CELEBRITY STYLE SPY: See all the latest celeb photos

Karl Lagerfeld says people prefer skinny models

By Lucy Halfhead on Tuesday 13 October 2009

Print
Share
Comment

Karl Lagerfeld - Fashion News - Marie Claire

German designer Karl Lagerfeld has shrugged off concerns about the fashion industry's obsession with ultra-thin models.

He says countries such as France have problems with a rise in overweight people rather than underweight. But the runways in Paris this week have been filled by girls with child-like figures and stick-thin legs.

‘We don't see anorexic (girls). The girls are skinny. They have skinny bones,' Lagerfeld told reporters after his show. Asked whether the fashion industry was to blame for eating disorders, the designer said: ‘No, that is something to sell papers.'

The pony-tailed Lagerfeld, who has himself drastically shed weight, is presenting clothes for his Karl Lagerfeld label in Paris, as well as for fashion house Chanel.

A recent survey showed almost a third of French people were overweight and 12.4 per cent were obese, while around 5 per cent were underweight.

Lagerfeld, 71, also reacted to the magazine Brigitte's announcement last week that it will in future use ‘ordinary, realistic' women rather than professional models in its photoshoots. He said the decision by Germany's most popular women's magazine was driven by overweight women who did not like to be reminded of their weight issues.

‘These are fat mummies sitting with their bags of crisps in front of the television, saying that thin models are ugly,' Lagerfeld said in an interview with Focus magazine. He added that the world of fashion was all to do ‘with dreams and illusions, and no one wants to see round women'.

Brigitte's decision follows a recent appeal by British Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman to major fashion houses to end the ‘size-zero' culture, and a scandal over a Ralph Lauren advertising campaign in which a model was ‘thinned down' using computer graphics.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE HEALTH NEWS

Tuesday 13 October 2009

Have your say ...

Add your own comment

Being a size 16 myself and only 5 foot 4, I am considered obese. Most people are shocked to hear that as I am in proportion. However, I would NOT like to see pictures of me in a catalogue or runway as I know I am no clothes horse. I receive a catalogue for larger women and it uses larger models (bearing in mind cameras do add pounds on to a person). However looking at these pictures, I can agree that smaller women do make the clothes look better in the pictures. On the other hand, it would be nice to see a size 10/12 woman rather then such small women on the runway. It is an age old debate that will continue on I am sure for decades to come. As a larger woman, I can only say how the photos of these skinny women make me feel. I see them in clothes I like, and I think to myself, well, maybe I would look good in that, generally to find that I have been kidding myself and it looks hideous, so I think to myself, well, Iâ€™ll diet and I will look that good. So it has good and bad effects on me personally. There are so many opinions in the fashion world. I just wish they would try to promote more positive thinking for women in general, whether they are big and wish to feel happy or whether they are too skinny and want to feel happy. Everyone has the right to be comfortable in their skin and thatâ€™s the thing that should be promoted over all else.
Comment by Emma on October 13 12:43

I am a size 12, which is normal at 5 foot 8" not over weight or obese. I do however have curves. I think for Karl to say that no one wants to see round women is rather presumptive, my boyfriend's favourite bits of me are the round bits, boobs and bum. I think that most men and I would hope most women would prefer to see women who look like women and not this inclination for models who look like boys. I can only assume that this is driven by designers who prefer the young male form to the female one.
Comment by Fi on October 13 13:17

It's not what your boyfriend prefers or likes ( to Fi)!!! Nobody wants to a see a horse on run way when her boobs bounce up and down and her bum sticking out from her knickers! Modeling is a job and requires certain size and shape! So yes models should be skinny and max size 10 ...
Comment by AG on October 13 14:02

People who demand larger models overlook the fact that fashion and beauty products are aspirational. We buy them because we want to look like the absolute best version of ourselves possible, and a model who looks like us can't sell this fantasy.

Dove learnt this the hard way - when they used 'real' women to advertise for them sales fell. And I see to remember this magazine famously banning skinny models. Didn't the editor at the time end up losing her job over that as circulation fell?
Comment by Lindsay on October 13 18:57

Designers are trying to make their clothes look appealing, not make people feel good about themselves.
And their clothes just look better on tall, thin models. Like AG said, modelling is a job - and for this job, the models need to make the clothes look good.
Comment by Cat on October 13 19:06

Living in Glasgow I see enough overweight/obese people in the street...magazines are meant to be aspirational - I agree with AG, size 10 max.
Comment by Pod on October 13 19:50

I think most people probably know that fashion, in it's couture form, is a world solely occupied by the rich and thin. Karl knows this, that's why he lost a large amount of weight. I don't it's likely to change any time soon. Models do have to be thin, and tall, because that body shape shows the clothes off clearly without the distractions of anything too human.

That said, there is no reason why magazines should follow suit. Runway is about fantasy, magazines are about translating that fantasy to reality. A number of magazines do show how different clothes look on different body shapes, but most fall short of using actual models, or make it a once-a-year feature.

But the real problem is that everyone wants to be a model these days. Quite apart from the fact that it's always been a job for the few, not the many, it's also not that great an aspiration to have. It's an industry based on luck, not worth. We should not be telling our daughters that being a clothes hanger is the highest aspiration in life.

Comment by Jen on October 13 21:34

Surely it is all relative. I don't think having slightly curvier models means that they have to be obese. There are women who are slim and look good, but just aren't built like a stick. I agree that clothes look good on some people more than others, but you don't have to be built really skinny to look good. There is a big gap between being obese and being stick-thin.
Comment by Rach on October 14 09:01

Skinny models are just clothes hangers.

Why can't designers make clothes that fit normal women? If a dress looks better on the hanger than on the body, there's something wrong with the designer or the dress, not the body.

Designers should strive to be better tailors and make women look their best. Anyone can draw a dress with a ruler, but how about with a pair of compasses?

Comment by Bee on October 14 16:48

They have skinny bones....... Ha ha ha

If we look at our skelleton, they are allmost identical.

So Mr. lagerfeld is kinda stupid
Comment by SÃ¹sanna on October 14 17:26

Have to say i agree with lagerfeld on this one. when you want your clothes to look hot, you put them on extremely hot people. that would mean tall thing...aka perfect so people need to quit bitching and hit the gym!
Comment by mallory on October 15 06:16

That lagerfield is such a retard...its not only "fat mummies" who think that skinny women look ugly, I for one am not fat, I'm just a regular slim woman and I think skinny women are often ugly, because they tend to look shapeless and sometimes scary when it goes too far. Yet just because I dont want to see them does not mean I am a "fat mummie".

And he is so pathetic trying to defend the skinny model trend by saying no one wants to see round women... as though only "round" and skinny women exist in the world. How about just normal, slim women? Whats wrong with that??

Its obvious he is just talking garbage to defend the industry in which he works when in the real world we all know that its not just bitter fat women who think skinny is ugly, and that skinny models ARE a huge cause of anorexia in immature influencable teenagers. Aside from being directly called fat its got to be one of the biggest causes of anorexia in my honest opinion
Comment by Sarah on October 28 06:23

In my opinion i'm doing a progect based on modellig & i think that the modelling world should show natural beauty you dont need to hide your face and body behind lies, not nessessary.
Comment by Annonymous on November 24 14:32

To be totally honest I dont see how designers make their money when their clothes are hideous! I would not even wear some of the things I see for Holloween! I digress. I think they should design clothes for larger people because it would double their profits and make consumers fell better. Another thing, I would like to see a model that looks like me in designer clothes for I can see how it would look like on me. The plus size models are tall and have a flat stomach so they dont look like me. I would LOVE to see one that has rolls and is short and loveable like moi, but until then its looking good in my knock offs! And to those that disagree... Shut up and go eat a cheeseburger!
Comment by Ms. Cat on February 11 06:06

Read all 14 comments