Model's Age - How Young Is Too Young?

[Nonobstant]

^ even though she's already 16 and it's considered legal, I'm not too comfortable with such thing.
Let's wait a couple of years, shall we?
Same with her second look at Emilio Pucci F/W 10. It had me blushing, I didn't dare to look at the HQs.

Jac is only 16??
Good, I've never payed her much attention and took it for granted that she was 18 or 20! That said, the fact she looks older than she is does not excuse her having had to take sexy/nude poses at 12-14. It's a shame .
Talk of using models as an object!

 

[Empress Merel]

How old is Marloes Horst? 16-17? Her whole upper-body is nude in her Vogue Russia ed.

 

[tocceve]

^21. She's been doing nudes quite a while.

 

[Empress Merel]

21?! Gosh, I really thought I read somewhere she was around 16-17.

 

[cologne_rocks]

No, she's somehow always doing nudes and Terry Richadson loves her.

 

[tullepen]

Terry just disgusts me...I still think that 17 or 18,with the completion of high school,should be the requirement for ALL models. Partial nudity at 13,14,15 is just wrong. It's totally different then the whole being raised in nature,nudity is pure stance. These young girls are being posed as sexual objects, of course they don't see that themselves. It is a huge opportunity for some of them, especially form poor and struggling families, but this industry NEEDS to have strict regulations.

 

[jaben]

Same thing for Lyndsey Wixson. She refused a sheer blouse in one show. Very shortly afterwards, given another sheer blouse in another and this time she wore it. Once you are modeling at that level it's pretty well a given that you will be topless. Mind you, changing clothes in a room full of people at a show is probably more difficult to get used to.

So, she's too young for fashion modeling if she's not ready to go topless, or undress down to a thong in front of strangers.

Quite often the runway lighting make tops more transparent. What you think is only mildly transparent may end up showing you effectively topless. It's easy to get hung up on age but even the youngest girls will be topless in just a thong backstage. Once you get used to that you really don't pay too much attention if your nipples are going to be visible under a top.

 

[jaben]

I think 16 years and the way they show her boobs a bit secret is absolutely perfect.

The first picture is lovely. She looks so sweet that the nipples are a slight distraction in the second.

 

[tullepen]

^

 

[charliehorse]

Same thing for Lyndsey Wixson. She refused a sheer blouse in one show. Very shortly afterwards, given another sheer blouse in another and this time she wore it. Once you are modeling at that level it's pretty well a given that you will be topless. Mind you, changing clothes in a room full of people at a show is probably more difficult to get used to.

Are you talking about the top at Lacoste? I can't speak for her but to be fair it looks to me like it didn't look so sheer in person except for in the bright lights of the runway. I don't think she (or probably even the stylist) realized how see-through it was.

nymag.com

^This one?

 

[Fontenrose]

For this thread, the point is that young models and their parents have to expect that as soon as they are in a major market, they have to be prepared for partial nudity, or forget about modeling.

I also noticed the poster for Elite Model Look 2010 in that thread, young men and women all topless and pressed against each other. At least Elite in Europe is very up front about the requirement.

However parents in France, and I think Italy, are very against their kids getting into modeling.

 

[charliehorse]

For this thread, the point is that young models and their parents have to expect that as soon as they are in a major market, they have to be prepared for partial nudity, or forget about modeling.

I also noticed the poster for Elite Model Look 2010 in that thread, young men and women all topless and pressed against each other. At least Elite in Europe is very up front about the requirement.

However parents in France, and I think Italy, are very against their kids getting into modeling.

Yes, I agree. Unless the model is prepared to potentially lose a lot of work or upset some clients it's very unlikely she'll be able to forgo showing her boobs at some point in her career, even as a minor.

I know my previous post was somewhat off topic (sorry) but I just felt the need to defend Lindsey because I've seen that photo from Lacoste brought up before in discussion and I still believe she is trying stick to her guns by not exposing herself and at her age I think that's very admirable. But this is not the "Lindsey Wixson's feelings about nudity" thread, and I agree with you 100% on all of your other points.

 

[agee]

Random Thoughts:
I think that there is a difference between being comfortable getting dressed backstage in front of lots of people and being willing to have a public record because a model posed nude or walked the runway partially exposed. In fact aren't photographers prohibited from taking pictures of the models getting dressed and a big part of it has to do with the possibility of them getting a photo of an under-aged girl.

I think that anytime a model (or her parent or agent) pushes back, there is a chance that there will be repercussions, however, I am not sure that if it was made clear to a designer ahead of time that the model does not want to be exposed that it will not be accommodated. In fact, I have not seen lots of pictures of girls who I knew were under-aged being exposed and when I have seen it, it seems like an accident. I definitely don't think that NY designers do it for fear of bad press. Obviously we are providing and discussing examples here, but the fact that only a handful of incidences can be named shows that it is not a common occurrence. I don't like that it has happened the few times that it has, but I think that there are other more pressing issues when it comes to young models.

Now of course when it happens, like with this recent photo of Barbara Palvin in Vogue Paris, I am totally on board with the protest. In addition to the age issue, I am scratching my head over the photo aesthetically, to me the "PG" picture looks so much better than the NSFW picture.

 

[Fontenrose]

Well, the most pressing issue we can't discuss in this thread, only in the Weight thread.

Maybe the third issue would be lack of concern in the fashion industry about how the young models are treated, i.e. without regard to any labour laws, working conditions.

What else should parents and young prospective models be aware of?

 

[kokobombon]

So what happens when a girl under 16 poses nude/semi nude for a mag? legally it´s child p*rn*gr*phy, nobody says anything?

 

[jaben]

So what happens when a girl under 16 poses nude/semi nude for a mag? legally it´s child p*rn*gr*phy, nobody says anything?

It is not child p*rn*gr*phy. There is no law against a girl under 16 being naked. To call a photograph in a fashion mag child p*rn is to completely ignore the very real issue of child sexual exploitation.

Keira Knightley was topless in a movie at 15. Anyone calling that child p*rn?

I doubt any of the models who are under 16, 16 or even 18 who have been naked in fashion magazines were sexually exploited. Whether they will later regret posing naked is a different issue. However that can happen to a person of any age. To get a break you will be delighted to go naked, when you have a million dollar contract you might regret it but you may never have got that contract if you didn't do everything needed to get to the top.

 

[*Bianca*]

Different countries have different laws.

In the UK, for example, if there's a picture or film taken, viewed, or downloaded of a child under the age of 18, featuring "erotic posing, with no sexual activity" then that is against the law. Of course, if there's sexual activity that is absolutely against the law, but even with no sexual activity it can still be illegal with indecent posing source

I don't know what protection artists have, but whatever, give me one reason why underage nudity is absolutely NECESSARY.

What is stopping a child pornographer from defending his work as 'art'? What if a group of pedophiles and child pornographers began enrolling in professional fashion photography courses - would that make all their pictures of naked children okay?

 

[abul]

No age discussion in model's threads guys. We already have a thread for that

uhm... ok, so i'm in this thread, but it seems like this thread is more about spotting underage models in see-through clothes than actually discussing models' age.

 

[*Bianca*]

I just saw why you got directed here

WTF since when can't we ask a model's correct age in her thread?! Even if it's a discussion that has been repeated to death, what is the harm in it?

The reason why this thread is how you describe it is because that's what this thread is for - too discuss how young is too young, not list model ages or whatever.

 

[abul]

that's what i thought (i agree with your whole post)
let's see what mode will say