Strong is the new sexy!

It’s modelling, but not the look we at the Model Scout Agency support or want to promote.

Stick thin waifs sashaying down the runway, all spindly legs and protruding bones, their size zero frames crying out for a square meal.

Paris chic, heroin chic, call it what you will, but suggesting that you have to be emaciated to make it as a top model is now something that many in the industry are trying to consign to the past.

It won’t happen overnight, but here in Australia we appear to be following a new and much healthier trend. The authorities have not yet gone as far as the French in proposing legislation to require model agencies to obtain medical certificates from models proving their weight is within an ‘acceptable’ range, but we are promoting a body image all young girls can safely aspire to possessing.

Many in this country were forced to take a long, hard look at themselves in response to Cassie Van Den Dungen. At Paris Fashion Week she took to the catwalk with legs thinner than Bambi, once again sending the wrong body image message to thousands of very impressionable young women, and men.

Now it appears that ‘Strong is the new sexy’. At last year’s Aussie Fashion Week, designers ditched skinny in favour of girls who, in truth, better represented the out-going, sporty Australian.

We Are Handsome showcased their swimwear range using the likes of former Commonwealth Games pole-vaulter Amanda Bisk, yoga instructor Kate Kendall, and ballet dancer Juliet Burnett. Not a skeletal frame to be seen, and no less beautiful for it.

Healthy
Model Scout Academy places great store by exercise and a healthy diet – in fact it’s one of the core elements of our course. We offer tips and guidance about how to control your weight and shape in a healthy way, with a positive knock-on effect on hair, skin, even state of mind.

I mean, how could you feel good, inside or out, if, as sadly was reported, you were staving off hunger pangs by eating tissue paper (yes, that’s what models in Europe were munching on).

Another of our homegrown brands, Robb & Lulu, has also demonstrated a refreshingly realistic approach to their range. They produced swimwear in sizes from 0-26 (including bigger cup sizes); and all the models used on the runway by designer Manning Cartell were size 8-10.

For far too long size zero models have been the norm, and we wonder why anorexia is such an issue with young women. Now, at least, the industry is no longer turning a blind eye and facing up to its responsibilities.

We’re still some way off bringing designers who continue to send skin and bones models down the catwalk to book, but at least we appear to be heading in the right direction.

You and I both know that the typical Aussie beauty is vibrant, sun-kissed, sporty, and often sassy. At Model Scout Agency we’ve always believed that’s way sexier than ‘Paris thin’.

If any girls (or boys) out there would like more information on how to get and maintain a healthy model body, why not give us a call.

Remember, sick is not chic. Strong is the new sexy!