Kirstie Clements, former editor-in-chief of Vogue Australia.
‘The Vogue Factor,’ by Kirstie Clements.
A new book by a former Vogue editor details disturbing methods fashion models use to stay thin — like eating tissues to stay full.
“Apparently they swelled in your stomach,” Kirstie Clements, who was axed last May from her post as editor-in-chief of Vogue Australia, told Entertainment Tonight.
Her book, “The Vogue Factor,” provides an inside glimpse at the dark side of the fashion publishing industry, from starving models on IV drips to photoshopping models to “get rid of bones” and make them appear healthier.
“Most people accuse editors of photoshopping images for the girls to look slimmer, on occasion we had to do it the other way around,” Clements told ET.
Clements’ sudden departure from Vogue last year, after 10 years of leading the magazine, was part of a “cultural change” at the company. She was replaced by former Harper’s Bazaar editor Edwina McCann.
Clements told ET she was offered a book deal the day after she was fired. “The Vogue Factor” released in late February.
A model at Victoria Beckham’s spring 2013 fashion show in New York. Runway models tend to be thinner than ones used for magazine photo shoots, Clements said.
In the book, she discusses how eating disorders are rampant in modeling, but how editors never know what’s really going on with the models they work with.
“That’s the insidious part of eating disorders,” Clements told ET. “Unless you’re monitoring someone 24/7, traveling with them, and looking at every calorie they consume, you can’t tell that.
“You can only tell whether she actually looks sick, the skin pallor and hair.”
Clements notes that runway models tend to be thinner than the ones used for magazine shoots, and that models longing to hit the catwalk in Paris often have to drop two dress sizes from already-skinny frames.
But the book is “larger than just skinny models,” Clements insists.
“[It] has a lot of truths about what happens in fashion publishing,” she said. “It’s an honest account of what goes on.”
“Apparently they swelled in your stomach,” Kirstie Clements, who was axed last May from her post as editor-in-chief of Vogue Australia, told Entertainment Tonight.
Her book, “The Vogue Factor,” provides an inside glimpse at the dark side of the fashion publishing industry, from starving models on IV drips to photoshopping models to “get rid of bones” and make them appear healthier.
“Most people accuse editors of photoshopping images for the girls to look slimmer, on occasion we had to do it the other way around,” Clements told ET.
Clements’ sudden departure from Vogue last year, after 10 years of leading the magazine, was part of a “cultural change” at the company. She was replaced by former Harper’s Bazaar editor Edwina McCann.
Clements told ET she was offered a book deal the day after she was fired. “The Vogue Factor” released in late February.
A model at Victoria Beckham’s spring 2013 fashion show in New York. Runway models tend to be thinner than ones used for magazine photo shoots, Clements said. “That’s the insidious part of eating disorders,” Clements told ET. “Unless you’re monitoring someone 24/7, traveling with them, and looking at every calorie they consume, you can’t tell that.
“You can only tell whether she actually looks sick, the skin pallor and hair.”
Clements notes that runway models tend to be thinner than the ones used for magazine shoots, and that models longing to hit the catwalk in Paris often have to drop two dress sizes from already-skinny frames.
But the book is “larger than just skinny models,” Clements insists.
“[It] has a lot of truths about what happens in fashion publishing,” she said. “It’s an honest account of what goes on.”
