When you can no longer sustain the shock factor.
It’s been reported that French actress and model Isabelle Caro most famous for her appearance in an Italian fashion campaign that unsettled the fashion world in 2007 has passed away at the age of 28, succumbing to the disease that had made her notorious- anorexia.
Standing at 5’4 at the time of her campaign and weighing at 68lbs and probably weighing considerably less at the time of her death Caro wrote in a blog that she kept:
‘I’ve hidden myself and covered myself for too long. Now I want to show myself fearlessly, even though I know my body arouses repugnance.
Aroused repugnance one wonders because in many quarters it was celebrated and instituted albeit in milder forms.
‘I want to recover because I love life and the riches of the universe. I want to show young people how dangerous this illness is.’
And yet she never did recover…
dailymail.co.uk: The campaign was paid for by Italian clothing company Flash & Partners to publicise a fashion brand for young women called Nolita and the photograph was taken by Italian photographer Oliviero Toscani.
Flash & Partners said in a statement at the time that Toscani’s aim was ‘to use the naked body to show everyone the reality of this illness, caused in most cases by the stereotypes imposed by the world of fashion.’
Which begs the ultimate question why does the fashion industry continue to publicly denounce such dispositions yet all the while very publicly continue to use gaunt models? Will the fashion industry ever own up to its own victimization?
