Wearing Thin
Well, it has been all over the news lately about Spain's plan to ban fashion models that are deemed "too thin". Afraid that too thin models will send the wrong message to women and girls, bureaucrats will enforce height to weight ratios and bar models who do not meet standards from the runways. Now fashion designers in Milan are worried that the mayor may enact this same ban, then that these rules will become the next wave sweeping through the mindless bureaucracy enlightened corridors of the EU.
MILAN (Reuters) - Italy's fashion capital is in a tizzy over a ban on overly thin models at Madrid's fashion week, fearing it could be next with its own catwalk extravaganza less than two weeks away.
Milan's mayor, Letizia Moratti, told a newspaper this week that she may bring the Spanish ban on underweight models to Italian shows.
Madrid is turning away models whose body mass index, based on weight and height, falls below a certain level.
"With those kind of rules, we'd have to turn away 80 percent of models. Naomi Campbell wouldn't be able to walk down the catwalk, she'd be too thin," said Riccardo Gay, head of the model agency of the same name that used to represent Campbell in Milan.
He also said Madrid had exaggerated the issue.
"Some designers have used extremely thin models, but we haven't. We tell models to exercise, eat well, go to bed early — sensible rules," he added.
We here at Blue Crab Boulevard, ever vigilant to new trends in the world, have managed to obtain the draft regulations and sent our agents out to find an example of who can meet the new EU standards. Our operative from Magic 8-Ball Confidential Inquiries and Snack Bar, Inc. obtained a photo for us. Since it is well known that an elephant is a mouse built to government specifications, this really should come as no surprise to anyone.
(Photo from the invaluable James G. Mundie, artist and collector of sideshow ephemera.)
Foto Phun, Humor, World news | Gaius Thursday, 14 September , 2006
By FabioC., Thursday, 14 September , 2006 @ 2:38 pm
Hey, I don’t have much simpathy for the EUrocrats either, but I like a woman to be a woman with some meat, not a walking skeleton like some models are!
By Gaius, Thursday, 14 September , 2006 @ 2:43 pm
I don’t go for the fence rail look, either. It’s just another bit of nannyism that deserves derision.