Karen Elson opened up in British Vogue in 2002 about her history with eating disorders. But in case you forgot what she wrote in that first-person essay, the Telegraph has a review in the weekend paper. In that issue, she wrote that she saw “Kate Moss’s statistics in a magazine and how much she weighed. They said she was seven stone, so I thought, ‘That’s it, that’s how much I want to weigh’ … I’d be not eating or bulimic or taking laxatives.” But Elson’s struggles began when she was 7, after her parents divorced.
Later, aged 19, the disorder struck again. The skinny freak was no longer chic — the tanned, healthy beauty of Gisele Bündchen was having its moment — and the rejection was difficult to handle.
Not only that, but Elson was filling out. In 1998 Dolce & Gabbana rejected her for their Milan catwalk show, deeming her too big. At the time Elson laughed it off (while cancelling all of her Milan and most of her Paris runway appearances).
After that Elson appeared in the notoriously raunchy Pirelli calendar to show off her curves, “and, as her agent puts it, ‘we were back in business.’” So she has eating issues, becomes a model, then Gisele comes along making her too pale and supposedly unhealthy looking, then she strips down for a tire company calendar and all is well. Modeling sounds awesome.
Interview with Karen Elson: The chicest freak [Telegraph UK]
