Posts with tag madrid

Do you see better fashion on the ride to work than you do in Vogue magazine -- or are you stuck with JC Penny's, and dreaming about H&M? While it's certainly possible to be stylish anywhere, the fashion-forward tend to flock to a few choice locations around the globe. But where?

Forbes magazine has recently ranked the "World's Most Stylish Cities," and while some of them -- like New York, London and Paris -- are obvious, there's a few on the list that might surprise you. Here's the top 10 -- did you city make the cut?

[via Haute Concept]

Not that he's any sort of litmus test for normalcy, but Karl Lagerfeld seems to think that the hoopla about skinny models is full of bunk. Citing the existence of something he calls "skinny bones", Lagerfeld suggested that the models who did not pass the BMI test in Madrid were not necessarily unhealthy, even if the UN says they are. Skinny bones, eh? Never heard of that one before.

But then again, there is a lot of stuff that Karl Lagerfeld does that I've never heard of before. For instance, he "vampires". (What is "vampiring" you ask? Well, it's feeding off the creative energy of others.) And don't even get me started on the Karl Lagerfeld diet! Composed largely of things like drinking Diet Coke and moving as little as possible lest he get hungry, Lagerfeld is not exactly the picture of good health, even if he did manage to lose 93 pounds.

Forget about Madrid's ban on super-skinny models! Milan just passed a law that all runway models who plan to walk in the Fall 2007 shows this coming February must be accompanied by a medically certified clean bill of health. City officials say that the regulation is intended to discourage eating disorders, particularly anorexia.

While I salute the city of Milan for taking a stand on this matter, I doubt that this medical certificate idea will have any impact. If a model must have a medical certfication to walk, what would prevent her from just buying one from a corrupt doctor? If anything, these medical certificates are just going to create even more corruption in the Milanese fashion industry.

What do you think? Will requiring models to have a medical certificate make any difference?

When I read Sarah's account of Madrid's ban on models with a BMI of less than 18, I started wondering what that number actually meant in comparison to some of the world's top models. (BMI is Body Mass Index, a measure of weight proportionate to height.) Of course, any person's BMI is a moving target, so all reports of celebrity BMI should be taken as speculative unless made by the celebrity herself while in a startlingly confessional mood. Likewise, the standard healthy-BMI level is a matter of opinion, with some authorities asserting a low ideal of 18-24, and others offering a more relaxed range of 22-26.

No matter the exact range, the reported BMIs of several style icons fall at or below reasonable standards of health, and there is question that 30 percent of the models in the Madrid show flunked their BMI tests -- too skinny. Here are five other reported BMIs:

• Twiggy: 14.7
• Kate Moss: 16.8 (or 15.7)
• Nicole Richie: 17
• Paris Hilton: 16
• Elle MacPherson: 17.3
• Heidi Klum: 18

Part of me wants to commend Madrid for taking a hard stand against this extremely unhealthy standard of beauty. And yet part of me shrugs my shoulders and says, "So what?" After all, for any real change to occur in the fashion industry, designers, stylists, and magazines are going to have to be on board. And that's going to take a lot more than one show's BMI enforcement.

What do you think? Will the fashion industry ever come around?

In a move that could have models making midnight runs for chili cheese fries, Madrid's fashion week has caused an uproar in the fashion industry by banning underweight models from the runways. The city's government and event organizers say that the restriction is an effort to to project an image of beauty and health rather than flaunting rail-thin, waif-like heroin-chic as desirable for girls and young women. The event has hired medics to measure models and calculate BMI. So far, 30% of the models have been turned away.

The fashion industry, however, is not supportive of the move, especially since Letizia Moratti, the mayor of Milan, is also seeking a similar ban.

Gee, would it kill those 30% to just, oh, I don't know, put some dressing on their lettuce?!?!