GIORGIO ARMANI - ARMANI BLAMES MEDIA FOR SKINNY MODELS

ARMANI BLAMES MEDIA FOR SKINNY MODELS

Designer GIORGIO ARMANI has hit out at suggestions the fashion industry fosters eating disorders, blaming the media for the increase in skinny models. Speaking at the star-studded after party of his London Fashion Week catwalk show last night (21SEP06), the clothing legend insisted he only casts healthy girls and laid the blame on "interfering" press and stylists for the industry's obsession with weight. He said, "I have never wanted to use girls that are too skinny. I prefer girls that show off my clothes in the best way. Unfortunately though, the stylists and also the media have interfered and they now want models that are incredibly thin. "No one thinks that for a girl to be fashionable she needs to be anorexic, that she must not eat. I will only take on healthy girls." SOPHIE BUXTON, 16, who modelled for Armani at London's Earls Court last night, added, "Although I have never had anyone pressure me, the industry has an abundance of beautiful, slender girls competing for a limited number of jobs. It's an upsetting consequence that some girls, especially those who have moved over here from different countries and have greater pressures to succeed, feel the need to become too thin." BONO, BEYONCE KNOWLES, 50 CENT and LEONARDO DiCAPRIO were among the stars who attended the event yesterday, which Armani called, "The biggest party I've ever hosted."