ANNA WINTOUR AND CO. TAKE ON HARVARD

Anna Wintour, Natalia Vodianova, and Michael Kors discuss weight and age issues in fashion and modeling industry at Harvard University.

Boston - Harvard University is home to many intellectual debates, but this week it hosted fashion’s own great debate over weight issues and the runway – a conversation that was mediated by editrix Anna Wintour and American designer Michael Kors. The two fashion moguls headed to the Ivy League university on the heels of Kors’ decision to no longer “hire girls under 16″ to walk his runway, citing their lack of emotional wherewithal, which ultimately makes them vulnerable to fashion’s unreasonable weight limitations.

Model Natalia Vodianova (pictured left with Wintour) joined the panel to openly discuss her own struggle with anorexia and how the fashion industry did more to encourage her illness than help her overcome it with Wintour, who sits at the helm of the fashion universe, by her side. “Each and every one of us needs to realize we are all responsible for models’ health,” said Wintour, who called on designers to reverse the “tyranny of [sample] clothes that just barely fit a 13-year-old on the edge of puberty.” Perhaps next season as New York fashion shows move on from the tents to the main stage, it will take the new body standard with it. [WWD]

Image Courtesy of Modelina.com