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2006 saw the malnutrition-related deaths of two fashion models covered
all over the media, creating for the fashion industry plenty of PR trouble.
Before, the thin model issue had not much of people’s attention garnered,
but now, the fashion bigwigs were worried; this might break the bubble!!
Worse, the thinness trend could by accursed governments be smothered!
And, what if ingrate and rouge insiders leak answers in a manner subtle?
So, the bigwigs came together and planned to shed some crocodile tears;
thus, the Council of Fashion Designers of America shewed faux concern
in order to mollify its critics, offer useless leads and assuage their fears
through unenforceable initiatives and promises to make their peers learn
that when the ribs stick out on the models, it is time to lend helpful ears
and tell them all to eat well and gain weight if they want to work and earn.
And then there was the eagerly awaited April 2007 Vogue shapes issue.
Surely, a magazine of repute would address the matter in a manner fine.
Indeed, an article discussing the thinness problem in the fashion milieu,
by Rebecca Johnson, appeared in it under the title, “Walking a thin line.”
A brief perusal revealed it asked why the industry doth thinness pursue,
and this was all I needed to conclude it needeth some attention of mine.
Ms. Johnson began with the same old “clothes on thin girls look better.”
We have all heard this over and over; this does not in any way appease.
Some comparative pictures would have settled if this is the right answer.
Mayhap; see Gaultier’s contemptuous example, but do these not please?
Surely not the fashion bigwigs; to them, the feminine ones lack glamour
since those that need to strut shouldn’t have a butt; the fems lack sleaze.
Danielle has said that everyone blames the thin trend on Miuccia Prada.
Did her thin models so strongly appeal that others adopted it en masse?
However, regarding this claim, in Vogue mag there was nothing, nada.
It’s clear the origin lies elsewhere, and Danielle’s claim we need to pass.
I wonder where Danielle got her information from, a source like pravda?
Let’s see what Ms. Johnson said about the trend leading to the thin lass.
At a Calvin Klein go-see, in walked a 15- or 16-year-old girl, Kate Moss.
She put on a beige chiffon slip dress and flat shoes, and then she walked.
The fabric was like liquid flowing around her, leaving everyone at a loss
to explain in words the fashion moment they beheld; all were so shocked
that they had been using for long a heavy standard that they need to toss.
O how inferior the fatty high-fashion models they had all along gawked!
Thus spake Nian Fish, pinpointing the moment harbinging the thin trend.
Ms. Fish reported getting goose bumps as she watched Ms. Moss’ walk.
And we are told that behind the CFDA’s push to the thin problem mend
was the guiding force of Ms. Fish, eager to get the industry to take stock
of events making the public balk, and help models against anorexia fend.
Ms. Johnson added then a description of industry pressure to this crock.
She talked to a very powerful agent describing the girls as naturally thin,
in a manner dismissive and sanguine, shortly before NY Fashion Week.
But a designer cut a top model of his because she did not in clothes fit in,
and he responded angrily, making Ms. Johnson ask, what do they seek?
2-3 pounds overweight, not 25, and @#% for this they made some din!
But, the business is really competitive, said he; so, do not my name leak.
Then we hear about 5'-10" Natalia Vodianova, modeling at 105 pounds.
Subsequently, she gained 12 pounds and ended up with a BMI of 16.8.
Earlier, drooling fashion designers wanted her to go many more rounds,
but now several fashion houses went aghast.....look at her body weight!
Vodianova noted, we supposedly project health, but on these grounds,
we have no choice but to diet in stealth, or it is clear what’ll be our fate.
Donna Karan wondered why are skinny girls being even sent by agents,
to which Ms. Johnson said duh honey...because they are being booked!
An agent lamented, one of my girls suffers malnutrition-related ailments,
but all designers in town want her; they are by her looks smitten, hooked.
Telling her to eat or to stop working would constitute useless statements.
She would go to other agents; such wording will not by her be brooked.
Now that it's 2k8 spring NY fashion week, what did CFDA do in 2007?
High-fashion models from destitute countries reached an all time high.
Poor girls starved for money, and the industry aimed to its image soften
by pointing out its charitable work on AIDS. What a hoot, a blasted lie!
...the fashion guys have been working to have their HIV burden lighten.
And, the CFDA now acts as if the 2007 guidelines it didn’t even imply!
Moral of the tale
When crime appears intractable or the crime perpetrators are unknown,
beware of those offering us a solution; the criminals surely want it to fail.
They, their agents and their useful idiots will attempt to have trust sown
into the naïve, along with useless leads, false hope, and a promise of bail.
Do not patronize criminals; tell them to bugger off, develop a backbone,
show them the finger...or our problems will stay and we’ll continue to ail.
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