Suffering for Fashion

Every day Jezebel runs a ragtrade post that just has various pieces of information from the fashion industry. Today I noticed a bullet about male model Ambrose Olson, which also included a link to a bullet from another post that detailed the number of model deaths over the past two years. I have included this information for your edification:

From Today:

Male model Ambrose Olson, 24, passed away last week. According to unconfirmed reports, he committed suicide by hanging. Olson, who was well-known for campaigns including Hugo Boss, Yves Saint Laurent, andArmani, is the fifth model to take his own life in less than two years. Additionally, in November, 2008, male model Randy Johnston died of a heroin overdose, apparently accidental

From April 26

Colombian model and celebrity Lina Marulanda has died, apparently by suicide. She jumped from the balcony of her sixth floor apartment. In November of last year, 20-year-old Korean model Daul Kim was found hanged in her boyfriend's apartment in Paris; in May, also in Paris, 28-year-old model andSpider-Man 3 actress Lucy Gordon was found dead, also by hanging. In November, 2008, 26-year-old Canadian model Hayley Kohle died after falling seven stories from the balcony of her agency-run apartment in Milan, and her death was ruled a suicide. So, too, was the June, 2008, death of 20-year-old Kazakh model Ruslana Korshunova, who was killed by the fall from her New York apartment's balcony. In February, 2008, former Yves Saint Laurent muse andFrance's Next Top Model host Katoucha Niane's body was fished out of the Seine. No foul play was suspected in her death. In addition, on the same day that Kohle died, American male model Randy Johnston was found dead of an accidental heroin overdose in London.

I am not familiar with all of these models' work except for Daul Kim (I have a link to her blog in my sidebar, and it is a very interesting read). I wonder whether if this series of model deaths could be labeled a trend, and what exactly is causing them. You could probably add Alexander McQueen to this list, in a way, since he committed suicide and was a well-known fashion designer.

Of course it is ironic that the beautiful, well-traveled, and (some of them) rich people of the fashion industry are taking their own lives. It rings too true of Richard Cory, the one and only poem I have memorized, about a rich man who takes his own life even though everybody in his town envies him. I have silly dreams and aspirations about being a model; after all, I might be America's Next Top Model's biggest fan and follower (that is a big claim to make but let's just run with it for the rest of the post). What other profession so readily funds you traveling the world, wearing fabulous clothing, and getting photographed while doing it? It is like career-porn for the young.

And then there is the other side. The side that results in accidental drug overdoses or purposeful suicides, the side where these faces that we encounter on the day to day are so meaningless to us that we no longer realize how lonely it must be to model. How hard it is to be looked at like cattle and criticized constantly. And underneath that, is there even the satisfaction of knowing that your work serves a greater purpose? I love models and modeling and I can't imagine a life without them, but isn't there the tiniest nugget of truth about the fact that modeling is an inherently selfish profession? Is it possible to save a life by wearing a Valentino dress or are you just perpetuating an industry that promotes rigid beauty standards, gender norms, and industrialized capitalism?

It is a terrible shame that all of these models are taking their lives. And obviously each death is unique: unique because every person is different, unique because the reasons why it happened are individual to each person who died. But these deaths, they should be analyzed, and used as a starting point for serious change in the fashion industry. Not a dedication of an episode of a reality show to Tyra's favorite designer (photo below).