Fashion Week Model Forecast: “Skinny Models, Skinny Models”

Meredith Bryan — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 14:23:52 -0400

Thursday night, on the eve of Fashion Week, a noir-ish crowd including Kelly Osborne, nightlife-loving model Agyness Deyn, designer Henry Holland, Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi, and the ubiquitous Misshapes DJs wandered through Christie's galleries at a preview party for the auction house's fall sales of Postwar and Contemporary Art, Impressionist and Modern Art, and Resurrection: Avant-Garde Fashion. The latter was present in abundance, on mannequins dressed in vintage Versace and pale, generously eyelinered attendees who looked like they'd skipped lunch ... for a month.

Speaking of! Will the fashion industry's recent efforts to police the size of its models result in meatier mannequins this Fashion Week?

"I was hoping that it would be curvier models on the runway," said Mary Alice Stephenson, celebrity stylist and host of fashion's greatest reality show to date, America's Most Smartest Model. "I just did, this morning, a piece for CNN, everyone still says skinny models, skinny models, but I've noticed a big change. A lot of the samples that I'm working with are cut bigger, and a lot of the actresses I work with can fit into them, so that's good. But I still hope that—I'm hoping—that the models on the runway will look like they've been eating. Will be fed properly, be a little bit more mature and curvy."

The Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) will man sustenence-promoting booths in the tents at Bryant Park throughout Fashion Week in partnership with an eating disorders clinic.

But don't expect to see models who ate as much on their summer vacation as you did: "The bottom line is, if you're a runway model, you have to be thin," said Ms. Stephenson.

Observer » Fashion Week Model Forecast: “Skinny Models, Skinny Models”

Fashion Week Model Forecast: “Skinny Models, Skinny Models”