When will the size zero debate die out???

I am sick and tired of the size zero debate!!! Every time a new catwalk season approaches everybody starts rambling on and on about it, having council conferences and remembering about so and so model who died of a heart attack after years of annorexia. Not that their fate is not sad and shouldn't be remembered, but while all that empty discussion goes on, is there anything being solved? No. What it really does is put pressure on every single woman who is remotely interested in fashion and make them paranoid about these extra pounds they suddenly remember how desperately they want to get rid of.

I read in Le Nouvel Observateur a few months ago that 75% of women go through an eating disorder at some point of their life. And if this is not necessarily caused by the size zero debate, it's certainly not helped by it. Everybody knows how retouched fashion pictures are, but maybe it's still worth remembering it again and again every so often.

For having worked on photoshoots I can tell you this much: models never ever look like they seem on glossy pages of a magazine. They're not that tall, not that smooth-skinned, not that well dressed, most of the time you wouldn't even notice them in the street.

Recently I had an affair (how glamorous) with a fashion photographer... Mr Olderly Man. God was he gorgeous and did I use to get paranoid about all these models batting their eyelashes around his camera! And then I spent some time watching him retouch the fashion stories he was shooting, and I was shocked to find out that he would not only erase some girls' pores and thin up their forearm because it looked 'fatty' (!!!), but he would also plump girls up when they looked to skinny: I remember seeing a model on whose back you could see every single bone!

There is no such thing as perfection. We're all women, and it is not size or curves or pounds that make a difference: it's the way you wear it and how you dress it that changes everything. It is not because you are round or skinny that you are not going to look fantastic with the right outfit, and so much more noticeable than a model before post-production. So you gained a few pounds on a Christmas holiday? You can lose them after a few salads: pick up a voluminous new look vintage style dress that will accentuate your waist and hide your thighs if you feel more comfortable about it, you will look fantastic and men won't tell the difference! Style is a real skill, it is an art... not eating isn't. Wearing too tight a pair of jeans and showing your love handles because you refuse these passing extra pounds isn't.

Lose the weight obsession, embrace style, and forget the size zero debate, it's an evil fantasy!