Fashion industry demands thinness

Wow, what a revelation.

The most sought after runway models have long legs, torsos and arms; think Miranda Kerr, Gisele Bundchen and Kate Moss.

Models who succeed need to be slim because clothes supposedly look better on lean bodies, and designers are trying to sell their artistic creations to the consuming world.

The latter model their fashion pieces on the best suited clothes horses because of a business decision, and who can criticise them for that?

Certainly not an editor of a fashion magazine.

Australia's Next Top Model runner-up Cassi van den Dungen, 21, hit headlines this week after Marie Claire editor Jackie Frank said she was appalled at the sight of thin legs (!) on designer Alex Perry's fashion runway.

Ok, yes, Miss van den Dungen was rather bony but why single out her?

Why should a magazine editor make a statement about this particular woman when the entire fashion industry, in all of its forms, has for years developed, sold and airbrushed the ideal body type as ... slim.

You are never going to see a size 14-plus woman parading down high-end fashion runways, posing in fashion shoots or in the pages of teenage magazines.

Unless of course fashion makers deliberately choose fuller figured women as part of an "inspirational" plus-size feature, proclaiming a celebration of curves.

The pro-slim ideal is everywhere. When was the last time a window mannequin in Launceston had big thighs, hips and breasts? Um, never.

To attack a model for being too thin, and stating that she is unhealthily thin is just plain old hypocritical when the employment industry in which she was fostered demands thin- ness.

That same industry needs to begin hiring and commemorating all body types, be it slim, skinny, small or big hipped, big-butted, heavy breasted or tiny framed without making a song and dance about it, and needs to take on the responsibility of changing the aspirations of the young and old to be thin, or thinner, muscly, or musclier.

These professionals can surely make any body type look fantastic, it is, after all, what they do.