![]() The fault here, at least partly, lies with the Heat magazine agenda and the media's obsession with women's bodies, as O'Connor says. One of the more grating aspects of this whole furore - since Jowell's comments, Stuart Rose, chief executive of M&S, has also weighed in, describing it as "a knee-jerk reaction, using the fashion industry as the focus", and the story hasn't been out of the newspapers since - is that it implies that a woman's weight is the most important thing about her and is the first (and only) quality onlookers notice. But it is an important issue, so all opinions welcome," she says. "It is a tricky one as it's still really fresh. When O'Connor arrives in the hotel bar, a very un-Naomi Campbellish 15 minutes early, she looks both wary and weary, yet she is surprisingly happy to engage in the skinny-model debate. Such a down-to-earth background and attitude is refreshingly unusual in fashion. Her father and mother work, respectively, in a welding factory and a nursery school and, before O'Connor left school at 16 to go into modelling, she was planning to be a schoolteacher. Even the way she began her career - she was spotted at a Clothes Show event when she was a teenager - has a pleasing smack of normality to it. The closest she has come to scandal was last year - not when she was photographed falling drunk out of a nightclub, but when she publicly distanced herself from the diamond company De Beers, for ethical reasons. She is currently in a long-term relationship with a television news producer and her cheeks turn pink when talking about their hearty weekend bicycle rides and camping trips. ") no drugs ("It's not a moral stance, they're just not me") and a preference for reading - her favourite book is Wuthering Heights - and seeing her friends. With the exception of a relatively high-profile relationship with broadcaster Jamie Theakston, O'Connor has always kept her private life just that: no rock star boyfriends ("I know - and I dare to call myself a model. She is now about to front an M&S financial initiative to lure big-name models to London, who normally give the city's fashion week a miss.īorn and raised near Walsall, where her parents live and to which she returns frequently, yet a favourite among Paris's designers: it is this combination of elegance and normality, glamour and visible intelligence, that has been a major part of her appeal. Her painterly, angular features have made her hugely successful and she has worked for most top designers, from Armani to Versace, though she is probably best known in this country for starring in Marks & Spencer's highly successful current campaign. There is a debate to be had about why being thin seems to be a prerequisite for models, but it might have served the press's purposes better if they had picked a sallow-faced, hollow-eyed frail young thing - of whom there are many to be found on the catwalks - to illustrate their point.īut perhaps it's no surprise O'Connor was chosen, if only because she is one of the most recognisable models in Britain. ![]() While there are plenty of models out there who are obviously not getting their three hot meals a day, with her lanky build and androgynous figure, O'Connor, 28, is clearly naturally thin. The following day, a newspaper printed a photo of O'Connor to illustrate Jowell's point: models are too thin and fill women with self-loathing and unhappiness. A couple of days after Madrid Fashion Week announced that it was to ban skinny models from its catwalks, Britain jumped on this undoubtedly worthy but suspiciously headline-grabbing bandwagon, and culture secretary Tessa Jowell announced that London Fashion Week should follow suit. Below, 29 Black supermodels who have changed-and are continuing to change-the fashion and modeling industries.It was unfortunate that the day the very private and rather guarded British model Erin O'Connor agreed to meet for an interview, she was being cited in the press as the harbinger of no end of ills for young women. ![]() ![]() Of course, you’d have to be living under an actual rock not to know some of the iconic women listed below (*hint, hint* Naomi and Tyra), but there are also some rising supermodels who have made names for themselves in an impressively short amount of time. ![]() The following Black supermodels have had many firsts among them (first Black model to open a runway show, first Black model to appear on a magazine cover, first Black model to land a major cosmetics contract-the list goes on), and they’ve all also dominated countless catwalks and campaigns and deserve major recognition. And although progress is (slowly but surely) being made to ensure that people of color, and specifically Black people, are represented in all areas of the industry including modeling, someone usually (and unfairly) has to pave the way for others. The fashion industry has a history of inclusivity and diversity issues-which are, unfortunately, still prevalent today. ![]()
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