oh please... if you think that's shocking then you haven't read too many fashion publications or watched enough TV. This isn't NEWS, this is common knowledge that models are ridiculously (and dangerously) thin.

but yuck... they have little boys' bodies. Real women have curves and boobs.

What's a trigger?

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

i'm actually surprised at how comparatively "healthy" the first one looks. her thighs touch.

by the by- i have a small frame and athletic body, which means my waist is only an inch or so smaller than my hips, and i am a 34aa. i can't buy jeans off the rack in the mall- have to buy little boy's jeans. does that mean i'm not a "real woman" because i don't have 36D's or wear a size 14? real women come in all shapes, sizes, statures, and degrees of firmness, thanks.

"Women called beautiful because they threaten no one but themselves."

It should be noted, perhaps, that we only have so much control over our weight and only for so long before it catches up with us, either by re-gaining the weight or death.

This is standard hi fashion model size. It makes one wonder if designers just can't design clothes that look good on other than sticks. Doesn't say much for the designers actually.

I'm seconding cooper on that one. Designers are notoriously fickle and absolutely refuse to design their runway pieces for bodies that are "fat" by their standards. Their standards being taller than 5'10'', and with protruding ribs.

Fashion models don't have any power in the industry unless you're a super model, and even then, having a bad attitude or getting too "curvy" (fat, in the fashion world) puts you on designer's shit list. Models basically have to be that thin, naturally or otherwise, to get work. Since the ideal preferred by designers is so very, very thin, most of the time they have to meet that standard "otherwise" with starvation and illicit substances.

I'm not denying that culturally, we have a very screwed up idea of what the female body is supposed to look like in order to be acceptable. But even these models are outside the realm of what most think is culturally attractive because they are "too thin". I fear, that's all a product of designers, not the culture at large.

I remember seeing (hearing?) something somewhere that said fashion designers want clothes that will look good hanging in your closet, and that having rail thin models sort of achieves that vision. The clothes wear the model, rather than the other way around.

Ugh I really hate the 'real women'. As if there's some qualifying exam, and womanhood (and worth!) is judged by another person's willingness to sleep with you.

That said - good lord, they look unwell! But apparently they are healthier than me, cos I'm fat. Which makes me evil. Aaaargh!

This reminds me: A (male) friend of mine who is one of those people who can (and do) eat their own body weight every day and never leave the very skinny end of the spectrum was walking down the street a few years ago when a woman stops him. She proceeds to tell him that she's a fashion student and that she would like him to model for her because she's got this pair of trousers she made and she could never find anybody they fit and he seems to be the right size.

He agreed and told me later that he could hardly breathe while wearing the trousers, let alone sit down.

My first thought was, "So, you've made these trousers and apparently there's nobody who is built the way the trousers are made. So WHY DON'T YOU CHANGE THEM?" Seriously, I would have given up after three months of searching for somebody to wear the clothes I design. If I designed clothes, I'd want for people to be able to wear them.

Anyway, that seems to me the perfect summary of the way people in the fashion world think, as far as I can judge from far away.

On a completely unrelated note, those outfits are uniformly terrible.

on another another note, if you want to look at things statistically, the small ratio of people who have enough disposable income to buy what is modelled on the runways during Fashion Week is probably about the same as those who have model bodies. fashion is an art just as painting, sculpture, etc. your regular gal-on-the-street can't go into a gallery and buy an original by an up and coming artist, but she may be able to splurge a little on a limited edition print. similarly, there aren't very many of us who can go into Neiman's and buy a $750 pair of d&g jeans, $395 alexander mcqueen sweater, and $1200 prada boots. but the majority can go into macy's and buy a similar ensemble for 1/10th of the price. go to a local macy's fashion show, and you're going to see women of all shapes and sizes as the models. high fashion and couture is meant to be seen, not worn. like nique said, the models are merely hangers for the clothes to hang on, as crass and demeaning as it sounds, it's unfortunately the truth.

Maria- I am pretty sure that women who diet a lot buy more clothes, to fit them at various sizes. Making people feel like crap about themselves makes them buy more stuff to try and fix it. I know a lot of women who will go out and buy clothes once they have hit a weight goal, or they will buy clothes to motivate themselves to lose more weight.

as far as the idea that all these places would go out of business if they didn't sell clothes that are big enough- well, for the most part people in sweat shops make our clothes. even the designer ones. the profit margin on clothing sewn for cents an hour is really huge, not all of the clothing needs to be sold to turn a good profit. They would lose a lot more if they gave the impression that their product was not for an exclusive and monied minority of customers, actually. Any intro to economics will tell you that as the supply becomes limited the demand will increase, and so will the price. Making everyone able to wear an expensive brand of clothes will make it not as expensive anymore, or at least people will not pay as much. there are various levels of that exclusiveness at stores depending on what they want to charge and how well their product conforms to trends.

"Though EVERYONE knows that models are very skinny and that this is bad for the self-esteem and health of women"

What? Seriously? I know this sounds sarcastic but I'm being serious. I'm a woman, one who has had and recovered fully from anorexia, and I can honestly say that couture fashion models have never ever factored in any way into my conception of what women should look like or my conception of how I could or should look.

I feel a little uncomfortable bringing it up, even online, but I used my frustration at the way body image problems were commonly discussed as a way to resist getting assistance. My recovery was aided enormously by reading books by psychologists who research eating disorders. Everything I read pointed to a desire assert control and autonomy, feelings of alienation and a desire to both conform and be perfect (to be the best normal-to-excellent that there is) as vehicles that move eating disorders forward. That isn't to say that the contradictory, tangled, stickily sexist web of expectations that society places on women in general and teen girls in particular isn't a factor-but the idea that ZOMG Skinny Death!Models Push the girls who see them into negative body image into anorexia smells fishy from my side of things.

And skeptifem- you know that clothes worn by models/hangers are manufactured in a wide variety of sizes, right? And that yeah, even in a variety of sizes most clothes still don't quite fit anybody the way they should. Because our bodies are all incredibly different and assuming that every brand and item must be made to anticipate each persons individual body is ridiculous. Sure sizes are made using averages, but those numbers usually don't describe a person but an idea. And the most wacky high-fashion stuff is usually not worn by anybody off of the catwalk. I really don't understand how "clothes don't fit me/everyone all the time"invalidates Maria's explanation of supply and demand in vanity sizing, or her (on target) comment about skinny models being used as living, mobile mannequins or clothes hangers to display the clothes

Their slicked-back hair makes them look even skinnier. What's up with that? are the stylists on strike? (The first model looks like a Star Trek character.)

Most fashion designers must not like women very much at all. At least that's how it looks to me based on nearly every single silly or often just plain hideous looking "outfit" I've seen being worn in photos of models on catwalks (I only see this is photos and I've never seen 'high fashion' worn casually on any streets in LA or NY). Perhaps "High Fashion" refers to the designers?

Add me to the list of people offended by the "real women" comment. I am that skinny in real life. My mom was that skinny. I have had completel strangers assume that they have the right to tell me I need to eat more, or put their hands on my arms or waist to see how skinny they are. Comments like "Real women have curves" will not correct the problem of a narrow ideal. It simply substitutes one ideal for another.

I believe we can take self responsibility for ourselves and our choices. Can we develop tolerance for body differences? I hope we can. I'd like to see more body differences in the models and the clothes so that I can relate. I am 5'4" and I am on the small end only 118 lbs- not the average America women who is 5'4" and 140 lbs. However, in the book Not Your Mother's Diet, it says we all come in different sizes and we are all beautiful!

"Add me to the list of people offended by the “real women” comment."

Me too. Women come in all shapes and sizes, and I have never understood that people think we can LOOK at someone's weight or size and A. know if they're "healthy" or not and B. decide it's OK to put them down for not meeting our own personal standards (of beauty, health, aesthetic this or that). Come on.

... & Ralph Lauren didn't really "apologize".

As a professional photographer, let me remind you that the camera does in fact "add ten pounds" so to speak. These women are even more slender (I know, it seems crazy) than they appear. If you take a moment to really look at arms and shoulders and ribs, you'll see that most of these women are beyond dangerously thin.

We don't normally realize how thin they are because we see these images so often and they've become normal and acceptable, and because the lighting and makeup are being carefully crafted (yes, even in a live runway show) to give the illusion of healthy, supple skin.

"High Fashion" is one of the great mysteries of this world to me. Those women look universally revolting, and their clothes are ridiculous. Only the first one, if she lost the absurd skullcap and grotesque earrings, might be presentable off the catwalk. Maybe.

When did the purpose of fashion _stop_ being to make people look good?

Just a comment. My son dated a girl who was a runway model and was naturally very thin....That lovely girl really "chowed down" at meals at our home. Her whole family was like that and she enjoyed modelling tremendously - had a great attitude. However, she did have friends who fought like hell to stay thin and nearly died of their eating disorders. As well, it was interesting to me to learn that models had to 'downsize' their ages - even at very 'young' ages. I was sitting in the audience next to a woman who was watching her niece on the runway - she told me the young woman was 20 years old. Later, when I connected with my son's girlfriend and her friends, they commented that she was "the 18-year-old" - they were all teens about 16-17. I was shocked that, at 20, she had somehow become an 18-year-old for purposes of modeling = lest she be considered "too old" at 20! There is pressure on all sides in that business.....and my heart goes out to those lovely young women.

This is why I like the model whose picture Ralph Lauren's company altered. She is a woman whose figure wommen should emulate. She looks healthy. These women are practically anorexic. I can see their ribs.

STOP trying to justify their thinness, just because *some* people happen to be that skinny. A majority of those models are not naturally that thin, and I feel like worrying about labeling them as not "real" or "anorexic" is a silly side debate. I feel like shit every time I see models that skinny and want to physically rip the flesh from my bones, and most other women I know in their early-20's feel the same way. Stop validating dangerous weight loss and start working to end the psychological abuse of women.

No, thinness is NOT "the one thing" the models necessarily "can control!" Weight is about as strongly correlated with genetics as height. At least two of those models have other signs that suggest they ought to be screened for genetic connective tissue disorders. If you have an industry that prefers a particular body type, and a genetic condition predictably produces that body type, you are going to get an over representation of that condition in the industry.

Marfan's syndrome for instance typically produces unusually tall, very thin people, who have high caloric requirements, as well as heart problems that can result in sudden death! Just because a tall skinny model drops dead of a heart attack on the cat walk, it doesn't mean she did something wrong. It also doesn't mean she was starving herself or being pressured to be thinner than her body should be. It's sexist to assume that woman+skinny+heart problems=psychogenic eating disorder, but I rarely see that assumption challenged when people talk about models.

they look like theyre gonna drop dead

As a model with marfans syndrome. The one dimension view into a very big unrecognized part of body shaming, is absolutely astounding. There are gonna be models who take things to the extreme to maintain their size NO MATTER their size. in the modeling agencies themselves the idea of tall thin runway models originated from the idea of women imagining themselves filling out the clothing, they’re tall so the back of the crowd can see them. It’s so practical, but people outside of the industry started talking and assuming and now I can’t tell anyone I model without getting asked if I’m anorexic or not. I’m just skinny. I cannot help it. Literally genetics.