Archive for January, 2007
A Spanish fashion designer used illegal African immigrants as models at a Barcelona fashion show to draw attention to the plight of thousands of poor migrants who embark on dangerous sea expeditions for a chance at better lives in Europe.
Eight Senegalese immigrants paraded down the catwalk in white and beige outfits Thursday as part of the show, which also featured a white wooden fishing boat - the same type many illegal immigrants use to reach Spain’s Canary Islands off west Africa.
Antonio Miro, the fashion designer, used inmates as models in a show last year and said in Thursday’s show he wanted to show his support for the immigrants, some of whom were in the process of obtaining working papers in Spain and others of whom were illegal.
“It’s a way of giving them a tiny bit of me,” Miro said, adding that the eight models were paid a small fee.
But a group representing Senegalese immigrants in Spain criticized the show, saying it may inspire more people to make the risky sea voyage. Many Africans die along the way.
“Every day there are mothers who weep for their sons lost at sea,” said Abdoulaye Konate, of the group AISE. “It’s not the best idea to give work to these eight illegal immigrants.” About 31,000 migrants fleeing poverty in Africa reached the Canary Islands by boat in 2006, almost as many arrivals as in the previous four years combined. The immigrants are sent back to their home countries if Spain has a repatriation accord with them, but many end up on the streets on the European mainland.
The vast majority of immigrants leave the west African coast bound for the Canary Islands in crowded open boats called “cayucos,” though others attempt to reach mainland Spain’s southern coast by crossing the Mediterranean from north Africa.
A non-governmental organization that advocates for immigrants in Spain praised Miro’s idea of using the Senegalese in the show.
“As long as it is done in good taste, fashion is a form of expression like the cinema or painting,” said Javier Perez, of the group SOS Racismo. “It’s good that not only NGOs denounce the situation the immigrants are going through when they come by boat to Spain.”
January 22nd, 2007
Australian model Gemma Ward is going to exchange her career in fashion industry to career as an actress. She will star in The Black Balloon, a film set in her native country. Gemma who was enthusiastic to pursue a career in film for some time now, will skip most of the catwalks in the upcoming season. She is only expected to appear on Paris’s ready-to-wear catwalk shows.
The Black Balloon film is directed by Elisa Down and it tackles an adolescent boy difficulty in coming to terms with having autistic brother. Gemma Ward will play the girlfriend of the movie’s central character. The role of boy’s mother will be played by celebrated Australian actress Toni Collette.
Ward, who was the face of numerous fashion campaigns, including Prada, Yves Saint Laurent and Calvin Klein will also star in upcoming American horror flick, The Strangers, alongside Liv Tyler.
At just sixteen, Ward was the youngest model chosen to be in a Vogue shoot of nine ‘It Girls’ in the modeling world, including fellow supermodels Daria Werbowy, Natalia Vodianova, Karolina Kurkova and Gisele Bundchen. Gemma Ward, who opened many of the major shows last season has been on catwalks for such designers as Alexander McQueen, Chanel, Gucci and many more. Ward has also appeared on the covers of prestigious fashion magazines such as Vogue, W and Time Magazine’s Style and Design issue.
January 21st, 2007
Troubled musician Pete Doherty refuses to marry his supermodel girlfriend Kate Moss.
The golden tabloid couple who are rarely out of the papers, allegedly ‘tied the knot’ in a ceremony in Thailand earlier this month-a rumour which both parties strongly deny.
The Babyshambles singer told recent gig goers ,’not to believe the rumours’ and that the pair were very happy ‘as they were’.
Doherty went on to add, ‘Kate and I are in love, I worship her, but we are not going to go down the aisle’. However, there is rumour that the couple are to be wed in the UK this month.
No charges were brought against the singer who was recently stopped by Police in a stolen car.
January 20th, 2007
Stunning Magdalena Sciupider came to the states with her family in the early nineties with dreams of a wonderful life. The Poland native always valued and respected family and friends, and believed in strong work ethic. She always said “Set no limits for yourself and shoot straight for the moon”. If she wants something, she will make sure she gets it.
As a young teen she entered a state wide teen pageant where she climbed the ranks and won. Her striking good looks and flawless figure caught the attention of an agent. She was quickly signed by Ford Model Management of Chicago. This is when her passion for modeling really took off. Throughout the next two years she travelled around the world following her dreams… FMD had the chance to interview this amazing person!
read Magdalena’s interview on FMD
January 19th, 2007
It took the deaths of four emaciated young Brazilian women to goad the fashion industry into attacking the twin maladies of anorexia and bulimia. In Madrid and in Milan, fashion show organizers have banned those deemed too thin from taking part. And in Brazil, where similar steps are planned, supermodel Gisele Bundchen has decried as unhealthy the obsession with thinness as the way to success.
Indeed. Thin may be fashionable to many, but there ought to be limits when the consequence can be a premature death.
Last September, Spain’s association of fashion designers banned too-thin models from participating. And at Milan’s Fashion Week next month, models will be accepted or rejected based on a body mass index, the ratio of weight to the square of a model’s height. Thus, for example, a model who is 5 feet, 8 inches must weigh at least 122 pounds.
It’s ironic that the recent deaths in one of the highest-paid industries occurred in Brazil, where, according to government figures, at least 8 percent of the 185 million population is considered too thin — but not from anorexia. Nearly all are malnourished because they are poor, a problem the government says it is combating with monthly stipends.
Not only fashion models have succumbed to the temptation to take risks to achieve perfection and success in their craft. Athletes who take steroids not only give themselves an advantage over competitors who don’t; they also put their health at risk, in a few cases unto death. But in the case of fashion models and some entertainers — remember Karen Carpenter? — obsessing about being thin can become a medical problem that deserves to be treated as such, including by those who employ people who, in some cases, risk starving themselves into an early grave.
January 18th, 2007
Supermodel Naomi Campbell pleads guilty Tuesday to misdemeanor assault charges for hitting her maid with a cell phone.
Campbell says she threw the phone at Ana Scolavino last march, but said she didn’t intend to hit her. Scolavino was treated for a head injury.
The judge ordered Campbell to pay the maid’s $363 medical bill, do five days of community service, and attend an anger management class.
Campbell was allegedly upset over a pair of missing jeans when she threw the phone.
January 17th, 2007
For evidence that digital information, once set free, cannot be controlled, consider the steamy video of Brazilian supermodel Daniela Cicarelli making out with her boyfriend on a Spanish beach and, um, furthering their activities in the water just offshore.
The couple persuaded a Brazilian court last fall to force the video-sharing site YouTube to remove copies, but other users simply resubmitted the video through their free accounts.
Earlier this month, Internet service providers in Brazil, responding to the judge’s order, briefly blocked access to YouTube entirely. But by then other Web sites already had the video, and many in Brazil even had stored personal copies on their computer hard drives.
Safekeeping information — video, photographs, documents — will become even tougher with the emergence of additional “Web 2.0″ services designed for users to easily share data…
January 16th, 2007
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