The ugly side of beauty and fashion

RE “Designers Still Use a Skeleton Crew,” by Booth Moore, Feb. 7: I was one of the few “non-insiders” at the Council of Fashion Designers of America’s panel presentation (it was not a discussion) on Monday in New York.

I am a mom who lost her daughter to anorexia, and I was there representing the Eating Disorders Coalition (representatives from the National Eating Disorders Assn. and the Academy for Eating Disorders were also present).

We were disappointed that the CFDA wrote such weak recommendations and has no intention of enforcing them. Our organizations intend to stay on top of the issue to protect the health and well-being of models and all of us who see the images.

KITTY WESTIN

Chaska, Minn.

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I was disappointed by Booth Moore’s homophobic cliche that gay men want girls to look like boys in her piece on model weight, especially unattributed. I thought it had been retired years ago, along with “a woman’s place is in the home.”

In fact, the much-heralded era of the supermodels was really a result of men who glorified the curvaceous form: Gianni Versace brought it to the runway; Thierry Mugler celebrated it in the “Faith” video; Calvin Klein put his company’s image on Christie Turlington. It seems to me that today’s thinner standard has been nurtured by skeletal women stylists and editors and exploited by women tabloid editors.

VINCENT BOUCHER

Los Angeles