Model Edie: Stop making us strip naked backstage
Designers heed her calls for private areas at shows
SUPERMODEL Edie Campbell is demanding that fashion shows provide private changing rooms after revealing her ‘humiliation’ at being forced to strip naked backstage.
The 27-year-old, who has graced the cover of Vogue, said that changing in crowded areas was ‘bizarre’ and ‘uncomfortable’ – and claimed it ‘dehumanised’ models.
It seems her calls are being heard. She says the majority of designers at the ongoing London Fashion Week have agreed to private areas for models to undress.
Her comments come after she railed against abuse in the fashion industry in an open letter last year. The English model, who is estimated to earn £2m a year, has walked the runway for Chanel, Versace and Stella McCartney.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4 yesterday, she said the experience of getting naked in front of so many people was initially ‘jarring’ but gradually became ‘normalised’. However, she was struck by the thought of how ‘bizarre and uncomfortable’ the practice was when she saw designers putting up private changing areas in New York last year.
She said having to change in front of everyone had been ‘humiliating’.
‘I think it adds to a much broader question of a dehumanisation of the model and a kind of objectification that is a symptom of a bigger problem,’ she added.
A spokesman for the British Fashion Council, which runs London Fashion Week, said: ‘The BFC has instructed designers showing outside of the official London Fashion Week show space to follow its example.’