Posts with tag anorexia

Shenae Grimes is determined to shake that anorexic-diva rap. Recently the 90210 star addressed the rumors again, insisting to People Magazine that in person she "doesn't have any bones sticking out."

Here at Stylelist we try to make sure we do a good job of covering fashion for all sizes. We can't say that we were ever big fans of the super size zero trend because of the insane amount of pressure it puts on normal non-celeb women to be unhealthy in their quest for thinness. So, we're relieved to hear cries from the rooftops that size zero is back out and curves are back in!

Nicole Richie used to send emails to people saying nobody over 100 pounds would be allowed into her parties -- and there would be scales at the door. Coco Rocha said that designers would tell her, "The look this year is anorexic. We don't want you to be anorexic, we just want you to look it." And just recently, sources reported that the CW network sent out a memo saying that the girls on the new 90210 need to stay under 110 pounds. So, the girls of Hollywood have had to come up with a new method to stay on top of this sick trend.

Here's a quick answer to that question. If you're on the cover of US Weekly, with the headline "TOO THIN FOR TV" across your chest? Then you absolutely are too thin.

This month's Teen Vogue features an article on orthorexia, which experts say is an obsession with eating only "good" foods.

Orthorexics may stick to a stringent raw-foods diet, become obsessed with their sodium intake, or even subsist on homemade, organic baby food. (In other words, orthorexics are consumed by their food, rather than the other way around.)

One girl quoted in Teen Vogue even says, ""I can't help but look down on my friends when they give in to temptations like pizza or ice cream."

This is a model from the Cia Maritima runway show at Sao Paulo Fashion Week. Next to this nearly anorexic figure, we suppose anyone would look fat.

Because while the fashion industry claims to have realized the error of its ways -- denouncing ultra-skinny models, and learning to love the "real women" of the world -- it turns out those revelations must have been a passing fancy. Karolina Kurkova, a Victoria's Secret model, appeared in the same show, and response has been scathing -- just because of a little cellulite.

Stories like this make us sick -- not as sick as the models, though. Coco Rocha attended the CFDA conference on "The Beauty of Health," which was held to address problems with eating disorders in the fashion industry. While there she spoke out about the pressure to lose weight and how it drove her to take diuretics, amongst other unhealthy things she did to her body.

Apparently those French women who don't get fat? Turns out some of them have anorexia. And the government is stepping in to try to stop it.

The Guardian UK reports that the France's lower house of parliament adopted a measure that makes it illegal to "incite extreme thinness."

For a long time now there has been a problem in the fashion industry with clothes that are too tiny, being worn by models that are too thin, walking down runways that are probably too small. This, in turn, has affected the average celebrity who now also feels the need to wear a size zero in order to fit into designer sample clothing. And that has now changed the way we regular women feel about ourselves as well. The pressure from society and the media to be smaller and smaller is more intense than ever!

But, one thing has remained constant in during the thin is in era. Normal men have professed their love for normal size women. Polls are always coming out claiming that men prefer real women with curves, or that guys like a girl with a little meat on her bones.

Not so, says Amanda Fortini, in this month's Elle Magazine. At 5'6" she actually got down to about 100 pounds, and says that men were actually much more into her at that weight. I was actually shocked to hear what she had to say about her experience as a super thin waif of a woman. Amanda wrote, "Many men, I quickly learned, really do like frighteningly lean women, whatever they may claim to the controversy. As an average, medium-size young woman, I was unremarkable, innocuous. As a skinny slip of a thing, I was something of a sensation. In restaurants and at parties, men flirted at me extravagantly...As a male friend once put it to me, semifacetiously, 'A little anorexia is hot.'"

Turns out that Amanda actually had a tropical parasite in her intestines, digesting her food for her. Hmm, are parasites the new binge and purge?

Anyways, men, I'd love to hear what you think. Is it true that someone who looks a little anorexic is hot? Be honest!

Via Big Fat Deal.

There's a zen koan that says if you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.

Now I don't know anything about meeting Buddha, but I can say that if you meet a model on the road who says she loves to eat, don't believe her -- especially if she's ex-reality TV-star Brittny Gastineau.

The raven-haired Gastineau recently told Jay Leno's "Ross the Intern" that she stayed thin through anorexia.

Was she kidding? Well, if you trace Gastineau's incredible weight loss over the past year (I don't -- I honestly didn't know who she was until thirty minutes ago), you'd probably conclude that she was speaking the truth. But still, the confession seems awfully weird.

One thing is certain, admitting to an eating disorder is not a good way to jump start a modeling career, which her friends say is the motivation behind her shrinking frame. Even though most agents and designers would be chomping at the bit to get a 5'11 girl who weighs just 105 pounds, I doubt anyone is willing to touch her now that she's publicly admitted she's an anorexic. The fashion industry can't continue to exist as it is without putting forth the illusion that models its healthy and naturally thin. The fact is once a model says she's sick, the gig's up.

Models have always been on the top of the controversy list. There is Naomi Campbell knocking people out with cell phones and Kate Moss' love drama with rocker Pete Doherty – but the real drama lies in the pencil thin no-name models that grace the world's runways.

Last year there was a lot of talk about models being too thin. Some countries considered banning underweight models from runway shows. The question is did it work? Are models putting on weight?

The answer, unfortunately, is no. A New York Times article called "Still Too Thin, and Getting Younger" reveals that not much has changed in the fashion industry saying that ".One might be startled to find, scattered on the makeup table alongside the iPod and the Motorola SLVR (a device that electronics blogs approvingly call the anorexic phone), other currently common tools of the trade like Vicodin, clenbuterol and Marlboro Lights."

In case you didn't know, Vicodin is a prescription painkiller that is used in the fashion industry as an appetite-suppressant. Even more horrifying, clenbuterol, which is a steroid that showed significant weight loss in horses (yes, horses people), is being used by models to keep their weight down. Then there is the ever popular nicotine (cigarettes), which also acts an appetite suppressant.

Sounds like the perfect recipe for death to me -- all of this for a career that, if you are lucky, will span for eight years. It's so very sad.

Amid growing concern over eating disorders within the fashion industry, it's now been revealed that Allegra Beck Versace, the 20-year-old daughter of Donatella Versace, is anorexic. The news was released in the hopes of clarifying some of the rumors circulating throughout the media -- including that she was under 24-hour supervision in a medical and psychiatric facility.

In fact, a spokesman says that Allegra is living at home in the United States, where she's currently a student.

Fortunately, according to her parents, "She is receiving the best medical care possible to help overcome this illness and is responding well."

While this news isn't surprising, some say neither is the fact that Allegra is anorexic in the first place. Growing up in the fashion industry -- in particular in the highly image-conscious Versace household -- did the fashion heiress ever stand a chance?

Two weeks ago, the CFDA announced a new set of guidelines to discourage eating disorders in the fashion industry. Wimpy at best, grossly inadequate at worst, CFDA's regulations seemed to tread almost too lightly on the controversial relationship between fashion and public health.

Across the pond in Spain, the game plan for curbing the tide of eating disorders is much more aggressive. On Tuesday, the government, the textile industry and a group of prominent fashion designers released a comprehensive agreement to promote healthy bodies and body images. According to the new agreement, size 46 (U.S. equivalent size 14) clothes will no longer be considered plus-sized. Models in Spain will also be required to wear at least a size 36 (US size 4) in order to participate in runway shows.

The only thing that seems a little unclear about these regulations is how the rules will be practically enforced. Will there be officials from a governing body? Is it self-regulation?

Other than that, however, I think this is a step in the right direction. You'd be hard pressed to find a model on the runway that is any bigger than a size 34, so if the sample sizes grow to size 36, presumably the models will eventually follow suit. If the designers are on board with the agreement, I don't think there is any reason to suspect that this won't be a successful measure.

On the Today Show this morning, representatives from the CFDA announced new industry-wide guidelines for models. The decision to make these regulations was spurred by last season's controversial crackdown on underweight, unhealthy cat walkers in Europe. While the American guidelines are not technically rules, the CFDA says they are the first attempt towards responsible self-regulation in the fashion industry. The CFDA says that it can't fully assume the responsibility for something as complex as eating disorders, but they do hope to begin campaign of awareness with these new standards.

The new guidelines include:

• educate models, parents, designers and agencies on the early warning signs of eating disorders
• models must seek help if they have an eating disorder
• those with eating disorders cannot model without a doctor's approval
• supplying healthy meals, nutrition and fitness education backstage and on shoots

Well, there you have it. The fashion industry decides they need to take action and what do they do? They come up with the flimsiest set of regulations imaginable, all of which are voluntary and none of which have any enforceability.

I mean come on -- fitness and nutrition education? I'm so sure that a bunch of underage girls who barely understand English are going to pay attention to some nutritionist when they have the option of doing a line of blow in the bathroom or popping a handful of amphetamines with their diet coke.

Way to bunt it, CFDA!

Here at Styledash, we are not fans of celebrity stylish Rachel Zoe. This fall, Deidre kept us up-to-date on the juicy details of Nicole Richie's (former Zoe client) split with the fashion maven who popularized the oversized sunglasses and the undersized body.

Now it looks like the mastermind behind "malnourished chic" will cash in on her infamous reputation by posing in advertisements for Samsung's new "slimmer" BlackJack phone.

The ad agency behind the campaign denies that there is a connection between the cell phone and the stylist's controversial aesthetic. Rather "the advertising ... is for the mainstream population. Very few of them would even know Rachel's name, certainly not any of the rumors that surround her."

Say what?!?!?

I'm no advertising expert, but it seems to me that using a celebrity no one has heard of or recognizes isn't a particularly good marketing strategy.

Let's be honest, everyone knows who Rachel Zoe is and what Nicole Richie has said about her in the post-rehab period*. If she wasn't famous, Samsung would never consider using her for an expensive ad campaign.

*"What 35-year-old raisin face whispers her order of three pieces of asparagus for dinner?"