in demand among the fashion designers who showed their collections in New York last week, appeared so gaunt and thin that their knees and elbows were larger than their concave thighs and pipe cleaner arms, and their bobbling heads looked as if a slight breeze could detach them from their frail bodies.



Linda Wells, the editor of the beauty magazine Allure, said there were moments during the shows when she could hear gasps in the audience at their appearance.

"What becomes alarming is when you see bones and start counting ribs," Ms. Wells said.

At a Vogue party on Monday for a young designer competition, the model Jessica Stam expressed similar dismay. "There are a lot of girls doing the shows who are very thin and frail," she said. "I don't know if they are healthy or not, but I don't think the frail, fragile look is very feminine, and I don't think it's attractive."

Yet there remains an ideal among designers who seem to prize an ever thinner frame to display their clothes. Some who attended the New York shows question whether acceptable boundaries have been crossed, as when fashion glamorized images of heroin abuse in the early 1990's. Despite perennial complaints that models are too thin, there is a new sense of concern that designers are contributing to unhealthy and potentially life-threatening behavior among models vying to appear in their shows.


"We are minutes away from a catastrophe," said David Bonnouvrier, the chief executive of DNA Models, which represents many of the top faces in the business. In an interview, Mr. Bonnouvrier said designers and model bookers were encouraging extreme thinness, so much so that several of the models he represents, when asked about their weight, have refused to seek medical attention for what are probable eating disorders.

"This goes against everything we stand for as an industry," Mr. Bonnouvrier said. "I am kicking and screaming about it now because this should be an industry of beauty and luxury, not famished-looking people that look pale and sick."

Over the last decade fashion magazines have responded to such criticism by including a range of body types in their layouts, but when designers first show their collections at runway shows, they tend to use models who are little more than spectral wisps, expressionless hangers for their clothes.

Last week the organizers of Madrid fashion week, usually an overlooked event in comparison with the major shows in New York, London (this week), Milan and Paris, said they were banning models with a height-to-weight ratio below what the World Health Organization considered normal. In effect, models who weigh less than 125 pounds are prohibited from working the runways. Organizers of the event said they wanted to project "an image of beauty and health."

Complaints about the idolization of role models who suggest unhealthy lifestyles are culturally endemic. Celebrities like Nicole Richie, Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton and Mischa Barton have all been subjects of tabloid headlines asking, "Are they too thin?" In all likelihood, the answer is yes, but that does not stop magazines from displaying their pictures or, likewise, designers from casting thin models in their shows.

"What's happening right now is an extreme," Ms. Wells said. "Some of the models really are too thin, but that is such a tricky thing to say."

The news media squall about underweight models, which is engulfing the fashion events in Madrid and now in London, centers largely on whether fashion shows perpetuate an unhealthy image of beauty, encouraging eating disorders among young women.

The producers of these fashion events have largely dismissed the concerns. On Saturday a British cabinet member, Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell, called for London designers to follow the example of Madrid by banning underweight models. But the British Fashion Council, led by Stuart Rose, the chief executive of Marks & Spencer, said it would not interfere with the designers' aesthetic. And some designers said it was misleading to equate thinness with being unhealthy and that the standard cited by the organizers in Madrid did not take into account age and puberty, which may cause a model who is unusually tall to appear frighteningly thin.

"We're talking about this because Madrid chose to do something now," said Katie Ford, the chief executive of Ford Models. "Do I think because you're thin that you're anorexic? No. The runway represents a very small segment of the entire fashion business. On the runway, model size has been frequently a representation of the designers' image at that point of time."

But that debate has overshadowed the likelihood that some of these models, who have thus far been limited to runway shows but who aspire to more lucrative magazine work, are suffering from real eating disorders.

"I feel that people are taking the wrong angle on this whole issue," Mr. Bonnouvrier said. "These models look sick."

Although it would seem reasonable that the agencies that represent the models have a responsibility to monitor their health, Mr. Bonnouvrier and other agents described an environment that is dictated by the designers. A model's success depends on fitting an ideal image. He said that many of the models come from broken homes or poor countries, speak little English and are conforming to those demands as a means of survival. If he complains, he said, they will simply switch to another agency.

"I want to really emphasize the point that we have very little leverage over our clients should they have such problems when they continue to be confirmed by the most important designers, photographers and magazines in this industry," Mr. Bonnouvrier said. "A young model suffering from eating disorders is an ancient topic. What is new, however, is the alarming number of young models that are suffering and yet still work."

There has been some resistance among designers. Amanda Brooks, who assists Bryan Bradley of Tuleh with model castings, said a top runway model was turned down because she looked too thin. "You could see her hip bones," Ms. Brooks said. "We couldn't imagine putting her in a dress."

Some designers dispute that they are solely to blame for models' weight issues. "I think we're all to blame," said Michael Vollbracht, the designer of Bill Blass. "I'm very aware of these girls who look too thin or unhealthy, and at one point during the casting I had to walk out of the room. We called a model's agency and said, ‘Do you even watch these girls?' "

Milla Jovovich, the model and designer of a fashion collection called Jovovich-Hawk, said that dangerously thin models have been around since she was modeling as a child, as have the complaints, though little has ever been done in terms of prevention.

"There need to be more rules and regulations within the modeling industry," Ms. Jovovich said. "A lot of problems that are very gray areas need to be put in black and white."




Copyright © 2006 The New York Times Company

[Jess Rabbit]

when is thin too thin

for models...
-when your doing their hair & it starts to fall out in clumps
-when any size shoe looks like a ball & chain on them
-when u can count bones
-when the clothes slide down even after being pinned

its a good thing in Spain and/or Haiti, its a new law that models body fat cannot be under a certain amount (i forgot) because it is becoming a bad influence on their young girls---they are looking for thicker healthier looking models

[No Thanks]

Never! I'm 5'1 and I weigh 115lb and I wish there was a way for me to get down to like 90-95lb without the help of meth or anorexia

[ShaE]

Never! I'm 5'1 and I weigh 115lb and I wish there was a way for me to get down to like 90-95lb without the help of meth or anorexia

There was a point where I was 118 and 5'8 and I had no idea how thin I was. I look back at pics now and I'm shocked. Trust me, there is such a thing as too thin...it's just not attractive.

[La La Lori]

Never! I'm 5'1 and I weigh 115lb and I wish there was a way for me to get down to like 90-95lb without the help of meth or anorexia

i'm 5'1 117 and I agreeeeee...there is no such thing as too skinny...or too rich. LOL

[ShaE]

i'm 5'1 117 and I agreeeeee...there is no such thing as too skinny...or too rich. LOL

Sure there is, when you're sitting on your friend's lap and they tell you you have to eat b/c ur ass is so bony it hurts lol

[just b u]

i'm 5'1 117 and I agreeeeee...there is no such thing as too skinny...or too rich. LOL

yes there is such a thing as being too thin, i guess u're lucky that u've never seen such emaciated humans as i have . not only do they look emaciated (i hope i'm spelling it right) they have no energy, they're dried out inside and out, like dead pple walking.
Ladies remember some meat on ur bones is feminine and attractive, bones are not.

[No Thanks]

Sure there is, when you're sitting on your friend's lap and they tell you you have to eat b/c ur ass is so bony it hurts lol

When someone saw my pics a few years ago when I was 94lb and told me I need to eat something was THE biggest compliment I ever got in my entire life! I was always a fat kid and that part of me just can't seem to die

[browneyedgoil]

i'm 5'5 & 112. i think it depends on ur body & ur frame.

[ShaE]

When someone saw my pics a few years ago when I was 94lb and told me I need to eat something was THE biggest compliment I ever got in my entire life! I was always a fat kid and that part of me just can't seem to die

Then you need a reality check and I mean that in a friendly way lol
I was 180 lbs when i was 15...so I know about being a fat kid....and I got plenty of " you look greats" when I lost weight...but you know what? 118 didn't look great, and people started saying...you need to eat. And when you're fucked in the head..you see that as a compliment, looking back, I see it definitely was not. It was friends being concerned.

You can def be too thin.

[No Thanks]

i'm 5'5 & 112. i think it depends on ur body & ur frame.

My boobs and my ass alone weigh at least 20lb
No matter how thin I got, I always had a bubble butt and my 36C's did NOT go anywhere - therefor I never really looked 'skinny' - I don't know why people told me to eat more

[No Thanks]

I was 94lb. here when someone told me I need to eat something. I, personally, think I look just fine. My legs had meet on them, my stomache wasn't sinking in or anything - I looked healthy. Not even close to being skinny.

[browneyedgoil]

My boobs and my ass alone weigh at least 20lb
No matter how thin I got, I always had a bubble butt and my 36C's did NOT go anywhere - therefor I never really looked 'skinny' - I don't know why people told me to eat more

i wish i had 36c's but i do have a bubble but.

[ShaE]

I was 94lb. here when someone told me I need to eat something. I, personally, think I look just fine. My legs had meet on them, my stomache wasn't sinking in or anything - I looked healthy. Not even close to being skinny.

it's not so much that you look too thin, it's that you think being told you need to eat is the greatest compliment you could receive. That's skewed, and I'm saying that b/c I've been there not b/c I'm talkin down to you

[No Thanks]

it's not so much that you look too thin, it's that you think being told you need to eat is the greatest compliment you could receive. That's skewed, and I'm saying that b/c I've been there not b/c I'm talkin down to you

I know, baby
I also know it is NOT okay to take that as a compliment - but I did. I have been struggling to loose weight all of my life and I have heard people tell girls they need to eat and I remember thinking OMG, I wonder what it feels like to be so skinny that people tell you to eat! And when it happened, it was like WOW! Is this actually being told to ME now?! I was so happy

[tribaljunkee]

america is the fattest country in the world. chicks go from one extreme to the other.

[ShaE]

I know, baby
I also know it is NOT okay to take that as a compliment - but I did. I have been struggling to loose weight all of my life and I have heard people tell girls they need to eat and I remember thinking OMG, I wonder what it feels like to be so skinny that people tell you to eat! And when it happened, it was like WOW! Is this actually being told to ME now?! I was so happy

understandable...just something to be careful about

[La La Lori]

My boobs and my ass alone weigh at least 20lb
No matter how thin I got, I always had a bubble butt and my 36C's did NOT go anywhere - therefor I never really looked 'skinny' - I don't know why people told me to eat more

lmfao me too Lilly...I have huge C boobs and a big ass. Seriously if I lost my ass I'd be a size 3