People Are Talking Oct 11, 2007 @ 10:33am

Did Karl Send the Thin Girls Home?

gemma plays tennis.jpg
Fashion Week flashback:

Karl Lagerfeld claims he sent three girls home before the Chanel show for being too thin.

Hilary Alexander reports in the Telegraph that Karl revealed, “”I have nothing against skinny girls. But these were terrible. They looked as if they had grown up in a Third World country with no food to eat… I sent them back to the agency. I did not think they should be modeling.”

Call us cynics, but it’s tough to believe anyone looks worse right now than Lily Donaldson, who made a prominent appearance on Chanel’s stage.

And while the fashion pack is buzzing with Gemma Ward’s new size (bigger, and hot), we’re not sure it’s a revolution when the most beautiful girl in the world gains the 10 pounds it takes to transition from teen to adult.

Still, girls like Stam, Vlada, and Snejana looked better than ever in Paris (Vlada even looked alive!), and the tidbit is intriguing:

If Karl really did send three girls home for looking ill, which three were they?

Perhaps a flip through the show will reveal any gaps…

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posted by Jen

Oct 11, 2007 11:15AM

I wonder if one of them was Olga Sherer

posted by Vonnie

Oct 11, 2007 11:16AM

oh wee! now gemma weighs 110 instead of 100!!!! break out the champagne, lol...looks good though, i too wonder who he sent home

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posted by Jerri Blank

Oct 11, 2007 11:56AM

I was going to say Olge Sherer but Jen beat me to it

posted by guest

Oct 11, 2007 11:57AM

Freja was noticeably missing despite being in the current Chanel ads... but she was at Lagerfeld Gallery and Fendi so who knows.

posted by guest

Oct 11, 2007 12:30PM

Freja's torso looks to have about the same circumference as my wrist. And I don't have an especially wide wrist.

posted by Rebe

Oct 11, 2007 12:32PM

And wow, some of those dresses where despicably unflattering. I have no great love for Karl Lagerfeld as a personality, but I respect his work. And honestly, I expected more from him.

I mean, in particular, a dress that Racquel Zimmerman and another model wore, which made them look practically tubular.

posted by mica

Oct 11, 2007 12:44PM

scandaleux! i noticed freja's absence as well, mostly because she's the current face of the campaign; i would have expected her to be there. i don't think she looks any thinner than lily d, though.

posted by Kendall

Oct 11, 2007 1:07PM

I agree about Olga Sherer. And Freja was missing. I can't really think of any other prominent girls who were missing, though.

No matter how skinny Lily D gets I doubt Chanel will ever drop her; she's been a Lagerfeld favorite for far too long.

I think Gemma looks awesome right now. Coco and Behati looked really healthy in the Chanel show, too. And Vlada, Sasha and Snejana are looking a bit healthier - granted, they still look skinny, but both seem less skinny than last season. Perhaps the healthier trend really will catch on - there's a healthier looking Stam; plus Doutzen, Hilary Rhoda, and Lara Stone.

posted by Katie

Oct 11, 2007 1:20PM

If anyone was sent away it should have been Lily D. She looks awful, something is very wrong there.

posted by una

Oct 11, 2007 1:36PM

I think Gemma does not look good, and I think she weights more than 110.

posted by hannah

Oct 11, 2007 3:40PM

Gemma looks killer!

posted by Amber

Oct 11, 2007 3:45PM

I think one of those girls was Freja. Seeing as Karl loves her, but she was not on the Chanel runway.

posted by Anna

Oct 11, 2007 4:01PM

Uma, if you don't have anything nice to say don't say it

posted by Kara

Oct 11, 2007 4:27PM

Idk I kind of like how Lily D looks...which might mean I'm just as screwed up as Karl. But can we please get the bags under Sasha P's eyes fixed? They are seriously distracting.

posted by guest

Oct 11, 2007 4:51PM

Karl's such a hypocrite. One moment he goes on about how certain top models are now too "fat" to cast, and the next he claims to send home girls for being too thin...

I also doubt he'd reject REALLY major girls like Freja. Possibly Olga (she's positively skelatal!), but otherwise I'm guessing it was a couple of newer hotshots. Anabela, perhaps.. or scary skinny Taryn Davidson.

posted by Luisa

Oct 11, 2007 5:00PM

@Kendall: Yep, Doutzen, Lara Stone, Hilary, Catherine McNeil, and Behati all look to be in a different weight category than most of the other girls...which is not bad bur oddly inconsistent. Some girls have to be super super thinm while Catherine, et. al. seem to be OK at their particularly thin-but-no-too-thin size. and Daria too...that charity polo shirt ad with Daria, the Lilys, Du Juan and Sasha is mighty revealing...both of Sasha's thighs seem to fit in one of Daria's calves. And yes, although probably not the thinnest, Sasha looks very unhealthy. Very. I always think of her as Gemma's parasitic twin. But not in a bad way, really!!!!!! Gemma is too kewpie doll for me...

posted by avb

Oct 11, 2007 5:40PM

what a sad collection. Remember when Britney and Justin wore matching denim outfits back in the day?

Lily D looks awful! it's so depressing. Gemma, Behati etc look refreshing- though it'll still be a long time before their skinny-jeans thighs touch.

posted by anon

Oct 11, 2007 7:33PM

Natasha Poly?

posted by venusfly

Oct 11, 2007 8:05PM

I agree with Una. Gemma looks fat and bloated. Some women need to gain weight and look better for it but this woman does NOT look better with the weight on. she looks terrible!

posted by le petit lapin vegan

Oct 11, 2007 10:38PM

vlada looks so beautiful and quite frankly, adorable! i never fully noticed her cute (yet surprisingly sophisticated) innocent, downright "pretty" looks until this season and with her healthier image.

posted by Kara

Oct 12, 2007 12:16AM

I can't believe people are saying that Gemma looked fat. I know this is a fashion site and, yes, models should be skinny but she's hardly fat. She's still skinny she's just slightly more athletic looking than before.

posted by sy

Oct 12, 2007 4:09AM

i think people should take note that this image is flattened. gemma probably looks less pudgy when the image is in its original proportions. and i agree, if lily d was not considered to thin, then the girls who got sent home must've been toothpicks.

posted by una

Oct 12, 2007 8:00AM

well, where are the cheekbones? this particular girl does not look good with more weight.

I agree with Venusfly, bloated is the word.

posted by megan

Oct 12, 2007 10:00AM

Gemma looked great at the Chanel show. The clothes didn't. Don't blame the models for a disapointing show.

posted by guest

Oct 12, 2007 12:44PM

I think the "too thin" three girls are Freja, Olga Sherer and Natasha Poly.
But this report is kind of ridiculous... Hilary Alexander referring to Gemma Ward as "positively curvaceous" is laughable, I guess that's only in the fashion realm and Karl Lagerfeld as the authority on health and weight, well...

posted by Gen

Oct 12, 2007 2:52PM

Una and Venusfly are right... Gemma couldn't ever be called fat, but her face looks distinctly odd... bloated, puffy, call it whatever you want. The face is the first place to show unfortunate weight loss or gain, and it certainly has something to say in these photos...

The collection is hideous. You can almost always rely on Chanel for gorgeous clothes, for something with elegance and glamour and class, but this collection is clownish... it seems Karl's imagination this season stretched no further than stars & stripes, discount denim and the kind of fashion disasters no-one'd consider a bargain in a thrift store [see-through lace trousers? oh GOD].

posted by Gen

Oct 12, 2007 2:55PM

...althoouuugh, the 30s style lace dress and hat [/headpiece?] with the layered shoulders is rather gorgeous, from the knees up, anyway, and Edita looks terrific in it.

posted by bryanboy

Oct 12, 2007 5:26PM

there is NO way in hell gemma is 110.

more like 140-160.

posted by shootson

Oct 12, 2007 9:10PM

The models that are the thinnest are the less famous ones. Freja was looking REALLY thin.
I also noticed Natasha Poly looked thinner than ever. I'm sorry but Snejana Onopka just grosses me out, more than Lily D. I think we're so used to Snejana Onopka being discusting looking, that when she puts on a teeny weight, it seems so miraculous. Gemma looks cute.
I'm jealous, when a model gains 20 pounds, it looks good on their 6 foot frame. When I gain 20 pounds from pigging, it looks like a pig on steiroids..

posted by guest

Oct 12, 2007 11:01PM

i thought gemma looked amazing

posted by J

Oct 13, 2007 3:19PM

on TFS.. rachel clark posted that for the chanel castings, karl is only at the ones for the hundreds of new girls that agencies send out... the more established girls are requested by chanel and meet with karl's casting directors, not with karl himself.... basically, that means that the three girls who werent cast are unknowns.

posted by bryanboy

Oct 14, 2007 12:03AM

Shootson....

Snejana has gained so much weight this season compared to her thinnest, which is spring/summer 2007. remember the fendi show how she opened it and she wore nothing but this silver dress? she really looked like a rail.

Anyway, she looks "normal" now.

If there's anyone who lost SO much weight this season it's Lily Donaldson.

And then of course, the skinniest one of them all is Olga Sherer.

posted by guest

Oct 14, 2007 8:37PM

to bryanboy- I know what 160 looks like, and it's a hell of a lot bigger than Gemma.

posted by Charlotte

Oct 14, 2007 10:49PM

My guess is Alyona, Olga, and some random

posted by Jen

Oct 15, 2007 10:00AM

I wouldn't say that Snejana has gained 'so much weight'. She couldn't have gained more than like 5 pounds. I'm not saying that she doesn't look better....at least she doesn't look like a member of the living dead anymore. However, I still wouldn't classify her as 'normal' even by model standards. In a line up of the current working models, Snejana would still rank among the skinniest.

posted by guest

Feb 25, 2008 4:15PM

I met Lilly D. once when she came into the NYC equestrian shop where I worked. She is really striking in person. She didn't look skeletal but rather, she had a delicate build. I didn't know who she was at the time but I couldn't take my eyes off her and I thought "What a stunning girl!" She was very nice too. A real class act without pretension. In the pictures she looks much thinner then when I saw her last summer.