‘Walking Skeletons’: media, misogyny and thinness

October 2007: a model walks the Guy Laroche catwalk at Paris fashion week. Her beautifully cut, flowing backless tunic, like her skin, is purest white: her simply-styled hair and minimal makeup designed to showcase the flowing lines of Laroche’s expert draping. What is most striking about this show, though – and what will attract widespread attention from commentators and bloggers is not the clothes, but the thinness of the woman’s body.