It wouldn’t be Australia’s Next Top Model without a little bit of pre-air reality tv scandal, and naturally the upcoming sixth season is playing out no differently with allegations emerging that one of the show’s guest “mentors” told a 16-year-old contestant to lose weight.
The Melbourne teenager, Alison Boxer, weighs 55kg and according to the Herald Sun a Foxtel spokesperson has confirmed that Alison was told to shed a centimetre around her waist.
“I have never tried to lose weight before, but since then I have been going to the gym twice a day and eating in proportion to try to lose the weight,” she said.
It’s enough to make your skin crawl a bit, but the whole weight debate is just one of the ongoing issues within the fashion industry that will never be resolved because it’s purely subjective – like fashion itself. For every editor of French Elle (who have recently been supporting the “normal sized” woman through a spate of plus-sized cover models) there is an Anna Wintour (longtime defender of skinny in fashion) and Next Top Model judge Charlotte Dawson.
Are the comments directed at Alison inappropriate and unhealthy – or is this just how the fashion world works: body criticism is part and parcel of the industry?
