Her diet consisted of 3 apples a day and fizzy water to trick herself into feeling full. A piece of chicken or fish per week was considered a ‘cheat meal’.
You’re shopping with your mum on a quiet Saturday afternoon. Suddenly, you are approached by a rep from Elite modelling agency who promises you the world at the sign of a contract- a situation most teenage girls only dream of. Unfortunately for 18 year old French High School student, Victoire Macon Dauxerre, it was real.
Masquerading as a world of glitz and glamour, the fashion industry is a dangerous one that continues to consume the lives of young girls, often ending in fatal consequences. Once scouted, Victoire’s plans to attend a prestigious University in Paris were halted. She was streamlined into fashion weeks in Paris, Milan and New York and quickly adopted the mantra ‘if you want to be in, you’ve got to be thin’. Her diet consisted of 3 apples a day and fizzy water to trick herself into feeling full. A piece of chicken or fish per week was considered a ‘cheat meal’.
Her rapid weight loss hurtled her towards stardom and simultaneously, a path of self-destruction. The more she walked the runway, the less she ate. The pressure of working tenaciously for such renowned, high-fashion names such as Alexander McQueen and Miu Miu showed as at almost 6 foot, she weighed just 103 pounds.
The downward spiral persisted and after eight months of suffering from bulimia, she attempted suicide. Reaching this breaking point forced her to quit the industry and discourage young girls from following her same path.
However, critics of the industry state that ultimately, if the fashion industry is to end psychological abuse towards models, the perception that beauty is protruding bones and a sallow complexion must be changed.
In her book ‘Never Skinny Enough: the Diary of a Top Model‘, Victoire emphasises the disposability of models, describing them as human coat hangers as their emotional and physical limits are overlooked. She should be highly praised as her memoirs have helped to pass a law which forbids severely underweight models from working and implements a fine to publications showing pictures that have been manipulated to show a thinner model. However, critics of the industry state that ultimately, if the fashion industry is to end psychological abuse towards models, the perception that beauty is protruding bones and a sallow complexion must be changed.
