Pretty crazy
former model who did runway work for Prada, Céline and Alexander McQueen, has a blistering new tell-all book called “Size Zero: My Life as a Disappearing Model” (William Collins). It details the debilitating eating disorder that drove her to a suicide attempt when she was 18.
During one NYFW, fellow models called her “the catwalk Yeti” because of the coating of downy hair on her arms and legs, a telltale sign of anorexia. “It was as if the body replaced fat with hair to protect itself from the cold,” she writes in the book. The frail catwalker recalls collapsing in NYC in front of her agent. “He gave me a piece of chicken when I came round,” she says. “God forbid you give a model sugar.”
Another model, who declined to give her name for professional reasons, says her period once stopped because she was starving herself so much.
“Designers need you to be a 34-inch hip, 24-inch waist, 32 bust, and that’s what I am,” says the 19-year-old brunette, who is signed to one of the city’s top agencies and runs the popular satirical Instagram account S--t Model Mgmt. “I can’t stray from those measurements ever, and it’s scary.”
According to Pedersen, a standby diet for many models is nothing more than a single apple, cut into several slices, eaten over a day. She recalls a time when a friend had a leftover slice at the end of the day.
“I want to be good today,” the teenage catwalker had said, proudly.
Some designers want models looking so gaunt, they don’t allow them to drink anything the day of a show, lest they appear bloated.
“We had to sneak into the bathroom to drink water,” Pedersen recalls of one Fashion Week show.
Staying thin isn’t the only form of torture. The unnamed model recalls a friend who ap- peared in Kanye West’s show last September. No one asked for the models’ shoe sizes beforehand, and she had to spend hours standing with her size-9 feet crammed into size-5 heels.
“[It’s] just another example of not caring for the models . . . [By the end of the presentation] she could barely walk,” she says. “Kanye was really nice and carried her to the bus because her feet hurt [so much].”
And being great-looking sometimes isn’t enough. Often, your last name has to be Jenner or Hadid, or you have to have already appeared in the pages of glossy magazines to get cast.
“Most of the girls who walk in the shows are the big names — the supermodels,” continues the anonymous model, who has walked for top designers like Calvin Klein, Kate Spade and Oscar de la Renta. “The Alexander Wang show, for instance, is just full of well-known show girls. They might be looking for four new faces from, like, 1,000 girls. I’m not in Vogue, so I don’t stand a chance.”
And there’s little financial reward when you do get cast.
“Some shows don’t pay at all,” says Pedersen, who adds that casting agents often favor free agents, like herself, as it’s easier not to compensate them. “I’ve gotten clothes as payment multiple times.”
“Unfortunately, this has long been a common practice at New York Fashion Week,” says Sara Ziff, founder of the Model Alliance, an advocacy group. And, she says, it’s not only an issue for free agents. “Agency-represented models are often paid in trade [such as a designer bag or wallet] for runway work, not just freelance models. As a result, models often end up working in debt to their agencies.”
But with competition so fierce, catwalkers typically put up with such treatment.
“You’re nothing but a pretty hanger,” Pedersen says. But, she notes, the job isn’t without its perks. “The minute you step out onto that runway, that rush is amazing.”
“You’re nothing but a pretty hanger.”—
Sannie Pedersen on how the fashion industry views models