Working in the fashion industry, we know the pressures that models face. Unrealistic beauty and body standards, pushing models to reach impossible requirements, jeopardising their health just so they can land that one job. We hear it all the time.
But in recent years, the industry and the models themselves are starting to stand up for themselves.
Danish model Ulrikke Hoyer has taken to Facebook to call out the model bookers for the Louis Vuitton Kyoto show, that fired her for being too 'bloated'.
Explaining that she is more than used too the high expectations placed upon her being a model, she knows that these demands and expectations given to high fashion models are 'completely unattainable and directly damaging to the human body.'
Despite being a size 8/10, Hoyer already knew that she was considered 'big' compared to other models, who are unhealthily thin in order to stay within the industry and make a living.
Having already walked for Louis Vuitton for their SS17 show, she was shocked at how she was treated.
In the post, Hoyer then went on to explain what happened when she was casted for the Kyoto show.
'Months before the show, Louis Vuitton had shown interest in using me and put in an option,' the model writes.
'23rd April comes along and I'm measured at my Danish agency and my hips are 92cm. Knowing the sizes of the clothes, the rigidity of the casters, we decide to tell the caster that I'm under the weather (yes, a little white lie) and can't come to Paris for the fitting on 25th of April and therefore can't do the show in Japan.'
'Alexia Cheval from Ashley Brokaw Casting asks my French agent if this is the truth and what we can do.'
'We decided to tell them the truth and LV insisted on flying me straight to Paris the next day. I went to the fitting (tried on a dress and a coat) and before I even got back into my own clothes they confirmed me to the show.'
Elated that she had been cast for the show despite not being at her 'skinniest', she went back to work to get back to her usual measurements.
The day before the show, Ulrikke measured her hips again and had lost 0.5cm. Feeling 'relieved' knowing that she was smaller than what she was when she was confirmed, she made her way to Japan.
'After a 23 hour journey I arrived in Tokyo Wednesday night,' the model continues.
'Thursday at 3:30pm I had my fitting. That day I ate a very small breakfast and had just water and tea before the fitting, because that's how we do it... I tried my dress and the coat which I was confirmed fitted in Paris.'
'I changed shoes and trousers a couple times (also very normal procedure as they want to find the best look).
'Afterwards I tried on a puffy dress with a semi bare back and then I was done.'
'Right after I had a call from my French agent who told me that I had a refitting the day after at 12am (my Danish agent tells me afterwards that Alexia had told my French agent that I needed to take this serious).'
'Later that night my French agent called me and told me that Alexia had said that there had been some problems during the fitting. According to her I had "a very bloated stomach", "bloated face", and urged me to starve myself with this statement, "Ulrikke needs to drink only water for the next 24 hours."
'I was shocked when I heard it. This was exactly what we have wanted to avoid when we tried to cancel because I was "bigger".'
Skipping dinner and decided to stay in the hotel for the evening, the next day she had the bare minimum at breakfast.
With her fitting rescheduled, at 7pm her agent called to tell her that LV had decided to fire her from the show. According to Ulrikke, her stomach, puffy face and back were enough to send her home.
'What should have been a truly amazing and unique experience ended up being a very humiliating experience. This is not about me being cancelled from a show - you win some and you lose some that's the game. But I cannot accept the normality in the behaviour of people like this.'
'They find pleasure in power over young girls and will go to the extreme to force an eating disorder on you.'
'I am aware that I'm a product, I can separate that but I have seen way too many girls who are sooo skinny that I don't even understand how they even walk or talk.'
'It's so obvious that these girls are in desperate need of help. It's funny how you can be 0.5 or 1cm "too big" but never 1-6cm "too small".'
Already received hundreds of comments criticising the agents and the industry as a whole, the post has been shared more than 700 times.
