Fashion world

A brief collection of excuses by the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) offered during the recent NYC fashion week to explain why its guidelines in favor of models’ health lacked an enforcement provision.  My comments are in italics:

News from the fashion world...

News related to the fashion world...

Some news on fashion pertinent to the contents of this site...

A commentator pointed out:

I sometimes wonder why thin is in right now--- for the most part, fashion recycles itself-- in the 60’s and 70’s thin was in, then in the 80’s and a good portion of the 90’s the “Amazon” models were popular, like Linda Evangelista and Cindy Crawford. So one would expect this to start recycling itself...but it hasn’t.

Famous fashion photographer Mario Testino has recently said that high-fashion models are not skinny to an extent that one needs to be concerned about it.  Testino provided no justification other than saying that “We are in a business to sell clothes. Clothes look better on a thinner person, but I don't think that clothes look good on a skeleton, myself.”  How informative!

Did anyone expect that the Council of Fashion Designers of America was serious about the health initiative recommendations for fashion models it made a short while ago?  Read on...

Who wants to bet that the fashion industry will adopt the following guidelines voluntarily?

The U.S. National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) has responded to Gisele Bundchen’s statement blaming families for anorexia.  In short, Bundchen is ignorant; the culprits are some combination of 1) genetic factors, 2) personality traits such as obsessionality and perfectionist attitudes, which are themselves related to genetics, 3) environmental factors such as the high status of skinny high-fashion models and 4) various problems that an individual may be facing, such that women at risk for developing anorexia often come to believe that the attainment of perfection will make their problems go away, and conveniently find “perfection” in the skinniness of high-fashion models, thanks to the high status of high-fashion models.

New York State Assemblyman Jose Rivera has proposed that body weight standards be established for under-18 models and child performers in the entertainment industry.  Hopefully, the proposal will lead to rules with an enforcement provision rather than mere suggestions/guidelines only.