The power of the models
Dr. Silja Vocks: "Ideal and reality have nothing to do with each other"
Dr. Silja Vocks (33), clinical psychologist and psychotherapist, researches eating disorders at Ruhr-Universität Bochum and explains how models affect us every day.
From childhood on, we evaluate our appearance according to how compatible it is with the requirements of our environment. This is normal, but looks are becoming more and more important in our society. Slimming stands for success, popularity, discipline, activity.
The extent to which the media influence us is shown by studies in which women look at photos of models and subsequently evaluate their own bodies. Especially young women and those who are already dissatisfied with their body anyway, see themselves in a particularly negative way. There are certainly women, in which weight and figure become less important with age. They will not find each other in a better mood, but they will be better able to come to terms with their bodies. The only problem is that ideals and reality continue to diverge: while the actual weight of the population increases, the female "ideal figure" becomes thinner and thinner. Models used to have a body mass index (BMI) of 19 to 20, today it is 17.5 in the haute couture sector. This number is already considered a criterion for anorexia.
The more your own weight deviates from this "ideal", the greater the dissatisfaction. Today, 50 percent of all girls under 15 are overweight - even though they are normal or underweight! That can prepare the ground for an eating disorder.
Protocol: Silke Kienecker
Merle Rebentisch: "Beautiful girls make my job easier"
Merle Rebentisch has been a beauty editor for ChroniquesDuVasteMonde for years. How is it to be constantly surrounded by models at work?
I deal with models daily: I select the right girl for a topic and discuss her make-up and hairstyling with the make-up artist. During the shoot, I put them together with the photographer in scene.
If a girl is beautiful and has charisma, I am glad. Because then the photos get better and that makes my work easier. I do not feel jealous - and the readers should not do that either. These women also look so good in the photos because a whole team has built a world around them, made them perfect and perfectly illuminated. This often takes hours and is not real.
Okay, from time to time I think: It would be great to be ten centimeters taller. But I can not influence my size, at most my weight. But then I would have to go to the fitness center three times a week and diet - and I do not want that. Models often have perfect bodies even with little sport, because they are still very young and just so built. I would have to do without other things that are more important to me than being thin.
Protocol: Martina Behm
Ted Linow: "Models are like flowers in a garden"
Ted Linow, 52, is co-founder of Mega Models, one of the largest modeling agencies in Germany. ChroniquesDuVasteMonde editor Anne Petersen asked him how models and ideals of beauty have changed in recent years.
The beauty ideal has not changed in the last 15 years. Although the newspapers report regularly, now the girls are likely to have curves again, but from experience I can say that models always had to be slim. Especially girls who are looking for an international career need ideal dimensions. And that will not change as long as the editor-in-chief of the Italian or French VOGUE photograph only these skinny girls. They determine the trends.
I would never tell a model, "You're too fat." We always try to develop a sensible nutrition program for the girls. You can not expect them to lose weight in two months - after all, they should look fresh and healthy, not sick.
The most noticeable change in recent years is more that more and more girls want to be a model. Formerly there were the "skating mothers", today there are the no less ambitious "model mothers" who show up with their daughters in our agency. The problem with this: Today, anyone who owns a phone, can open a model agency and earn a lot of money with the hopes of young girls. This is at least as bad as casting shows in which hip measurements of 87 are considered normal.
A good agency has two important tasks: to find beautiful girls and then to look after them - as well as the flowers in a garden.
Lars Matzen: "If one is too lean, I'll send it away"
Lars Matzen works as a fashion photographer, among others for ChroniquesDuVasteMonde.
Five or six years ago, the Anorexic look was in, and many young models have starved very thinly. I did not like that at all. When photographing you have to really go to a lot of effort, so that is not so noticeable. If the legs are too bony or the shoulder blades are prominent, the editor and I will send a model away. Fortunately, the magazines have a healthy image of women prevailed - this lean-look is no longer in demand today.
Nobody should be intimidated by perfect photo beauties: Without makeup and flattering light, many models look rather average. Conversely, normal women can be photographed very nicely. I enjoy working with non-models, which I find exciting. Women look best when they are taking photos - whether they are model or non-model. To retouch the pictures in retrospect, ie to thicken thin arms or to smooth faces, I perceive as a fraud. Where this leads to, you can observe in TV magazines: The celebrities on the titles are unfortunately hard to distinguish.
Protocol: Martina Behm
Karl Lagerfeld: "The new generation of models has very narrow bones"
Karl Lagerfeld, 67, is a designer at Fendi, Lagerfeld Gallery and Chanel. He has significantly promoted the careers of many models, including those of Claudia Schiffer. ChroniquesDuVasteMonde editor Anne Petersen asked him why models need to be so skinny.
There are models that are good for photos and girls who are good for looking. The girls for the haute couture must necessarily be very thin, because I also make the clothes on very thin girls. That means I'll take care of them.
When the clothes are ready, you can not continue them later. There is no time for that. If the models come to the fitting one day before the show, then the designs will fit, or they will not fit. The girls just have to have the same body as the ones I worked with before. And they just have a perfect body.
Of course, there are other models that I really like and that I like, but they just do not come into my designs. I want these new generation girls who have very small bones - an almost fragile, but of course not diseased, slim body.
Franziska Knuppe: "Top model are professionals who know what they are doing"
Franziska Knuppe, 31, was discovered by Wolfgang Joop in 1997 at the Kellner in a Potsdam Café. Today she is one of the top international models and works with photographers like Peter Lindbergh or Michel Comte.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: Are you a role model?
Franziska Knuppe: If that were the case, it would make me very proud.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: Although the modeling profession is currently being criticized because the super-thin girls are increasingly influencing the body awareness of young women?
Franziska Knuppe: The models in which these young women orient themselves are top models, ie real professionals who know exactly what they are doing and are eating properly and healthily. None of them is anorexic. If that were so, they would not survive a single day's work. Models who are ill can not work successfully.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: And yet, many girls risk their health trying to trim their bodies to ideal dimensions.
Franziska Knuppe: Of course, anorexia is a terrible disease, but to connect them exclusively with the modeling is simply wrong. Eating disorders occur for a variety of reasons; For example, they are very often found in high-performance athletes who are generally more likely than "healthy". be valid.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: For more and more teenagers, modeling is the dream job. What is the fascination of your job?
Franziska Knuppe: Many girls only see glamor, money and jet set? exactly what the media told them about the dream job? Model? demonstrate. Most do not even suspect that there is much more behind it.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: Namely what?
Franziska Knuppe: Hard work, twelve-hour days and many trips. All this requires a lot of discipline. But that's exactly what makes the attraction of being a model for me personally. That's why I've been with my heart for almost nine years.
- Program note: "Germany's Next Top Model", ProSieben, Wednesdays, 8.15 pm
