Fashion royalty: Michael Kors and Anna Wintour

This Monday, Boston was blessed with fashion royalty as Anna Wintour, Michael Kors and Natalia Vodianova took the stage for the public forum “Health Matters: Weight and Wellness in the World of Fashion” at Harvard Business School. Each voiced their concerns and their plans for change in the arena of body image and health within the industry.

Going into the event, I had never heard Wintour speak and expected a well rehearsed and somewhat emotionless monologue but was pleasantly surprised when she spoke wholeheartedly about her passion to change the way that Vogue approached the subject.

Wintour spoke candidly of the responsibility that the fashion industry has for the well-being of their models as well as followers and readers. Kors and Vodianova were equally touched by this subject and Kors even promised within the forum that he would never book a model under the age of 16 again “no matter how hot they are.”

The one thing that I was and still am on the fence about is that though this is a great initiative, how do we know that it is here to stay? Is it just another trend that will be on the outs by Fall 2010 when we see skeletal girls gracing runways?

I think that if we want to truly see a change, consumers need to take on some of the responsibility. If you see unhealthy girls on the cover of US Weekly or Vogue…DON’T BUY IT!

That’s just my two cents.

~Kirsten, FashioniSTA