File photo of German model Claudia Schiffer walking the red
carpet during arrivals for the awards ceremony at the 59th Cannes Film Festival
May 28, 2006.
Claudia Schiffer believes models are now too skinny to be attractive even
though the German supermodel may herself be slightly underweight despite a
voracious appetite and predilection for chocolate.
"It doesn't really look good any more," the 36-year-old was quoted as saying
in an interview with Germany's Bunte magazine.
"Fashion looks good on thin models, but when you look at today's models you
can not help but think there is something wrong. They are way too thin. It is
only bones that stick out."
Schiffer - who was part of a powerful band of 1990s jetsetting supermodels
that included Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Christie Turlington and Linda
Evangelista - was adding her voice to recent criticism of underweight models.
Madrid asked models below a certain weight to stay away from its fashion
show. Models with a body-mass-index (BMI) - which takes into account height and
weight - of less than 18 were banned.
"Models have always been thin. But today, they are even thinner, which is
unbelievable," said Schiffer, who has been on the cover of more than 550
magazines during her career.
She said she was on the heavy side when she began in 1988.
"I was one of the fattest when I started," said Schiffer, who according to a
German magazine website "Modellkartei" nevertheless has a BMI of just under 18.
The website lists Schiffer as 1.82 metres tall and weighing 58 kg.
"Ever since I started having children, I can eat whatever I want. I eat
chocolate almost every day and drink whole milk so that I don't lose any more
(weight)," said Schiffer, who has two young children.
"When media started writing that I looked too thin and ill, I went to the
doctor. He said I was healthy," she said. "I didn't gain weight after the
pregnancies. I hope it stays like that."
