How Young is Too Young To Model?
If you read our guide to Haute Couture, you know that shows traditionally close with a bridal look. Take designer Laurence Xu, for example, who wrapped up his runway with a model wearing a long off-the-shoulder ivory gown with embroidered flowers and a voluminous skirt and flowers in her hair. As she carefully made her way down the runway, however, her presence caused a stir. Why? She was only 9 years old.
Predictably, some people (especially in China, where he is from), are pissed. She’s too young, they say, while others criticize the designer for “nepotism” (which is somewhat hilarious—if a 9 year old model is walking down the runway, one would hope that it is because she is related to the designer).
Of course, Internet commenters love to throw a tantrum about pretty much anything. And we can’t really tell why they’re upset? It isn’t even Xiu Qiu’s first time on the runway; she also modeled last year, though she did wear a less bridal blue silk dress. She’s dressed appropriately for her age, in a dress that a young child might perhaps wear while being the flower girl at a very fancy wedding. And even her hair and makeup are appropriate for her age.
Plenty of young models are pursuing a career in earnest. How can we forget 8-year-old Kristina Pimenova, dubbed “the most beautiful girl in the world,” who has an Instagram account with over 400,000 followers? She’s younger than Qiu, and often poses so suggestively that I felt kind of gross just looking at her pictures for the purpose of writing this article.
There have always been child and baby models, how else to advertise those diapers or those cute Crew Cuts sweaters? The problem begins we start using children to sell adult things to adults, which is perhaps one of the reasons why Diane von Furstenberg has been so vocal about keeping children under 16 years old off of the runway. Even if a girl is 5’9” or 5’10”, by the time she hits 13, or even 15, that doesn’t mean she needs to wear high heels, and be exposed to the extremely, and not always pleasant, life of a fashion model.
Related: The Dark Underbelly of the Male Modeling World
Related: Cindy Crawford’s Daughter Lands First Magazine Spread
