The Incredible Shrinking Model

"Raise the issue of eating disorders during Fashion Week, and someone will inevitably bring up that lost, glorious era of the supermodel: Christy, Naomi, Cindy, Linda, the four-headed stompy-legged beast with big shiny hair, the one that wouldn't get up for less than $10,000. Those were the days when models took up space. They were stars. They made demands. And their faces were everywhere. (Although, of course, the clothes have shrunk, too, sample sizes dwindling from a 6 to a 4 to a 2 and below. These days, fashion people do not talk about models with awe. Instead, they speak of them with condescending affection , as if they were lovable circus folk. Again, and again, I hear that they are "beautiful freaks", "genetic anomalies" - girls born to be bone-thin, with giraffelike necks and the wide, pretty doll faces that are the latest visual sensation. But there is also pity for the models, who are basically high-school dropouts, teenagers from poor countries, whose careers last a very short time. They are infinetely replaceable. Although top girls can make up to $100,000 in a week of shows, the vast majority get nowhere near that; some of the more prominent designers pay the girls only in clothes."