Posted on: 01/23/2013

Manorexic? Skinny male fashion models in Paris cause outcry.


Making the rounds in fashion news this weekend is the horrid situation of what some fashion insiders are wondering is the existence of uber thin males basking in the fashion world. After all its one thing to complain about uber thin/anorexic female models (us tabloid types beg them not to do it but the fashion world insiders ignore us and covertly enforce ultra thin wedgies) but one is apt to wonder how what has traditionally been a females body issue has now translated now to that of the male model. Or was it always just there anyway before us media types picked up on it? First of all. Lets back off. Hedi Slimane has always had a predilection towards waif effeminate boys and his designs have always catered to the uber thin gent. To be sure Hedi has been unapologetic about it and to some degree has been responsible for bolstering that image of men ever since he first came on to the scene in the 90′s. Continues radar: After the French fashion houses show, which featured several super skinny and emaciated looking male models, one incredibly gaunt gentleman provoked fashion blogger Poppy Dinsey to tweet her concern. "Woefully irresponsible model casting at YSL yesterday," she tweeted. "Speechless." Speechless. Bad casting? Poppy Im going to let you in on a secret right now darling. It has always been this way. But perhaps not to this degree. As a former fashion model myself who used to drag himself up and down sashay the European catwalks back in the early 90′s there was never a mystery as to what casting directors were looking for. Lithe, interesting, charismatic and flawless. Every casting involved having to take ones shirt off so as for the casting agent could have a good perv look at us and to go from there. And then theres this personal memory too from my own frothy time as a catwalk boy: Its fast approaching eight p.m and that only means one thing � free pizza at Deco. This is what you get when youre an expatriate of the supposed photogenic kind. I look into the mirror pump on the gel and strut out onto the street to get my first meal of the day. When I arrive, I am surrounded by hundreds of other models, mostly Americans, a few French, English but its the Americans I like, even if they are always the loudest, the brashest and most conspicuous. We sit there, line up for our drink tickets, margarita pizza, watch some imbecilic movie before the club opens to the general public and a bunch of Guidos start swarming the place. But then again one has to wonder has the desire to push the emaciated male model gone on to the next level? Even I remember the fascination for the real man, one that had muscles and a bit of meat on his body. But perhaps that was another era, other designers or just a time when we were all impressed with brawn and the idea of masculinity as opposed to the fashion worlds recent fixation on boy girls who look like recovering heroin addicts? Or maybe thats just me being mean. Dont worry Andrej, I still adore you. I know you eat well cause I have often seen you eat well. "Getting a lot of tweets re that YSL model pic. The model himself is not the one to blame remember, its the casting director and YSL," Disney wrote. "Its not helpful to call him disgusting," she continued. "I dont know if he has an eating disorder, but it was YSL who thinks that look is ok & booked him." So lets all point and scream at YSL and implore them to start using real men again. Maybe theyll will again or maybe just maybe some of us men will diet ourselves to oblivion to live up to some designers appropriated sense of aesthetic perfection.