body issues

Franca Sozzani: ‘I Made a Mistake’ Removing That Karlie Kloss Image

The image in question.
The image in question.

This weekend, Franca Sozzani took to her blog and spoke to Arianna Huffington about the ongoing kerfuffle over Karlie Kloss’s nude photo shoot in Italian Vogue, namely one particular image that was removed from the magazine’s website after people complained that it made Karlie look too thin. Sozzani says that she took down the photo to curtail comments that may have been hurtful — particularly to women with body-image issues — but now she regrets her decision, and thinks she shouldn’t have shied away from controversy (it was awfully uncharacteristic of her).

According to Sozzani’s blog:

I did not remove the first picture from the site because I thought it set a bad example due to its thinness, but because I am aware of the fact that people can easily attach labels without thinking, so I believed I could avoid a pointless debate. I made a mistake. I had to do what I thought was right, that is leave the picture and let everybody express their opinion freely. The picture is beautiful and that’s all.

Sozzani also asserts — as many have done — that Karlie has an excellent relationship with food and exercise.

Karlie is not anorexic but has a muscular body with a rounded contour due to the muscles’ tension, as you can see on the cover picture, where the “buttocks” are muscular and rounded, just like the thighs and the biceps … And, by the way, don’t forget Karlie is first of all a classical ballet dancer and her body and mucles [sic] reflects this. 

Speaking of controversy-loving editors, Arianna Huffington interviewed Sozzani this past weekend. Their discussion topics ranged from Sozzani’s sleep habits (ten-to-fourteen hours a night), her views on plastic surgery (“I think if [you’re] 18 and you have a nose or ears that make you unhappy, you have to do it”) and of course, Karlie again. The editor added that she took down the image to respect complaints she received from parents about Kloss’s thinness (the nude photos, of course, were totally fine):

I took down the one picture because I understood what [the critics] mean, and even if I tried to explain that it’s the position, if you take a picture of anyone from that [angle] you look flat, like a cartoon, no one would understand. But I can’t explain this, so I prefer to take it down. But people said, ‘oh, if you take down, it means you are ashamed,’ but no, I respect the problem and the parents’ complaints. But if you’ve seen any other pictures [of Kloss], you see that she has a beautiful body, she’s slim. But slim doesn’t mean skinny. Anorexia is a sickness. This is not sick.

Of course, the image’s removal has arguably attracted much more attention than it would have received otherwise, but Sozzani’s main point is not up for debate: Karlie is in the pink of health, and wouldn’t be so beautiful if that weren’t the case.

Related: Italian Vogue Removed This Karlie Kloss Image From Their Website

Sozzani on Karlie’s Photo: ‘I Made a Mistake’