Are Fashion Models Really Eating This to Stay Thin?

Photo Credit: AP

It's no secret that models often struggle to stay thin. And it's also not a rarity to see some of them looking so emaciated that it's entirely evident they are depriving themselves of normal meals and nourishment.

But a new claim from Australia Vogue's former editor alleges that some fashion models are so desperate to stay skinny that they're eating tissues (yes, you read that correctly).

Former Australian Vogue Editor Kirstie Clements, who was let go last May, has come out with a tell-all book. Among her revelations? To ease hunger pains, many models are turning to a non-traditional source: Kleenex. She makes this startling claim in her new book, "The Vogue Factor."

The International Business Times shares the details:

One of the most shocking claims to come out of the book is that models still frequently starve themselves to stay super skinny, often resorting to eating tissues to help them feel full. Clements details a lunch date with an unidentified Russian model who claimed her roommate is a fit model “so she is in hospital on a drip a lot of the time.”

Recounting a Vogue shoot in Marrakesh during her 13-year tenure as Editor, Clements wrote that she didn't once see the top model eat a single meal for the three-day gig. Even worse, Clements recounted that on the last day of the job, the model could hardly hold herself up or keep her eyes open. She had also penned that “when a model who was getting good work in Australia starved herself down two sizes in order to be cast in the overseas shows ... the Vogue fashion office would say she’d become ‘Paris thin.’”

These details, among others, will certainly disturb readers, although some suspect that Clements may have written the tell-all to respond to her very-public ouster last year. Regardless, if the claims are true, the former editor is shedding light on details that are troubling to say the least.

A description of the Kindle version of the book sheds some light on its purpose:

In May 2012 Kirstie Clements was unceremoniously sacked after thirteen years in the editor’s chair at Vogue Australia. Here she tells the story behind the headlines, and takes us behind the scenes of a fast-changing industry.

During a career at Vogue that spanned twenty-five years, Clements rubbed shoulders with Karl Lagerfeld, Kylie Minogue, Ian Thorpe, Crown Princess Mary, Cate Blanchett, and many more shining stars. From her humble beginnings growing up in the Sutherland Shire in Sydney to her brilliant career as a passionate and fierce custodian of the world’s most famous luxury magazine brand, Clements warmly invites us into her Vogue world, a universe that brims with dazzling celebrities, fabulous lunches, exotic locales and of course, outrageous fashion.

Amidst the exhilaration and chaos of modern magazine publishing and the frenzied demands of her job, Clements is always steadfast in her dedication to quality. Above all, she is always Vogue.

Read more about the tissue claim here.

(H/T: International Business Times)