Word: fashion
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International students make it damned near impossible to drink from the fount of the American dream without choking. They provoke jealously with their sexy accents, impeccable fashion, and disproportionate good looks. They poison classroom discussions by making cheeky references to the fact that they aren’t American and steal accolades from gullible teaching fellows on account of their “unique perspective” and, even more nauseating, that they’ve “overcome adversity.” (Sure, Ghana is a developing country. But so is Louisiana...
...fashion world is all about timing, finding that perfect moment to launch the Next Big Thing. So it's not surprising that the upstart Italian clothing designer Nolita chose to unveil its latest ad campaign just in time for Europe's current round of catwalk shows for the spring-summer collections. But rather than politely join the parties in Milan and Paris, it has crashed them...
...With a shocking photograph of a naked anorexic woman, shot by Oliviero Toscani, the eternal enfant terrible of fashion photography, Nolita's is the latest attempt to employ a formula that Toscani helped invent with Benetton in the 1980s: the use of provocative, socially conscious images to help hawk products. (And, in theory, the images attempt to accomplish the inverse as well: using consumerism to try to raise public awareness.) In the past, Toscani has used photographs of AIDS victims and death-row inmates in Benetton ads. But this time, the message is also targeted at the very industry that...
...While public figures and several designers in Italy expressed support for Nolita's ad campaign during the Milan fashion week, the campaign has also drawn criticism as runways are set to open in Paris this weekend. Didier Grumbach, head of the French Couture Federation, lashed out at the fashion house. "I find this absolutely scandalous," he told the AFP. "Winning notoriety through people's illness is painful. What we're seeing here is sensationalism by a label, to the detriment of an extremely serious social problem...
...statement on its website, Nolita defended the ad, which has appeared on giant billboards and leading newspapers in Italy. "Toscani literally stripped his subject, to show everyone through this nude body the reality of this illness, which in the majority of cases is caused by stereotypes caused by the fashion world." Toscani, who says he learned about eating disorders while working in the fashion industry, dismissed suggestions made by an anti-anorexia group in Italy that girls would look to Caro as someone to emulate. "Looking at my ad, girls with anorexia would say to themselves that they have...