The debate that never ends

I was very recently having a debate with one of my best friends on whether or not models are healthy normal girls. Being someone who is seriously obsessed with models and who lauds thinness (yeah sorry ladies, i'm for the skinny camp) and of course, being something of a fashion connoisseur as well as having worked with many models, my point of view is very much arrested on the fact that although i do recognize that some of them do have very serious problems and deep core issues (who doesn't?) - an undeniable fact - most of the girls we see today are regular ladies that happen to be very thin and tall. Of course, a bunch of underlying contingencies factor in, like the fact that they are really young and impressionable when they start out, most of them are from very harsh eastern european countries and view things very differently. But i believe that like in all walks of life, you have people who have a head on their shoulders and others who don't. It isn't a secret that there are some crucial topics at hand in the whole skinny models debate (we've all heard about THIS as of now), but an excellent point my dear comrade made sure to raise is not that the girls we glorify are teenagers and skin and bones, but whether or not they are healthy. She works for a prestigious international luxury label (better left unnamed) and being backstage at the recent show last week, she was shocked and appalled to see how the girls seemed rundown, lifeless and without a spark. Not only did they appear to be lethargic and spiritless, but above all, their job seemed to be the most tedious affair they were forced upon.

Do you think that has to do with the fact that once Paris fashion week rolls around, all our dearly beloved models are simply beat or is it plain and simple due to the fact that their profession is running them to the ground? The debate could go on forever and i haven't really expressed my personal views on the matter (they highly differ from my friends'...) but at the risk of opening a can of worms, i was wondering what you, my dear fashion lovers, thought of the whole squabble? Who's responsible and which way do we point the finger? Now it goes without saying that every industry has its perils, including life itself (cocaine is a hell of a drug, in the words of Chapelle via Rick James, and it certainly is not exclusive to the world of fashion and it's important to defend that), so why does fashion always get cornered? Is it because it is a world filled with excess and unattainable dreams? Is it because most people look up to what the industry projects and when they don't measure up, they have something to blame? Or is it because people are fed up and want to see a change? When people from the inside start speaking out, you have to stop and ask yourself certain questions, that's absolutely unequivocal. But in short, i like to think that it's a little bit of column A and a little bit of column B.

A look at Sasha at the beginning of fashion month in New York and then at the end. Clearly, the girl is exhausted (as made evident by the serious bags under her eyes). But then again, who in the fashion industry is not half dead by the end of that said month? Do models have the shit end of the stick, or are they put at the forefront of the debacle because they're in the spotlight?


(click to enlarge)

[photos via style.com]

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