Archive for January, 2007
Brazilian model Ana Carolina Reston died of complications caused by her eating disorder. The 21-year-old weighed just 6st. The outcry caused by her death has seen fashion designers from Milan to Madrid declare an end to using sick, stick-thin models. But last week the British Fashion Council announced it would not be banning size-zero models from London Fashion Week in a fortnight.
Here, Ana’s mum Miriam Reston Marcan tells the Mirror how, when her daughter arrived for her first foreign fashion shoot, the 8st model was warned she was too fat. And how, two years later and two stone lighter, she died in agony…
‘I’ve now lost my precious daughter, who started out like every other girl wanting to be someone in life, but died a victim of the fashion industry that tells girls that the thinner they are the better.
As the models parade along the catwalks during London Fashion Week, young girls around the world will be glued to the TV, dreaming of one day becoming just like them. I know because my gorgeous daughter Ana used to do the same. From as early as I can remember she was raiding my closet and parading around the house in my bras and high heels, asking people to take her photo.
Ana won her first contest at 13. Seeing her crowned beauty queen of our small town was one of the proudest moments of my life. Of course, we knew she would win – Ana was slim and elegant. All the other contestants were curvy. Soon after a fashion agent offered to introduce her to one of Brazil’s top modelling agencies, for a fee of $180.
Knowing just how much it meant to her we paid the money. From then on I would go everywhere with her and her modelling career quickly took off. Then she went on her first trip abroad. It was the first time she had travelled on her own. I was worried about her, but she was full of confidence and promised she would build a house for me when she returned. For her it was the start of her international career. She said she would come back a supermodel like Gisele Bundchen. It was there that her eating disorder started. On two occasions she was turned down for jobs because she wasn’t thin enough. One client even told her she was obese! Another said her arms were too fat and from that moment on she stopped using sleeveless tops.
Ana came home completely defeated. When I met her at the airport she just collapsed into my arms and said: “I failed, I’m finished.” Her confidence was completely destroyed. Ana had always been a slim girl but she had always eaten well. Now she hardly ate at all, she just drank fruit juice.
She was like a rag doll, there was no life left in her, no colour in her skin. Later she left Brazil again, this time to work in Mexico, and there things went from bad to worse. What angers me is everybody knew she was ill, the other girls, the agencies, everyone. At one point she told a fashion journalist she couldn’t eat any more, everything she tried to eat she vomited up again. But they were too interested in exploiting her, making money from her, to want to help her. From there she was sent to Japan by another agency, but on her first shoot she passed out. Other clients rejected her because she was too thin, and she came home three months later.
Five days before she died Ana did a shoot for the front cover of a popular Brazilian magazine. Despite being so obviously ill, she was still being portrayed as the face of fashion, a role model for other young, impressionable girls.
She died on November 14, 2006, of complications arising from anorexia. She had got a bladder infection, but her body was too weak for the medicine to have any effect.
Two days after she died, a teenage Brazilian girl who herself dreamed of being a cover girl also died from anorexia after refusing to eat so she could be as thin models like Ana and others she had since parading on the catwalk.
So my daughter’s death has possibly even led to others. It’s a vicious circle that keeps growing. It makes me so sad that London Fashion Week hasn’t banned size-zero girls from the catwalk. My girl’s death seems to have counted for nothing when it should have shocked the fashion world into changing for good.
How many more mothers will lose their daughters before designers start putting the girls’ lives before profit and image? It is too late for my family – our hearts are broken. But for other mothers there is still a chance.’
January 31st, 2007
Stunning Kirsty Hume is set to make her Mark on the high street …as the new face of M&S. She’s joining the store’s model dream team – which includes Twiggy, Laura Bailey, Elizabeth Jagger, Erin O’Connor and Noemie Lenoir – in a big-money deal.
They have starred in a series of high profile TV and newspaper ads, credited with turning round the ailing company’s fortunes. And M&S believe signing lovely Kirsty, 31, is another major coup for the retail giant.
Last night, her agent Jeanna Ridout said: “Kirsty is absolutely delighted to join their team as she grew up with M&S. She travelled to Majorca for the fashion shoot. She’s very excited about the clothes and hopes everyone will love them as much as she does.”
Kirsty, of Ayr, shot to fame as a 17-year-old schoolgirl after a top model agency spotted her potential. She went on to become one of the most sought-after catwalk models in the world, earning more than ?3.5million a year – even more than Kate Moss. She now lives on a farm in Woodstock, New York, with actor husband Donovan Leitch – son of 60s pop star Donovan – and two-year-old daughter Violet Jean.
Kirsty has cut back on work commitments since becoming a mum but she is still hair giant Pantene’s main model in the US and the face of designer make-up brand Bobbi Brown. And she was named model of the year at the Scottish Fashion Awards.
Jeanna said: “Violet Jean comes first and foremost with Kirsty. She’s a very devoted mum and works jobs around her daughter.
“Although Kirsty lives in the US, she gets home as much as she can because she loves being with her family in Scotland.
“She does get quite homesick.” She plans to visit her dad Russ and brother Elliot, 40, in Ayrshire in the spring.
January 31st, 2007
Organizers of London Fashion Week said Thursday they would not ban ultra-thin models from the catwalk, but stressed they had asked designers to use only “healthy” people in their shows.
The British Fashion Council said barring stick-thin models – as fashion weeks in Madrid and Milan have done – “is neither desirable nor enforceable.”
The council, a consortium of major fashion retailers and publishers that oversees London’s twice-yearly fashion weeks, said it recognized its responsibility to help promote a healthy body image.
“We have asked designers, model agencies and image makers to respect this responsibility and to use only healthy models for their collections. Additionally, we recommend that only models aged 16 or over are used,” the council said in a statement.
“We believe that regulation is neither desirable nor enforceable. What will make a difference is the commitment of the fashion industry to change attitudes through behavior and education.” The council said it was setting up a task force to create new guidelines for the fashion industry.
The debate over waif-like models has intensified in the past year as many models and celebrities appear increasingly thin.
In September, Madrid’s Fashion Week, the Pasarela Cibeles, announced it was banning models with a Body Mass Index, or height-to-weight ratio, below 18. A 5-foot-9 model weighing 125 pounds would have a BMI of 18. Milan’s fashion week also tightened its restrictions on underweight models.
The issue was back in the headlines in November, when 21-year-old Brazilian model Ana Carolina Reston died of causes linked to the eating disorder anorexia nervosa.
A British Cabinet minister who previously called for ultra-thin models to be banned backed the fashion council’s call for self-regulation.
“I urge strongly the designers taking part to support this,” said Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell.
“Too many teenage girls try to starve themselves into unhealthy thinness, at great risk to their health,” she said. “The fashion industry is hugely powerful in shaping the attitudes of young women and their feelings about themselves. Teenage girls aspire to look like their role models. If their role models are healthy, it will help inspire girls to be the same.”
Designers including Betty Jackson, Nicole Farhi and Julien Macdonald are due to showcase their autumn/winter collections at London Fashion Week beginning Feb. 12.
January 30th, 2007
Supermodel/entrepreneur Niki Taylor filed a lawsuit today in the United States District Court for the Central District of California against E! Entertainment Television, Inc., E! Networks Productions, Inc. and one of its producers, for fraud, breach of contract, false light invasion of privacy, slander and intentional infliction of emotional distress based on the production and airing this week of the premiere episode of E! Entertainment’s new series “Boulevard of Broken Dreams.”
Representatives of E! Entertainment secured interviews of Niki and her manager, Lou Taylor of Tri Star Sports and Entertainment, by falsely representing that the show would focus on Niki’s current life and professional endeavors, including her begin charitable foundation, her signature fragrance, her upcoming cosmetics line and her clothing boutique in Nashville. Contrary to these representations, however, the show focuses on hardships in Niki’s past and falsely characterizes Niki as one of various celebrities “who risked everything … and lost.”
E! Entertainment repeatedly aired the program this week despite demands from Niki’s attorneys that it pull the show from its line-up. In so doing, E! Entertainment “went too far,” according to the complaint filed by Caroline H. Mankey of Christensen, Glaser, Fink, Jacobs, Weil & Shapiro, LLP. “They neglected their journalistic obligations to report truthfully and accurately; they violated express promises they made to the plaintiff, supermodel Niki Taylor; and they demonstrated a reprehensible disregard for the substantial harm their actions would cause to Ms. Taylor.”
Niki says: “It’s with great disappointment and regret that I have had to file this suit, as I have had a long-standing and very positive professional relationship with E! Entertainment throughout my career. However, due to the misrepresentations and fraudulent actions by the network and its executives, I have no other option but to take this action to resolve this matter. My life is far from a ‘boulevard of broken dreams,’ and as a matter of fact, with my recent marriage, successful fragrance line, clothing boutique and women’s foundation, it’s better than it’s ever been! I hope that this unfortunate action serves to educate everyone who sees the show aired by E!, as to the true state of my life and career today.”
January 29th, 2007
We never thought the day would come when we’d feel sorry for Paris Hilton. Our world is askew.
Hilton’s rep says the walking blowup doll is “incredibly upset and angry” and feels “victimized” after a subscription-based website launched earlier this week, which offers users a glimpse at personal items that were auctioned off from her storage locker after she failed to pay her bill.
For $39.97 US/month, parisexposed.com, launched by David Hans Schmitt and Bardia Persa, offers subscribers a peek at Hilton’s most personal documents, including medical bills, sister Nicky’s marriage certificate, bank statements (including one with a balance of $9.26 US), and prescription bottles for painkillers Hydrocodone, sedatives Ambien and herpes medication Valtrex, reports the New York Post. The site also streams home videos, including one in which a Hilton pal has a pile of what looks like cocaine on his chest while boasting “This is how you do blow, everybody!”
The site is so damaging that Hilton is teaming up with former flame-turned-sex-tape-seller Joe Francis to shut it down.
“We’re pissed and I feel for Paris right now. She’s been victimized yet again,” said Girls Gone Wild creator Francis, who appears in many of the site’s home videos, reports the Post. “We want this thing down and we’re seeking monetary damages.
“They were taken for us only when we were dating,” Francis adds of the videos. “These guys have absolutely no right to use the images — they flat-out put them on the web with no permission. He messed with the wrong person.”
January 28th, 2007
Apparently, Gisele Bundchen no longer thinks of her ex-boyfriend as “king of the world.” Now, the supermodel is reportedly dating sports athlete Tom Brady.
A source recently gave PEOPLE magazine the inside scoop about the blossoming relationship, saying the Brazilian supermodel and New England’s Patriots quarterback began dating during the Christmas holidays.
Gisele has never been one to hide her feelings for the athlete, even telling The Herald in December that she would snatch him right away if he were single.
She said, “Tom Brady, definitely not too shabby. He’s pretty cute. All-American, that’s a good way to describe him. He’s cute, but if He’s cute, but if he has a girlfriend, he’s gay to me. There are too many men in the world to go after a man who has a woman. Life is too short.”
Brady previously dated girlfriend Bridget Moynahan for three years, however, when the couple split, sources say Gisele jumped on the chance to get closer to the sports star.
Rumors of the two dating first surfaced a few weeks ago when Gisele attended Brady’s game against the San Diego Chargers and was spotted waiting for him in the locker room afterwards.
January 27th, 2007
Who knew there could possibly be more Paris Hilton naughtiness that we haven’t already seen? The waste of space hotel heiress is considering legal action against parisexposed.com, a subscription-based website that launched Tuesday, which offers users a glimpse at Hilton’s personal videos, diaries, photos, address book and more. Owners of the website obtained the personal items, including video of Hilton taking a bubble bath, after they were auctioned off from an L.A. storage facility when the socialite failed to pay the $208 US bill for in Nov. 2005.
In addition to watching Hilton play “hide the rubber ducky,” parisexposed.com subscribers will also be able to access credit card bills, medical records, bank statements, love letters from Nick Carter and a selection of “never before seen sex videos,” according to the site.
Hilton’s overworked spokesperson, Elliot Mintz, tells the Associated Press, “We certainly are going to explore all of our legal options about this matter.”
There’s just one catch for all you pervs who want to take a peek at Paris’s personals: the site charges $37.95 US to subscribe. Or you can just head on over to YouTube for your 616th free viewing of the heartwarming classic One Night in Paris.
January 26th, 2007
British supermodel Naomi Campbell has expressed remorse for attacking her former maid with a mobile phone last March (06).
Since pleading guilty to the assault last week , Campbell was sentenced to community service and anger management classes in New York City – but the 36-year-old beauty is also undergoing a daily programme of meditation and prayer in a bid to curb her fiery temper.
She tells the New York Daily News, “I’m remorseful and regretful. I’m trying to live my life and do some things for charity. I’m taking my punishment, and I accept that. I’ve accepted my responsibility and that’s that. I have no idea what (community service) I’ll do. Whatever they tell me to do, I’ll do with my integrity, and that’s it.
“I work on myself daily. I work on my program of meditation and prayer and try to stick to it. It’s important to me.”
Meanwhile in other news …
Campbell Denies Witchcraft Claims
Naomi Campbell has quashed reports she has signed up to a witchcraft-like religion – insisting she was only linked to the faith by association.
January 25th, 2007
Paris Hilton has reached a plea agreement with prosecutors in her drunk-driving case, PEOPLE has learned.
Hilton entered a plea of no contest Monday to a lesser charge of reckless driving, and was placed on 36 months probation. She must also pay a fine of $390 and attend an alcohol education program.
Two weeks ago, the heiress pleaded not guilty to two misdemeanor counts of DUI and driving with a blood-alcohol level of .08 or higher.
Hilton, 25, was arrested Sept. 7 just after midnight for driving erratically in her silver Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren in Hollywood, according to the LAPD.
She scored a .08 on a Breathalyzer, the minimum blood-alcohol level to qualify as a DUI.
Following her release from jail, she called in to Ryan Seacrest’s L.A. radio show, explaining on-air that she hadn’t eaten anything all day and was on her way to a fast-food restaurant when she was pulled over.
Hilton’s rep could not be immediately reached for comment.
January 24th, 2007
Supermodel Gisele Bundchen says those in the fashion industry are not the ones to blame for the rising problem of anorexia, but parents are.
“I never suffered from this problem (anorexia) because I had a very strong family base. Parents are responsible, not the fashion industry,” she told O Globo newspaper in Friday’s edition.
The former girlfriend of actor Leonardo DiCaprio said being a model is a question of genetics, Reuters reported.
“Everybody knows that the norm in fashion is thin. But excuse me, there are people born with the right genes for this profession,” she said.
After Brazilian fashion model Ana Carolina Reston died last year from anorexia, criticism against the industry for hiring waifish models has been steadily increasing.
In September, Spain banned too-skinny models from fashion shows in Madrid.
Gisele, 26, who was ranked 16 on Forbes list of the 20 richest women in entertainment recently, is a native of Brazil.
She was visiting her home country this week for Fashion Rio, an event that has banned models under 16 and now requires proof of their good health.
Gisele said that as a child her peers teased her for being skinny. They called her names like Olive Oil, the character from the Popeye cartoon, but the fashion industry made her feel accepted.
“I never felt lonely because I always relied on my family.”
January 23rd, 2007
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