August 09, 2007
Model waits 3 months for phone line
BERLIN (Reuters) - A fashion model who features in a high-profile advertising campaign for Deutsche Telekom has threatened to seek another provider after waiting three months for the company to install a new phone line at her flat.The 27-year-old model, known as Dora, can be seen smiling brightly in posters across Germany for Telekom's new high speed connection service. But she told Bild newspaper on Tuesday she was fed up with waiting for her Berlin home to be connected.
"I'll give them another week but that's it. After that, I'm going to switch to another provider," the model said.
A Deutsche Telekom spokesman could not be reached for comment. But Bild quoted a Telekom official saying they would be in touch with Dora right away.
I am still trying to figure out why this was news worthy?
Posted by ronnie at 09:31 AM | Comments (0)
June 16, 2007
Mothers, transexuals allowed to compete in Miss Spain pageant
MADRID (AFP) - The Miss Spain beauty contest has changed its rules to allow transsexuals and mothers to compete for the title for the first time in order to avoid any discrimination among candidates, organizers said Friday.
"Transsexuals and mothers will be able to compete in the next edition," an organizer of the Miss and Mister Spain contest told AFP.
The move comes after the contest's decision to dethrone a 22-year-old beauty queen in February when it emerged she had a young son sparked criticism of the pageant's organizers from the press and the government.
Anna Bustillo, who won the title of Miss Cantabria, a region in northern Spain, in January making her eligible to go on for Miss Spain, said she was being discriminated against because fathers could compete for Mister Spain.
Pageant organizers justified their rules at the time, arguing that fathers, unlike mothers, "do not undergo substantial physical changes that would impede them from carrying out duties such as travel and taking part in parades that are required of pageant winners."
They decided to change the rules as well to allow transsexuals to compete in both the Miss and Mister Spain contest in the wake of a new law which came into effect in March that allows transsexuals to change their name and official gender without the need for a surgical operation.
"Of course, their morphology must match their civil status," the pageant organizer said.
Posted by ronnie at 09:42 AM | Comments (0)
February 12, 2007
Restaurant offers skinny models free meals
LONDON, Feb 12 (Reuters Life!) - Size zero models in town for London Fashion Week now have one less excuse to skip a meal.
A restaurant popular with celebrities and fashionistas in the British capital is offering free food to skinny models who have come under attack for promoting a stick-thin image which critics says encourages eating disorders in young women.
Bumpkin restaurant in trendy Notting Hill is offering models with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of less than 18 the opportunity to gorge on fish pies, lamb burgers, king prawns and scallops.
"If I could recommend a dish to a size zero model, it would be a charter pie containing leeks, chicken and bacon; it's enough to keep you warm and energised all day," Bumpkin general manager Dariush Nejad said in a statement on Monday.
The issue of size zero or "skinny models" has dogged fashion shows around the world after two anorexic Latin American models died last year and has been under the international spotlight during the spring fashion season in New York, Milan, Paris and London, which began on Sunday.
Madrid last year banned models with a BMI below 18 from taking part in fashion shows. BMI is a measure expressed as a ratio of weight to height. A BMI limit of 18 means a 5-foot-8 inch model must weigh at least 120 pounds (54 kg).
Models with a BMI of less than 18 who visit Bumpkin for lunch or dinner will be invited to select any food off the menu, simply by showing their modeling card which states if they are size zero, the restaurant said.
The restaurant boasts of its popularity with the London glitterati, saying recent visitors included fashion designer Stella McCartney, filmmaker Guy Ritchie, popstar Simon le Bon and his wife Yasmin.
Posted by ronnie at 08:22 PM | Comments (0)
December 19, 2006
Italy issues new code to stop ultra-skinny models
ROME, Dec 16 (Reuters Life!) - Italy's government and its fashion chiefs issued a manifesto on Saturday to crack down on the use of ultra-thin teenagers on the catwalk, requiring models to show proof of their good health or be barred from fashion shows.
The charter also bans the use of models who are under the age of 16, saying they risk "sending the wrong message to girls of the same age in the delicate pre-puberty stage."
The manifesto, which will be officially signed next week, was drawn up as pressure grows on the fashion world to promote healthier looks.
Spain barred models below a certain weight from Madrid fashion shows in September. Earlier this month Brazil also launched a campaign to ban underage, underweight models from its catwalks in response to the death of a Brazilian model from complications due to anorexia.
"The government and fashion associations have sealed a strategic partnership to launch a common fight against anorexia," said Youth and Sports Minister Giovanna Melandri.
Powerful Milan fashion houses at first resisted calls to follow the Spanish example, with Italian National Fashion Chamber head Mario Boselli saying in September that only "maybe one girl in a hundred" could be defined as too skinny.
But Boselli, whose lobby represents big names like Armani, Versace and Prada, later agreed to work with Melandri on a self regulatory code of good practice.
The manifesto requires models to produce a health certificate and says those with "apparent eating disorders" will be barred from fashion shows.
Posted by ronnie at 03:57 PM | Comments (0)
September 09, 2006
Madrid bans too-thin models from catwalk
MADRID (AFP) - Excessively skinny fashion models will be barred from a major Madrid fashion show later this month for fear they could send the wrong message to young Spanish girls, local media reported.
Madrid's regional government, which is co-financing the Pasarela Cibeles, has vetoed around a third of the models who took part in last year's show because they weigh too little.
The authorities collaborated with a Spanish health organisation to come up with a minumum body mass -- a height-weight ratio -- of 18 for the models.
Spanish daily ABC said it was the first time such restrictions had been imposed on a fashion show, although a recent wedding dress exhibition in Barcelona banned fashion models who took a dress size below 38 (British size 10, US size eight).
Several models at last year's show provoked a row when they claimed their careers would be under threat if they put on weight.
Organisers said they wanted to "help ensure public opinion does not associate fashion, and fashion shows in particular, with an increase in anorexia, a disease which, along with bulimia, is considered ... as a mental and behavioural problem".
The event will take place on September 18-22.
Posted by ronnie at 09:37 AM | Comments (0)