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If most read this tale about a topic beyond the pale, without fail, wouldn’t fashion bigwigs wail?

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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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Comments

While it is not in question that I support the promotion of 'natural feminine beauty' I find the approach of this site slightly ironic as it completely cuts out and is almost derogatroy to a certain type of woman based on her physique. I am delighted that tall thin broad shouldered girls with unusual features are having their day in the sun for the first time in the history of civilisation. For centuries the freak-like underdog, the 'sarah plain and tall', in the midst of pudgy women with almost infantile features and no discernible bone structure who were desired by men for their submissive child like physiques. You cannot decide what height you grow to. If you are above average height for a woman, as you probably have guessed I am, it simply is a mix of genes and hormones. Testosterone can contribute to both the height and therefore the masculine features. Are you suggesting that this makes for a sub standard women? An adolesent boy? You sound like the playground bullys I had an unhealthy dose of growing up. I have friends of all shapes and sizes,all of whom I consider to be beautiful. I hope they dont harbour this bizzare resentment for me behind my back. I hope to see all types of women on the catwalk in the future but I also hope to see not so many women watching it so intently. You cannot make others responsible for ensuring you have a healthy self esteem and body image.

I did not address the issue of anorexia and malnourishment in my post as it does not even need to be said that this is a dreadful disease which should not be promoted by any person or industry.

Debra, the major issue is that these women are very light.
At no point has the problem been one of models’ height.
Stature matters little to beauty; taller women are all right.
Men liked child-like bodies? LOL! Please browse this site.

Thanks Eric for your nod of approval for tall women. If you had explored this site you would see that concern over the weight of women as a threat to her health is bottom of the list. Using it, as well as height and 'masculine' facial features, as another example of why she should not be considered beautiful or attractive to men seems the primary objective. My post was commenting on the entire site, not just the article on weight. I have seen close at hand very slim healthy girls and girls with genuine weight problems such as anorexia and believe me there is a difference. It is just another form of inverse discrimination to lambast all girls who are very slim. In reference to your remark, I neither expressly said or inferred your definition of 'child like bodies'. I said plump women with infantile features i.e. fair hair, full cheeks, big eyes and full red lips. This was for many centuries considered the most attractive female form in Europe. Wanting to be a stone lighter and starving yourself to death are worlds apart. There is a far higher rate of eating disorders in the general population than in the modelling industry. Blaming it on the industry would require you to ignore the documented history of the disease which extends a long way further back than when 'thin was in'. The issue is not black and white.

Great article, but the overuse of passive voice and wrongly ordered words and modifiers was extremely jarring.

Phrases like this were almost unreadable:

"She would go to other agents; such wording will not by her be brooked."

Or even worse, this one:

"Poor girls starved for money, and the industry aimed to its image soften"

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