Janice Dickinson isn't the only person that's dubious about Vogue's new health initiative. Jezebel's Jena Sauers asked Cindy Crawford whether she had any thoughts on the issue, to which she responded, 'Honestly, not really.'
According to the model, society needs to change before the industry will. 'I think that the fashion industry is in the consumer's hands because if they buy into it, nothing will change,' she argued. 'If consumers don't like it that models are too skinny, or too young and they don't buy magazines, then believe me, the magazines will have to change.' While there may be truth in that, it seems only right that the industry takes a firm stance, even if doing so is only the starting point in realising real change.
Crawford doesn't seem convinced. 'If you make too many rules - like, 'You can't work this many hours' — it doesn't work, because sometimes you have to. Sometimes you have to get up early or be prepared to do the job in the freezing cold. I think that, again though, models have to have a voice and speak up for themselves, every day, on the job ... People have to respect each other. And if you're working with someone who doesn't respect you, then leave.'
If you have a click around, then you can see that JanePratt.com is launching soon. But that doesn't answer all the questions surrounding the former Sassy editor's new venture, or her much-talked-about magazine with Tavi Gevinson. Will the projects be one in the same? We're not sure, but WWD tried to find answers, despite Jane Pratt's refusal to spill details.
WWD reports that within "the next two months, [Jane Pratt] will launch JanePratt.com, a website aimed at the gulf between the Cosmopolitans and the Jezebels of the world. Then, in the summer, she will team up with Gevinson to introduce a magazine and a website for teenaged girls." Gevinson says that her magazine will amount to "kind of a branch under the JanePratt.com umbrella for teenaged people -- girls."
Recently we told you about the big law suit former Next models, Anna Aleksandra Cywinska, Anna Maria Jagodzinska and Karmen Pedaru are claiming against the agency for allegedly keeping hold of their earnings. Well, things are getting worse.
Recent documents submitted in the lawsuit have been leaked, revealing how much the models were paid for certain jobs with big magazines. In a document detailing the payments allegedly being withheld from Jagodzinska includes a billing of $250 for a shoot with American Vogue and $125 bill for a shoot with French Vogue. In contrast, the model was supposed to take in $60,000 for a H&M campaign $15,000 for a campaign for J.Crew. As interesting as this is, is it actually telling us something we don't know?
It's a sad time in the model world. Last week we sadly announced the suspected suicide of Tom Nicon and as discussed, the last year has seen the death of Daul Kim and the attempted suicide of Noémie Lenoir. Unfortunately, news broke on Friday of another death in the model world. Bollywood actress and Indian model Viveka Babajee allegedly hanged herself from a fan on the ceiling in her apartment. According to local newspapers, the 37 year-old suffered from severe depression.
As Jezebel's contributor Jenna Sauers said in an article last month, "Suicidal models are fashion's worst trend". All we can do now is hope that the trend does not continue.
Life only seems to get better for Tavi. Aside from cementing herself as one of bloggings hottest property, she has now just bagged a writing gig with Jezebel. On the column this week you can expect her to be writing about "feminism, and fashion, issues facing adolescents, and Daria," said Jenna Sauers. Tavi told Jezebel:
"There are some things that I want to write about on my blog, but, you know, it's a fashion blog and I'm comfortable with it being primarily fashion," she said, after putting Miuccia on hold. "So it will be nice to be able to talk about things that aren't fashion-related."
"I think it'll also be nice to have a younger voice at the site. Wait, that sounds like you guys are like, oh-my-gawd, so OLD, it's not like that — but it's just that, I mean, everyone's always talking about 'THE YOUTH' and 'THE CHILDREN' and stuff."
Kim Kardashian and Madonna have fallen victim to it and now Sarah Jessica Parker is the latest to join the group of celebrities who have had their unretouched images leaked. Jezebel leaked this image to show the amount of work down on the actress' hand.
When Jezebel's Jenna Sauers opened her email inbox to anyone with a sexual abuse allegation against Terry Richardson, she might not have expected the flood of stories she got. Although Richardson claims his innocence ("I don't like to exploit anybody. That's not my bag. Everyone has fun on my shoots."), an increasing number of members from all levels of the fashion industry are coming forward to say they've felt violated by the photographer, or that they know someone who has.
We had no idea where to start here, so consider these stories. First, a report from a woman who modelled in London in the late '90s: "I was booked on a Terry Richardson job for Arena Homme Plus. The shoot was at an amusement park, and I would estimate that there were 30 models in total [...] and we were told that all of us would be given an opportunity to shoot a cover try. Being familiar with Mr. Richardson's.....peccadillos, many of the models were eager to please; pleasing in this instance consisted primarily of pulling down pants, pulling up skirts, losing blouses, and a bit of finger sucking thrown in for good measure. It seemed painfully clear to me that the phantom lure of a cover try was sufficient reason for a handful of young women with waning career prospects to humiliate themselves in front of each other while Terry Richardson giggled, panted, said 'That's hot,' and pushed them further. During lunch, I approached him and asked him if he had any moral quandaries about exploiting the sad dreams of models who hadn't yet made it and probably never would. I asked him if he realized that they were enacting what they believed were his expectations and fantasies in order to gain his favor and hence gain a cover or a future booking. 'I don't really think about that stuff,' he told me. 'I guess you're smarter than me.'"
It's ironic timing that, just after the issue of race came up at London Fashion Week with PPQ staging an all-black-model runway show, French Vogue is catching heat for a controversial photo shoot with Lara Stone. A 14-page spread for the October issue shows the Dutch model in blackface.
The spread praises Stone for pushing a "radical break with the wave of anorexic models", but as Jezebel points out, that compliment is hard to take when another issue seems to be so blatantly overlooked. October's issue is dedicated to supermodels, and no black models made the cut.
So you be the jury: Did this spread go too far, or is it just another way to push boundaries?
I think that gay men are actually the most to blame for many of the problems in the fashion industry, like the absence of womanly curves on the runway, and the hideous, figure-assaulting trend that is the tent dress, which no women who have tits, and no straight men who have an appreciation for tits, have any use for.
”The Jezebel writer speaks her mind on her personal blog, One D at a Time
In the final instalment of The Fash Pack's month-long series about first fashion influences, Jezebel writer Sadie Stein pays tribute to her grandfather, a partial hoarder and full-time bargain hunter who gave her the confidence to experiment with style.
Grandpa Moe, with his marked lack of fashion sense and his bottomless curiosity, is one of the most sartorially inspiring gents we've heard about in ages. And if he beat out Faye Dunaway for Stein's top spot? Must have been something significant in those French Resistance-fighter suits and dingy furs.
When I was asked to name my first style influence, my mind went to those women whose style I've admired over the years – Isabelle Adjani, circa-'Locateur'; Sylvia Beach, neat and bookish; Faye Dunaway's '70s career woman in 'Network' – and knew that there was one person I had to name: my grandfather.
To those who didn't know him, this might seem an odd choice. To those who did, it's inexplicable. While my grandfather, Moe, might have been called many things – eccentric, crazy, crackpot – "stylish" was not one of them. He spent his life in a series of flight suits he obtained at the resale shop that gave a discount to ex-military, his shock of white hair perpetually uncombed. And few can forget the period when, after his front teeth fell out, he'd superglue them into his mouth for special occasions.
