The "it girls" of couture are getting younger and younger.
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While models in stilettos, dark eye makeup, and thousand-dollar dresses might look like they're in their 20s, it's more likely that they are only 13. French Vogue even featured a 10-year-old in a 2011 spread straight out of Nabokov's daydreams.
In January 2011, the Council of Fashion Designers of America announced guidelines banning under-16s from modeling in Fashion Week runway shows.
But as Kate Moss, Christy Turlington, and Tyra Banks (to name a few) were all discovered in their early teens, many agencies and designers scoff at the idea. Some even lie about models' ages.
So the models get younger, the material gets sexier, and the apparel business dares authorities to investigate its use of young girls in sexualized situations.
In 2011, French Vogue published a 13-page feature in which "model-ettes" stared up from animal print rugs with puckered lips and bedroom eyes.
Thylane Loubry Blondeau, who began walking the runway at five, was only 10 years old in the Vogue spread.
Thylane's mother told a French newspaper, "The only thing that shocks me about the photo is the necklace that she's wearing, which is worth 3 million Euros."
Veronika Loubry later posted on Facebook:
hey guys im the mum of thylane something going ‘s wrong at the moment with thylane and bad personn in usa about pictures she make's 8 months ago for vogue ,,thylane doesn't know about the buzz and i want to protect her from the deapest of my heart ,,, she's so young ,, so we are going to close this accompte for a while ,,i know all of you are good person who like her so i send you a big kiss,,thanks
(The above spelling is reproduced verbatim).
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