Boy Wonder Andrej Pejic, subject of many a feature article of late, and couture-clad iconoclast, Daphne Guinness, have each come under scrutiny for vocalising their penchant for skipping meals in order to maintain their respectively waif-like figures. Surprise! Quelle horreur! People in fashion skip meals!
The notoriously deadpan Pejic’s remarks have prompted his mother agency, Chadwick, and Nutrition Australia to issue statements denouncing comments the model made regarding his attitudes toward weight-loss and the modelling industry in a recent interview with Grazia UK:
“Let’s be honest. You can’t eat much if you want to do this. To do womenswear I have to be disciplined. My waist has gone from 29 to 25 inches and my hips are 35 inches. It’s a delicate state to be in.”
A spokeswoman for Nutrition Australia issued a statement saying “He is a role model who young people look up to so these sorts of comments can plant ideas in their heads. He needs to realise the impact his words have, he is a celebrity. I think he needs to think about comments like this and be more responsible. At lot of young people of this age are feeling pressure to fit in and may already have low self esteem so these sorts of comments certainly don’t help.”
Similarly, Guinness’ recent profile in the New Yorker in light of her status as the current subject of a wardrobe retrospective at the Musuem at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, has provoked similar outrage for her comments regarding her approach to eating, or a lack thereof. ABC News.com reports:
“Uncomfortable is the name of the game,” she quipped while wearing a giant metallic collar at a photo shoot.
Later during the shoot, Guinness, who had reportedly been consuming only Red Bull and Ensure, refused to eat pasta that was prepared for the production staff:
“If I eat, I can’t work. I’ll eat when I’m dead,” she said, invoking supermodel Kate Moss’s infamous motto: “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.”
In reporting on both instances, coverage has tended toward hyperbolic proclaimations of the two “finally” admitting to ill-advised eating habits, as if it were the industry’s best-kept secret. Both Pejic and Guinness have an undeniable flair, if you will, for the dramatic in their public personas and their comments should perhaps be taken with a proverbial grain of salt. In that case: season to taste, and season well.
Via ABC News.com & The Herald Sun
