Grace Coddington Speaks Her Mind On Ralph Lauren Controversy

Grace Coddington speaks up on the Ralph Lauren controversy, saying she is worried about the penchant of the fashion industry for very young and very thin models.


Before she worked side by side with Anna Wintour as the creative director of Vogue, Grace Coddington was a model herself. She sympathized with Filippa Hamilton who claimed being fired by Ralph Lauren for being too fat, but her worry has been more on how today's models are getting younger and thus, more vulnerable to the pressures of the industry.

"It is a big problem. I remember when I was young, they told me that if I didn't lose weight I'd be out of the show, so I spent a week living off of coffee. But I'm a very levelheaded person. These problems nowadays are with kids much, much younger than that, and that's most of the problem — when they're very young and vulnerable."

On the other hand, the 68 year-old director believes that Ralph Lauren has been unfairly criticized for using thin models. For one, it is not only Ralph Lauren who uses thin models in fashion campaigns but most of the high-fashion designers in the industry.

"Most of his models are not super-skinny, so this is sort of an isolated situation, and I think it's unfair if he gets a lot of bad publicity because of it. But it is a big problem in the fashion industry. And you go to meetings to discuss it, and you think it's kind of futile, because it's such a big thing, and in the end, people are always asking for more and they're always asking for thinner."

So how do Grace Coddington and the people in the industry address this issue? Will they now stop using skinny models in fashion campaigns and replace them with women of healthier sizes? Why do high-fashion photo shoots choose thin models, by the way?

"They have to be a little thinner than you and I because you always photograph a little fatter, but you don't have to go to the extremes they go to. And because they're kids, they take it too far, and they can't regulate their lives, and next thing you know they're anorexic, and it is tragic.

"And I don't know what the answer is, except to keep on it, which we're all trying to do. Anna's trying to do it. Personally we're not allowed, at Vogue, to work with girls who are very thin, but you never know, because you could book them and think they're a certain size, and they turn up on the shoot and suddenly they've spun into this anorexic situation. And you're on the spot and you have to get the job done and you have one day to do it, and what do you do? But you try to be responsible, as Anna is."

We also don't know the answer Grace, except that with all these posts about weight getting too much, we might finally figure out what annoys us... when models are, in fact, meant to look better than everyone else.