Jessica Simpson Visits Anorexic Model Isabelle Caro

During her recent guesting on Oprah, Jessica Simpson shares a video clip of her visit to Paris to meet Isabelle Caro, a former model who suffered a severe case of anorexia.

Isabelle Caro has made headlines when she posed nude at 62 pounds for an anti-anorexia billboard.


Along with her friends Ken Paves and CaCee Cobb, Jessica Simpson listens to Isabelle Caro as she tells her story in French. Then the interpreter shares:

"There was the fashion designer who told her you need to lose ten kilos if you want to be in the fashion world. She really decided to stop eating and to lose weight. So that's how she ended up being an anorexic. Three years ago she was in a coma. The doctor said that there was no hope left, but she survived. And after that, she decided that she had to start eating, little by little... And now Isabelle is trying to pass a law in Parliament which says that you can't model when you're too skinny."

Brought to tears by her story, Jessica Simpson tells the brave Isabelle Caro, "To us, what you're doing right now makes you one of the most beautiful people that we have ever seen."

After watching the clip, a teary-eyed Jessica Simpson tells Oprah Winfrey:

"It makes me very emotional because just the pressure that women feel to be thin or to be beautiful - the pressure that the media puts on women - is so unfair and so disgusting."

Health Test For London Fashion Week Drops, Eating-Disorder Charity Dismays

As the health test for London Fashion Week was dropped, the Eating Disorder Charity “Beat” was dismayed.

Just recently, the plan to require models to secure a health certificate before joining the London Fashion Week have been dropped by the British Fashion Council (BFC), which runs the highly-profiled fashion event.

The heath certification was deemed unworkable by the council. Chief Executive Hilary Riva has said in an open letter that there are impracticalities in implementing the annual checks. The BFC also mentioned that when the plan is pursued, models will feel discriminated and feel a lack of support from industry bodies in other fashion capitals.

Beat – an eating disorder charity, on the other hand, expressed dismay for the abandonment of the health certificate requirement plan. Beat's chief executive was quoted as saying "I am disappointed that they have stepped away from this. I know that there are practical difficulties and that there were matters of principle that the fashion industry found difficult but I feel the BFC should show leadership on this issue."

The idea to require health certificates to prove that models do not have anorexia have been proposed by the Model Health Inquiry, a British independent organization composed of model managers, designers, and supermodels. The health certificate plan was set up by BFC in March 2007 to investigate health problems suffered by models in the British fashion industry, especially during the hype of death reports from "size zero" super-skinny models.

Now that the models' health test requirement for London Fashion Week was dropped and the Eating Disorder Charity “Beat” was dismayed, let's hear it from the fashion models' side: "I feel that to ask all models to produce a mandatory certificate of health compromises their dignity and potentially infringes their human rights. Furthermore, the logistical constraints involved with ensuring all models are medically checked in good time to fulfill work engagements represent an ongoing obstacle," supermodel Erin O'Connor said.