A private word is better than no word at all
More than halfway through the autumn/winter 2023 shows, and it’s becoming apparent that people aren’t talking about what they should be talking about – the clothes – but about the bodies beneath them. Too many designers are using models that look worryingly, dangerously thin. It’s like 2000 all over again. Except this time around, people are more fearful of calling it out.
Why? We are living in times where some people argue that extreme thinness is a valid choice, and that to criticise anyone’s body shape, even someone on the brink of starvation, is be guilty of skinny-shaming, which is as bad as fat-shaming. Only they’re not the same thing. Extreme, unhealthy thinness tends to be caused by an eating disorder, a mental illness which has the highest mortality rate of any mental illness.
Fashion doesn’t cause eating disorders, but the use of ultra thin models does help fuel the idea that extreme thinness is something to aspire to. No-one should want to be a part of this toxicity. We should call it out whichever side of the fence we’re on, and however uncomfortable it might be.
PRs who find themselves compromised don’t even have to say anything publicly: a private word is better than no word at all. Surely it’s better to speak out than have your silence taken for complicity.
What Laura Thinks…
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