Monday, May 30, 2011

Triumph Advertorial Published Nov/Dec 1998

Since the success of the Gossard Show, Storm pegged me as a body girl. While I remained a bit shy and conservative in my mentality, I felt more and more comfortable shooting tasteful swimwear and lingerie. I figured I wasn't any more nude than on the beach, and as long as the publications were the kind aimed at women, the pictures could certainly pass the Grandma test. 
(Those pants sure pass the Grandma test...)


As far as body-issues went, I can honestly say that I was blissfully, blessedly slim and trim by pure genetic luck. It frustrates me when people indiscriminately judge "eating disorder" or "drugs" when models look unusually skinny. While those are certainly two frightening areas of concern in any young model's life, I would say most models under 24 are scouted in the first place for being naturally slender, it isn't a foreign body-type they torture themselves into. 
My arms in the the following picture look like little twigs, but that's just how I was built. My financially indebted student life, an aversion to cooking and a super fast-paced lifestyle all added up to twig-arms, but I was healthy. 


There is so much contentious debate around model weight and sizes and I am encouraged whenever the industry makes gestures towards condoning a healthier model body type. 
The model herself is the first and final body with the power though, and my advice to any aspiring models and their parents is this: if a scout / agent / client says lose more than one or two kilo's and you'll be great, you're stepping onto a very slippery slope that I'd avoid at all costs.