FREE MEALS FOR SKINNY MODELS - News24.com

South Africa
February 19, 2007 1:09am CST
I find this story a little bit off-beat. I think international fashion shows should stick to their guns and ban models who are too skinny! What do you think, should this be made a international law? Size zero models in town for London Fashion Week now have one less excuse to skip a meal. A restaurant popular with celebrities and fashionistas in the British capital is offering free food to skinny models who have come under attack for promoting a stick-thin image which critics says encourages eating disorders in young women. Bumpkin restaurant in trendy Notting Hill is offering models with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of less than 18 the opportunity to gorge on fish pies, lamb burgers, king prawns and scallops. "If I could recommend a dish to a size zero model, it would be a charter pie containing leeks, chicken and bacon; it's enough to keep you warm and energised all day," Bumpkin general manager Dariush Nejad said in a statement on Monday. The issue of size zero or "skinny models" has dogged fashion shows around the world after two anorexic Latin American models died last year and has been under the international spotlight during the spring fashion season in New York, Milan, Paris and London, which began on Sunday. Madrid last year banned models with a BMI below 18 from taking part in fashion shows. BMI is a measure expressed as a ratio of weight to height. A BMI limit of 18 means a 5-foot-8 inch model must weigh at least 120 pounds (54 kg). Models with a BMI of less than 18 who visit Bumpkin for lunch or dinner will be invited to select any food off the menu, simply by showing their modeling card which states if they are size zero, the restaurant said. The restaurant boasts of its popularity with the London glitterati, saying recent visitors included fashion designer Stella McCartney, filmmaker Guy Ritchie, popstar Simon le Bon and his wife Yasmin.
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4 responses
@tanya6 (333)
19 Feb 07
this is very interesting really, i dont think this will get these girls to eat it is a very nice gesture but in all honesty these girls have eating disorders and i doubt very much that they cant afford to pay for their food. fair enough the fashion world is trying to show that they dont promote stick thin but the only way these girls can be shown i think is for the designers to make the garments in bigger sizes, the fashion world is trying to say they dont want them skinny but they still make the clothes tiny if the girls stopped being booked for shows simply because they dont fit in clothes for being to thin then maybe they will try and add a few pounds to fit the new sizes. the fashion world is very harsh and i think these girls are simply tring to follow the guide lines set by designers. i do think that banning stick thin girls is the way to go but surely the designers should take some of the blame?
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• South Africa
19 Feb 07
I agree 100% with you. So thr real problem is the designers and not the fashion shows, they need to make the paradigm shift!
20 Feb 07
It would help if the majority of the men would change their attitudes towards women. After all, men seem to want us to look like Twiggy. When I was growing up in the States, the guys wouldn't even look at girls if they had a bit of beef on them. It is not just the designers, or the people at the fashion shows, it is everyone who thinks the average size of a woman should be tiny. What ever happened to wanting to look like Marilyn Monroe? She was a size 14 US, which is a 16 UK. What was wrong with the way she looked? When I was a teen, I could hardly find any clothes in my size. But there were plenty of clothes in the smaller sizes. So, girls had to lose weight. The skinny girls always got whistled at, the heavier ones were always made fun of. We need to take control of what weight makes us happy and not worry about what anyone else thinks.
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@lauriefnp (5111)
• United States
19 Feb 07
This is a wonderful gesture on the part of the restaurant, but they most likely won't lose much money giving free money to these girls; I doubt if anorexic models will take them up on it, unless it's for salad without dressing and diet pop! I think that the fashion industry is finally showing some sense with these new rules. By current medical standards, a BMI of 18 is still considered to be underweight. The healthy range is 18.5-24.9. It's about time that the industry began to present models in clothing that is designed for "normal" sized women and not a bunch of anorexics. There are very few healthy people in the world who wear a size 0. Society puts too much pressure on people to be thin and fit, and the modeling industry has been pushing the "thin" to "ultra-skinny" for far too long, contributing to the development of eating disorders in the models and among young women. I don't want to see a switch to all "plus sized" women, either, as this is portraying an unhealthy image at the opposite end of the spectrum, but it would be nice to see models that are held to being strictly within the healthy range.
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• United States
19 Feb 07
I understand that many people will go to any end to reach their dreams of fame or ideas of beauty but I honestly cannot understand the methods they choose, starvation or excessive plastic surgery.
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