|
22 october 2009
Creative director at Vogue and former supermodel, Grace Coddington, expressed her concerns about the use of very young and very thin models in the fashion industry.
In a talk with ex-Men’s Vogue editor Jay Fielden at the New York Public Library responded to the recent controversy around former Ralph Lauren face Filippa Hamilton who claims she’s been fired for being too fat.
"It is a big problem," Coddington admitted. "I remember when I was young, they told me that if I didn't lose weight I'd be out of the show, so I spent a week living off of coffee. But I'm a very levelheaded person. These problems nowadays are with kids much, much younger than that, and that's most of the problem — when they're very young and vulnerable."
Coddington also thinks Ralph Lauren is getting too much bad publicity, because most models at Ralph Lauren are not super skinny and this is an isolated incident. Nevertheless she regards the issue as a “big problem in the fashion industry”.
On the question whether or not editors could unite on a healthier size for models she replied; "They have to be a little thinner than you and I because you always photograph a little fatter , but you don’t have to go to the extremes they go to. And because they're kids, they take it too far, and they can't regulate their lives, and next thing you know they're anorexic, and it is tragic.”
She doesn’t know the answer except to keep on it. “Personally we're not allowed, at Vogue, to work with girls who are very thin, but you never know, because you could book them and think they're a certain size, and they turn up on the shoot and suddenly they've spun into this anorexic situation. And you're on the spot and you have to get the job done and you have one day to do it, and what do you do? But you try to be responsible, as Anna (Wintour) is.”
Grace Coddington and Anna Wintour are two of the most influential people in the fashion industry. This means the weight debate is reaching the highest places, which is good.
Grace Coddington in her modelling years
source
|
|
