Claudia Schiffer speaks out against skinny models

by Deidre Woollard (Subscribe to Deidre Woollard's posts), Posted Oct 23rd 2006 at 9:31AM

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1990s supermodel Claudia Schiffer has spoken out about today's bone-thin models. "It doesn't really look good any more," Schiffer, 36, said in Germany's Bunte magazine according to Reuters. She acknowledged that fashion looks good on thin models but that today's models are just too bony to be attractive. Starting out, the German model was one of the curvier models but she has lost weight after having her two children and now eats chocolate and drinks whole milk to retain her figure.

Claudia's comments come after months of controversy regarding the super-thin models on catwalks worldwide. The models were banned in Milan and Madrid and there has been a lot of discussion regarding how thin is too thin for models. Recently when I was at fashion week I was waiting in line with a woman whose daughter was walking in one of the shows. She mentioned that her daughter had recently been in Paris and had been told by one of the designers that she needed to lose a half-inch of her hips. Her mother told me that her daughter didn't quite see how that would be possible given that she is 5'11" and weighs 115 lbs. While according to her mother, this girl just has lucky genetics, it seems to me that taking the naturally thin and making them even thinner is a sign that models really are too emaciated lately. I applaud Claudia's comments on bringing a little more meat back to the runway.

Filed under: Fashion, Fashion Week
Tags: claudia schiffer, ClaudiaSchiffer, models, skinny, thin

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)

Dora 10-25-2006 @ 2:40PM

WELL CLAUDIA WAS NOT EXACTLY A FATTY HERSELF, SO WHO IS SHE TO SAY WHAT LOOKS GOOD OR NOT. IN HER DAY, SHE WAS THIN AND NOT EVEN ANYWHERE NEAR BEING CONSIDERED A FULL FIGURED MODEL SO I DONT UNDERSTAND WHY ALL OF THIS IS COMING FROM SOMEONE WHO KNOWS THE IN'S AND OUT'S OF THE INDUSTRY. SHE JUST NEEDS TO GO BACK INTO RETIREMENT AND BASICALLY STAY T HERE AND KEEP HER TRAP SHUT.

BJP 10-25-2006 @ 2:48PM

It is completely unnatural for these models to be this thin. It is a shame that fashion designers and promoters are making these girls feel that they have to do anything to be skinny. One has to believe that a good majority of these models have eating disorders. Shame on the people who are responsible.

michael 10-25-2006 @ 2:57PM

she is so hot it hurts.

Sarah 10-25-2006 @ 2:58PM

WHO CARES!!! STOP FEEDING THEM ALL THE ATTENTION IT MAKES PEOPLE THINK THAT PEOPLE ARE JEALOUS!!! NO MATTER WHAT, WHY ELSE WOULD SOMEONE CARE? I DON'T BUY THE LINE OF BULL THAT BLAMES MODELS FOR SOCIETIES INSECURITIES, IF IT WASN'T MODELS, IT WOULD BE SOMETHING ELSE!

P Morgan 10-25-2006 @ 3:00PM

There is too much pressure put on supermodels to be thin. The average women is not super thin and no one should want to be that thin - it is just unhealthy. These women are bad role models for young girls. It is not sexy or healthy to be that thin. Everyone should be able to eat what they want and be proud of what you look like. PM - Port Chester, NY

P Morgan 10-25-2006 @ 2:59PM

Joy K 10-25-2006 @ 3:10PM

I certainly think that ultra thin models do affect the self-esteem of some. And Sarah O, what are you so angry about? I'll pray for you!

Phil Smith 10-25-2006 @ 3:11PM

All of this flap simply adds credence to the stereotype: Fashion designers are gay. It is reasonable to assume that a man whose attracted to men rather than woman does not have a good feeling for what is attractive in a woman, and no straight man I know is physically attracted to broomsticks, yet broomsticks are all the fashion designers design for.

jennifer mcqueen 10-25-2006 @ 3:19PM

I have read many times that the average size woman in America is a 13. Shops like Lane Bryant are booming. People in America are getting bigger and bigger no matter what the runway elite think is important. Yes, I think it is disgusting that the models are so supper skinny. Yes, I think it is a problem for young girls self-esteem. What I am saying is that the runway would really be smarter if they designed clothes that normal people could actually wear. But, maybe that is the point of being elite. Only the super rich can afford thier clothes. So maybe the super rich should just stop buying them. That, or laws passed by the government are the only things that are going to solve the problem. Honestly. 50 years ago, no one thought being that thin was cool. I hope that the designers have really pushed things to the absolute limit this time, and that the pendulum will actually swing back toward full figured gals like myself.

Lisa 10-25-2006 @ 3:23PM

Well I am 5'10. 118 and I look great, I eat like a pig. I do mean a pig. Live in Philly where I have lots of hoagies, cheesesteaks, soft pretzels, etc. Never had a runway or modeling problem. I do mostly wedding stuff. I love being thin and having my clothes fit nicely.

Lisa

Kathy T 10-25-2006 @ 3:29PM

I understand why people don't want to see super skinny models due to it's unhealthy and it makes a bad role model...however which would you prefer to see on the runway a thin model or an obese model?

Gayla 10-25-2006 @ 3:41PM

I'd would like to see a variety of models on the runways. We are all different and all sizes. Show a variety of things, designs and sizes of clothing made to fit EVERYONE.

JKL 10-25-2006 @ 3:47PM

The bottom line in my opinion is children, teenagers and young adults are feeling like they are judged by what they look like and feel if they don't look like these models, then they might feel they are not skinny enough and ultimately they grow to feel unaccepted by others and more importantly themselves. Eating disorders are rampant in our society and having all these unattainable figures out there does not help the situation. That is why it matters whether or not super thin models are on these runways worldwide.

pamela 10-25-2006 @ 3:49PM

i don't think the choice, Kathy, is super-thin vs obese. There is "thin", and then there is "sickly thin"...and these girls (they don't look like women by any stretch, no pun intended) on the runway and in Hollywood look ill. I agree that clothes look better on slender people, but on those who actually have a figure with some curves...not fat, or even medium sized, but slender...

Have you ever seen any of these types of girls (sickly thin) NAKED? Eww, I have, at my gym in the locker room... These girls look like they have the bodies of 9 year old boys, it is NOT sexy at all, and I cannot imagine a man lusting after a 5'10" woman weighing 110 lbs, no matter how pretty her gaunty face looks. Plus, with the stringy hair that's all the rage now - yuch.

Betty Catherwood 10-25-2006 @ 3:55PM

To all you people out there who just love to see these ultra-thin models--Don't you realize most of them look like Concentration Camp victims!? What kind of message is that to young people? A woman who is 5 ft. 11 could easily weigh 135 pounds and still be considered very thin. Those of you out there who think bones sticking out on a model makes them look great are missing something in their collective brains. To all you too skinny models, I say EAT SOMETHING!!!

Jennifer 10-25-2006 @ 3:56PM

Oh please, I'm so sick of hearing the "Which would you rather see - a stick thin model or an obese model?". How about neither? Both of those are extreme ends of the spectrum and that's what this whole argument is about, because people want to see natural, *healthy* models, not models who feel the need to have eating disorders - and that includes both overeating AND undereating. You can be slender without being anorexic or showing every bone in your ribcage, and that's how most of women in America (and other countries) are. I don't see why it has to be one extreme or the other, why can't there just be a healthy middle point? Both anorexia and obesity are equally unhealthy, I would just like to see normal women on the runway.

Tina 10-25-2006 @ 4:02PM

There is a happy medium between a "thin model or an obese model", and that would be a normal sized one. I don't think people are expecting "obese models" when they express concern for both the models themselves who are expected to maintain an abnormally low weight even at the cost of their health, and for the people, especially very young or insecure women, who are easily influenced to be equally thin, even if it isn't the way their bodies are meant to be. They just think that normally sized people (the majority) should be represented. After all, isn't that what models are supposed to be for? To give us an idea of what the clothes will look like on a real person as opposed to the hanger?

For the person who said that they were glad they were thin and their clothes fit nicely: I thought I detected an insinuation (and I apologize if it wasn't meant) that if you're not thin, your clothes WON'T fit nicely. I'm not a size 2, I'm a size 10, but my clothes fit nicely. I have a friend who is a size 16, and her clothes fit nicely. Being thin isn't what makes them fit nicely. Wearing your correct size, along with buying clothes that are cut well, is.

Orsolya 10-25-2006 @ 4:01PM

What you need to remember is that high-fashion runway is not about the girl, its about the clothes. (You've seen it: the super-thin glamorous model with the UNattractive face..and youre thinking, wow, she's ugly..how come she gets to be a model??) That's why designers choose super-skinny models to show off their creations; because they are literally performing the function of a (walking) clothes-hanger. You cannot create a hanger-illusion with a big girl.
However, I think that while skeleton-like women can be beautiful in a morbid sort of way, they are NOT the most attractive women on Earth.
So who gets my winning vote? The Victoria's Secret Models. They are tastefully slim, yet still have curves--and they look healthy. That is the figure I keep myself at. I eat what I want, and I work out. That's healthy AND beautiful.

JKL 10-25-2006 @ 4:08PM

What is even more amusing to me is these women who lose all this weight and look like skeletons but can fit into size 1 jeans (wow, what an accomplishment) are clueless that most men will find them unattractive. Opposites attract and as Pamela mentioned they take on the shapes of boys which are square shapes. Men already are square shaped and are looking for some curves and most men I know like a woman with a little meat on her bones. A woman with a butt and thighs and hips and basically beauty unlike their own. Our beauty as women intrigues men and if we become like them then we are out of touch with what being a beautiful woman truly is.

maggie alfonso 10-25-2006 @ 4:05PM

models are getting skinnier and skinnier due to the standards of the designers themselves...these are mostly men who are gay, and their view the only beautiful bodies are those of men ......wide shoulders. no hips...long, lean....similar to twelve, thirteen year old boys......women have to realize that we are being made to erase all traces of womanhood-small waists, wide hips, a round butt, etc.-from our bodies...in effect, making us look more like boys than what we are....and we keep falling for it.....go to Europe and you will see how much a real woman's body is appreciated....