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Don't be fooled by Lauren Hutton's demure Vogue cover to the right (one of 26!). The modeling industry's ugly side was alive and well in her time, and she's not afraid to call it out—with some seriously biting opinions.
In the online retailer Net-a-Porter's mag The Edit, she discussed how the industry was rough then and is now, and what she had to do to survive. Be warned. Hutton's not always PC.
1. This: "A lot of the time, fashion is angry. It's fucked up mother fuckers. Guys pisseded off that they're not women. But that's why you have to use fashion to do what you want—and not be bossed around by it."
2. Model's weight wasn't always considered a disease: "I was naturally slim" but the industry "has gotten crazier and crazier" in terms of body. "The girls are anorexic. Before, the girls were naturally slim. Girls who were round and fulsome didn't starve themselves into the right...physique."
3. When necessary, models have to use their mouth to bat down competitive attitudes: "Kate [Moss], whom I knew when she was 14, was always being made fun of by the other models. They were jealous, but I was the tiger queen, so I could crack the whip over them. When we did the Millennium Vogue cover with all the other models, Annie Leibovitz put me right in the middle of them, and when I heard the catty remarks at Kate, I used my mouth like a bull whip."
Head to Net-a-Porter for more on menswear fashion, her childhood, and using heels as weapons.
· The Icons Issue: Lauren Hutton [The Edit]
· This is What Kate Moss Would Look Like as the Queen of England [Racked]