Standing up to pressure to be thin

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — When Joni Harbeck left Kansas to pursue a modeling career in New York she was 18 years old, 5-foot-11 tall and weighed 145 pounds.

She quickly got a strong message: Lose weight.

Once she was down 20 pounds, she was mainstreamed into the usual budding model routine. She was sent to Milan to build up her photo book before returning to New York and living in an East Village apartment with other models.

There she saw signs of a disturbing reality of the modeling industry. She found evidence that two models suffered bulimia, an eating disorder in which people binge on food and purge.

"There were bags of vomit everywhere," says Harbeck, who now does New York fashion runway and photography work.

Harbeck's experience points to a tragic side of a glamorous profession. Catwalk models are thin. Some, of course, are naturally small because they are young, 15 or 16 years old, and not yet developed.

But they are all under a mandate to hold down their weight. Some diet to the extreme. A few go too far.

"There is so much pressure from the other girls as well. You see how thin they are," says Harbeck.

Pamela Swann, booking director at Hoffman International Agency in Overland Park, Kan., agrees that models can be too thin. When skinny women sign with the agency, she advises them to find a gym and develop muscle tone.

"We want them to look healthy, to have a glow," she says.

But the story shifts when young women move to a larger market. Because their clients want models to fit sample sizes, most agencies consider a lean 34-inch hip as acceptable criteria. A tall woman, 5-foot-10 or 5-foot-11, which many successful models are, with 34-inch hips, may have a skeletal build, says Jennifer Mangan, president of Exposure modeling agency. The young women have to choose between long and lean or toned and curvaceous.

Hot topic

For months the skinny issue has caused tremors in the international fashion industry. Having simmered below the surface for years, it has risen to a global controversy among fashion capitals with advocates for and against regulation.

Last fall two young South American models died of complications from anorexia and malnourishment. In September in Madrid, designer show organizers required young women to produce proof of body mass index of 18 and above. (Below 18.5 is considered underweight.) Body mass index, or BMI, is a measure of body fat based on height and weight.

City officials in Milan, the home base of many major designers, introduced a code discouraging excessively skinny models. And in New York, leading up to Fall Fashion Week in February, the Council of Fashion Designers of America, or CFDA, introduced a "health initiative" issuing guidelines to casting agents and designers.

Working with representatives from medical, exercise and nutrition fields, the CFDA suggested serving healthful snacks backstage, helping models with apparent eating disorders and avoiding hiring models younger than 16. The group vowed to hold workshops. In short, the organization is hoping to raise the volume of discussion while avoiding mandates.

Media's role

The issues go well beyond the health of the models. What messages do the media barrage of waiflike images send to vulnerable young people? Could they encourage eating disorders?

The fashion industry's thin aesthetic cannot be blamed for anorexia and bulimia, says Susan Ice, a vice president and medical director of the Philadelphia-based Renfrew Center, a facility that treats eating disorders.

"It is genetic-based, triggered usually by things going on in the family," says Ice, who also serves on the CFDA committee. One to 2 percent of women have bulimia, and 1 to 3 percent have anorexia.

Some psychologists think the media's focus on thinness influences how people feel about themselves. A recent study at the University of Missouri-Columbia indicated that women of all sizes suffered lower body esteem after seeing images of thin models.

But the future is looking brighter, Fish says. Celebrities such as Jennifer Hudson, who graced Vogue's cover last month, are casting light on realistic shapes.

And at the February fashion shows, producers and designers began to weed out the skinniest models. Food was served backstage. And the one positive factor likely to make the most difference: Designers are styling clothing with a looser fit.