The young model has taken to Instagram to reveal her ordeal. Photo / Instagram
The young model has taken to Instagram to reveal her ordeal. Photo / Instagram
A model with a 24 inch waist said that she was cancelled from a catwalk show for "being too big and bloated" after she refused to starve herself before the show.
Ulrikke Hoyer, a slender 20-year-old model from Denmark, wrote on Instagram about being cancelled by a caster for LouisVuitton on the morning of the show in Japan.
According to the Daily Mail, Ms Hoyer said that the caster Alexia Cheval from the Ashley Brokaw agency told her that there were problems during the fitting and urged her to "drink only water for 24 hours".
The 20-year-old Danish model was asked to starve herself for 24 hours before a show. Photo / Instagram
"According to her I had 'a very bloated stomach', 'bloated face', and she urged me to starve myself with this statement 'Ulrikke needs to drink only water for the next 24 hours'.
"Not only did I have a belly, my face was puffy now also my back was a problem," she said.
"I am glad I'm 20 years old with an elite sports background and not a 15 year old girl, who is new to this and unsure about herself, because I have no doubt that I would then have ended up very sick and scarred long into my adult life."
The post had acquired 51,546 likes and many supportive comments at the time of writing this article.
Writing on Facebook, Ulrikke said that modelling has a dark side and is definitely not all glamour and parties.
The 20-year-old Danish model was asked to starve herself for 24 hours before the show. Photo / Instagram
"When I tell people I work as a model, I always get a very positive response as people have this idea that modeling is so easy and amazing and everything about being a model is glamorous. They are right, but far from all the time."
"The flip side of the coin is very different and anything but glamorous,"she said.
Ms Hoyer said that she was an elite tennis player from the age of six when she learned about nutrition and physical training.
She said that this taught her that the demands and expectations on high-end fashion models are often unattainable and 'directly damaging to the human body'.
"When returning home from many of my trips I have often told my family that I think I look big compared to the other girls and that they are a lot skinnier than myself," the very slender model wrote on Facebook.
"As good and understanding parents, well off course they didn't believe me as they could see that I was very skinny and sometimes worried that I was even unnaturally thin.
"But when my mom followed me around for show castings, she experienced it first hand.
She was shocked to see how unhealthy and sad the majority of the young girls appeared."
Ms Hoyer said that many models do not have periods and their skin changes due to "bad and incorrect nutrition" and that almost all models have a completely distorted relationship with food.
"I am aware that I'm a product, I can separate that but I have seen way too many girls who are sooo skinny that I don't even understand how they even walk or talk. It's so obvious that these girls are in desperate need of help."
Casting director for Louis Vuitton and Prada, Ashley Brokaw told Business of Fashion that her assistant Alexia Cheval did not tell Ms Hoyer not to eat, but that all the models were told to drink water instead of caffeinated drinks or alcohol to avoid jet lag and dehydration.
