Dear New York Fashion Week

Der har lige været modeuge i New York. Og mere end 200 modeller har i løbet af ugen delt deres personlige oplevelse af branchens standarder, på Instagram under hashtagget #DearNYFW. Der er mange tankevækkende historier imellem og jeg synes helt klart de er værd at tjekke ud. Især hvis man, som jeg, ser De Smukke Piger på DR3 for tiden.

I går smed jeg så min historie i puljen. Her er den (flankeret af et par billeder fra jeg var hhv 20 år i Hamborg og skidehamrende sulten (tv) og 30 år og rask og mæt (th))

#DearNYFW

I never met you.

Because even at my most hungry self (on the left at age 20, 52 kg, with 89cm/35inches hips) I wasn’t thin enough for the runway.

I’m very grateful for the 12 year career I’ve had so far. But the prize was high: 5 tough years battling an Eating Disorder, because I thought that being dizzy with hunger was ‘part of the game’ of being a model.

Later on I learned that it wasn’t. That there is actually such a thing as a healthy model with a naturally low bmi. I just wasn’t one of them. And I wish that the fashion industry would have just told me that.

Instead of encouraging me to ‘keep up the good work’ at a time when my only intake was Diet Coke, blue kings and apples, I wish they had told me to eat and be healthy. I’ll never forget them saying ‘you can always become thinner’.

In Denmark, we recently launched a national health check. The pilot for 2017 is to offer all 16 year old models a mandatory and free of charge medical and psychological check. I sincerely hope that this will prevent models, from the anxiety and confusion that I went through.

And I hope that you, New York Fashion Week (and London, Paris etc…), will follow and embark with us on the mission towards a global fashion industry filled with happy and healthy models in the future.

🌎🙌

Ida Burchardi (founder of @modeluniondk and on the steering committee of Danish Fashion Ethical Charter.