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Last updated: 7:50 am
August 1, 2008
Posted: 12:37 am
August 1, 2008
EVER wonder what's behind the fashion industry's obsession with anorexic-thin models?
According to "America the Beautiful," an interesting but messy documentary directed by Darryl Roberts, skinny models help keep down the cost of fabric. In other words, it costs more to make a size 6 than a size 2.
That tidbit of information is tossed off as Roberts travels to New York, Paris and London with supermodel wannabe Gerren Taylor and her controlling mother, Michelle, who did some amateur modeling years earlier.
African-American Gerren is 6 feet tall and rail thin (her classmates give her a hard time), just the sort of figure designers would die for.
The fact that the body belongs to a 12-year-old makes no difference to fashion houses concerned more about the bottom line than a fragile young life.
Roberts records the ups and downs of Gerren's brief but eventful career, from a 12-year-old catwalk sensation at New York Fashion Week to an 18-year-old has-been high schooler with no desire to return to the unforgiving world of high fashion.
Gerren's story is fascinating, but Roberts dilutes it by going off on tangents about unsafe cosmetics and phony plastic surgeons. Both topics need exploring - just not here. There's more than enough drama in Gerren's life.
Running time: 105 minutes. Rated R (mature themes). At Cinema Village, 12th Street, east of Fifth Avenue.
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