Fat chance: Don’t expect fashion industry to change pin-thin standards any time soon, say insiders
Posted by Lucky on Feb 19, 2010
The latest outrage over rail-thin runway models isn’t likely to spark any sudden changes in the $100 million fashion industry.
“Let’s be realistic,” says Steven Kolb, executive director of the Council of Fashion Designers of America.
“Fashion shows are fantasy … and to be a model you have to be thin to begin with.
“There are healthy models that genetically have thin body structures. So [thin models] will always be on the runway.”
The latest flap came hours after supermodel Coco Rocha made headlines when she suggested her size 4, 5-foot-10-inch frame was out of favor on the runway.
Her transgression? She deviates from the industry standard size zero – which translates to an amazingly small 23-inch waist.
There have been discussions to address changing that standard – and the Council of Fashion Designers has set guidelines to raise awareness and promote health.
Check out the models walking the Bryant Park runways during Fashion Week. They’re pin-thin.
“Runway has always been a one-way sort of body,” says plus-size model Crystal Renn.
“I believe change starts in print, and the runways will catch up.”
Not anytime soon, insiders say.
“This is a huge $100 million industry. It’s going to take time to make a change,” says Micki Schnei-der, Coco Rocha’s manager at Elite Model Management.
“In my opinion, it will take the CFDA implementing some kind of rule or legislation.”
Everyone points fingers: The designers say the agencies send them skinny models. The agencies say they don’t bother sending heavier ones because they know they’ll be rejected.
And CFDA officials say it’s not their job to police the industry.
The organization has guidelines – suggestions that models be over the age of 16, and models under 18 not work past midnight – but no means of enforcement.
“Our initiative is about awareness and education, not about enforcing and policing,” Kolb says.
Gripes about too-skinny models have become a broken record.
“For the last 10 seasons, I’ve been commentating for CNN or CBS or whomever about the skinny-model issue,” says celebrity stylist Mary Alice Stephensen.
“I think there are certain designers that are wanting girls to have curves, and there are certain designers that don’t, and there always will be.”
With reform this slow, experts warn dangerously thin models may be running out of time.
“If we push this any skinnier, any thinner, then they are going to have to widen the runway so this person can have a feeding tube on wheels,” says Lynn Grefe, chief executive officer of the National Eating Disorders Association.
