Karl Lagerfeld says people prefer skinny models

He shrugs off concerns over skinny models

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