Canadian dept. store pulls catalog filled with super-skinny models
Filed under: Style in the News
(Have they learned? The catalog was pulled, but click the photo to see which models they're still using!)
Although exceedingly skinny -- and probably unhealthy -- models have proven to be an effective strategy for the advertisers, they're not so great for avoiding bad PR and controversy. As Canadian department store La Maison Simons found out last week, there's a growing movement of socially-conscious fashionistas out there ready to send in complaints whenever they see models that look like poster children for a campaign to fight hunger.
Simons released their 36-page fall catalog in stores as well as inserted into newspapers last week. Almost immediately, the Quebec-based retailer got over 200 customer complaints about the emaciated look of the models wearing their Simons TWIK brand. Not exactly the kind of response you want from a fall catalog. Before the public outrage could really boil over, company president Peter Simons made the decision to pull the catalogs, saying that the images are "destructive to a more vulnerable portion of the population which is exposed to anorexia."
Do you think these models are over-the-line?
[via Jezebel]
Remember back in 2003 when all you had to do to get your spouse in the mood was leave your Abercrombie & Fitch catalog lying around? In theory, the quarterly publication was supposed to feature the company's clothing line -- though you wouldn't have guessed that from all the photos of sexy 20-somethings, who (for the most part) weren't wearing any clothes at all. 
