Renek Gaszewski [Blog]

Tall, slim and with flowing locks, Lara Masters modelled in her teens. But the work dried up as she developed a degenerative nerve condition. So is the fashion world ready for its first big disabled model?
The fashion industry has a very precise, exacting and unwavering view of beauty: a model must be tall, extremely slim and physically “flawless”. It’s a code of understanding which has ruled me out of modelling even though I am 5ft 9ins, size 6 and, if you’ll excuse my immodesty, beautiful.
I have a degenerative nerve condition that has been gradually paralysing my limbs for many years, and now use an electric wheelchair. As a writer, model (I use the term very loosely as will be explained) actor and TV presenter, I’m more visible than most disabled people. But I have never been accepted in any of these jobs for my skill alone - there is always a focus on my disability.
My mum, Debbie Moore, (founder of Pineapple dance studios) was a very successful model in the 60s and 70s. In my early teens, before my disability set in, I followed in her footsteps - modelling for girls’ magazines and Mum’s company. But from the age of 14, because I had some paralysis down my left side and an awkward gait, I could not get an agent and that was the end of my hopes for a modelling career.
I even tried joining an agency called Ugly which claimed to be looking for something “different”. By the time my potential employers had scraped their jaws off the floor I felt that even for an agency that was thinking outside of the box, disability was more disturbing than different. Considering the agency name, I didn’t know whether to be flattered or outraged when they refused take to me on.
Role models were in short supply, until Paralympic runner Aimee Mullins briefly took to the catwalk for designer Alexander McQueen in 1998 - sporting hand-carved wooden prosthetic limb. But when McQueen said he wasn’t out to shock people but “to show that beauty comes from within”, I was appalled and confused. It was patronising the stunningly gorgeous Mullins and seemed to be saying that having a disability makes you a beautiful person.
Eventually, when I started using a wheelchair, I got signed up by an agency that only recruited disabled models. It felt like I was only a casting away from becoming the new face of Mac or Aveda. Instead, I found myself on a poorly paid path of infrequent job offers to advertise wheelchairs, stair lifts and accessible buses - all important campaigns but a far cry from New York Fashion Week.
So when the BBC set out to challenge stereotypes of beauty, with a reality-style show in which eight young, disabled women compete to be a “top model“, I was excited but also sceptical.
Car accident
It introduced me to other people who’d had similar experiences, such as 22-year-old Jenny Johnson, who had modelled until a car accident at 16 left her with some lower paralysis.
“I started modelling at age 14. I went on several photo shoots and gained some real experience. In spite of acquiring this knowledge, after my accident, it has been impossible to catch a break,” says Jenny. “I’ve even been flat out informed that the reason the agency would not accept me was because of the way I walked.”
So what about the industry’s insiders - are they really willing to give disabled models a fair chance?
Designer Wayne Hemingway initially sounds an upbeat note. “We’re learning to support diversity and be inclusive of disability in areas such as sport,” he says, name-checking the Paralympics and the disabled basketball players who featured in a recent series of BBC One idents.
“In new buildings and transport systems it’s now unthinkable not to design with disability in mind,” he says. But fashion sees itself differently.
“The fashion industry is still seeking out so-called ‘perfect symmetry’ in impossibly skinny girls and being predictably immoral.”
For Marie O’Riordan, editor of Marie Claire magazine, fashion isn’t alone in its promotion of the “perfect” human form - it is reflecting wider prejudices in society.
It’s a business
“Disability is largely ignored by the mainstream. Traditionally, fashion models have represented the ‘ideal‘ of womanhood - they are taller and slimmer so that they can show off clothes to the maximum benefit. Being a clothes horse is not something most women could do very well.”
The fact is that fashion is a business and it is us, the consumers, who keep it thriving. Is it any wonder the industry sticks to a winning formula and largely shuns the idea of using bigger, more representational female models, let alone disabled models whose physical forms will be even more difficult to sell as aspirational?
Yet maybe the BBC’s reality show will make a difference. After all, fashionistas are always looking for something new, and disabled models are perfect to create intrigue and attract attention.
“A disabled model, by definition, will be more memorable in a photo than an able-bodied girl, thus making her attractive to a commercial person trying to sell clothes in an advert, or in editorial,” says O’Riordan. Her magazine will feature the programme’s winner in a high-end fashion spread by world-renowned photographer Rankin.
This gesture in itself would give any able-bodied model major kudos and guarantee further bookings, so it will be interesting to see what kind of impact this shoot will have on the future of the disabled model.
After that, maybe, it’s up to the public. Are they willing to prove their readiness to accept a different ideal of beauty by buying a magazine featuring a amputee model. It’s our collective responsibility. If we want to see the fashion industry broaden its parameters, we must put our money where our mouth is.
Add your comments on this story, using the form below.
Models set impossible standards of beauty for the ordinary woman to emulate. Not long ago I saw a girl of about 20 dressed in an artsy fashion walking down the street with two artifical legs. She was not hiding the fact that her legs were gone. Still she wanted to look pretty. I was very moved by her spirit. Most females want to look good and if they are disabled even more so. The rest of us can be inspired by their courage
angelica adams, cambridge ma us
Good luck to all of you. It is time the fashion industry woke up to real life. I’m sure you will all look great. My father was disabled and (apart from things he was physically unable to do) let nothing get in his way!!
Jean Smith, Dunfermline
Does anyone REALLY care if a disabled girl can become a model? It’s akin in a lot of ways to asking if someone suffering with a mentally debilitating condition can become one of the worlds top scientists! I’m not disabled and I can’t be a model. These programs anger me because I don’t believe they are about “hopes and dreams”. I believe it’s just more fodder for people who want to be shocked.
Helen, Warwickshire
Totally agree with Marie’s comments about a disabled model being memorable. The girls shown are certainly much prettier than the usual models BUT I feel we live in a sad world that doesn’t like “abnormalities” and I say that NOT meaning at all to offend anyone at all. I’m 54, 5ft 4 inches and about 4 stone overweight so I know people would never accept me as a model. Having said all this I wish all of them the very best of luck indeed.
Janis, Surrey
These women chose modelling as a career when their bodies matched what the industry wanted - a standard which automatically excludes the vast majority of people (especially those that fancy a meal every once in a while). How can they be surprised when such a shallow business discards them when they are no longer “perfect“?
Michaela, Runcorn, UK
2 points:
1. Heather Mills is disabled as is Gabrielle - both had decent modelling careers.
2. I am not disabled and I also can’t get modelling jobs why? Because I’m ugly. Not everyone can be a model, or a singer, or a footballer. Special exception cannot be granted to one minority. That would be wholly unfair to everyone else. Ask yourself can Boris Johnson be the next top model? My guess is you will say no with a captial N.
Graham Pinnock, Norwich
In my mind, all of the girls from the BBC show are stunning enough to deserve the status of ‘supermodel‘. I don’t like that they should have to compete to prove that only one of them can fit in with Naomi/Heidi/Kate etc. Rather than making them compete I would be much more interested in seeing them all modelling and comparing their lives to those of ordinary models. Maybe it’s also time for people to adjust to the fact that ‘flawless’ doesn’t automatically mean beautiful.
Heather, Willenhall
I think this programme is a fantastic idea! Good on you BBC.
Stephen, Caerphilly

The media’s obsession with painfully thin fashion models has contributed to the growth in eating disorders among young girls, according to the British Medical Association.
A report by the association published on Tuesday identifies a link between the images of “abnormally thin” models which dominate TV and magazines, and the rise in conditions such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia.
It is the first time that the BMA has acknowledged such a link.
There are an estimated 60,000 people in Britain with eating disorders. Nine out of ten are female.
The report calls for urgent action to reduce the pressure on young women to be thin, asking publishers in particular to be more responsible.
The association asks for “more realistic body shapes” to be featured in a bid to cut the number of women dying from the so-called “slimming” diseases.
Schools are also encouraged to stamp out teasing of overweight pupils, and to encourage them to take part in sport.
Dr Vivienne Nathanson, BMA head of science, said: “The image of slim models in the media are a marked contrast to the body size and shape of most children and young women, who are becoming increasingly heavier.”
Unrealistic role models
The report says that models and actresses in the 1990s commonly had body fat levels as low as 10% - the average for a healthy woman is 22% to 26%.
Dr Dee Dawson, from the Rhodes Farm Clinic, which treats sufferers, said: “We are seeing children as young as six, seven and eight-years-old who are worried about being fat and are exposed to pictures of thin models from a very early age.”
Nicky Bryant, from the Eating Disorders Association, said several studies had shown that media portrayals of a thin ideal put pressure on youngsters.
She said: “We have noticed an alarming increase in the numbers of young people aged 13 years or under contacting our youth helpline with issues around eating.”
Ms Bryant said eating disorders were linked to deep-rooted psychological disorders.
Under attack
Women’s magazines have been under attack for years, accused of promoting unrealistic body images of exceptionally thin models.
Editor of Vogue, Alexandra Shulman, defended her publication’s position in the light of the BMA findings.
“All we are doing is showing images of women we regard as interesting or beautiful or fashionable.
“But we are not actually saying you have to be like this.”
Premier, the London-based model agency which represents supermodels Naomi Campbell and Claudia Schiffer, said women who bought fashion magazines featuring thin models were as much to blame as the editors and advertisers who used them.
“It is a supply and demand thing - advertisers, magazines and agencies supply the image that consumers want to see.
“Statistics have repeatedly shown that if you stick a beautiful skinny girl on the cover of a magazine you sell more copies.”
Women’s minister Tessa Jowell was so concerned about the problem that last month she held a summit meeting at Downing Street with the bosses of a top modelling agency and a teenage magazine.
The minister wanted to bring together influential people in the media and fashion worlds who could “begin to challenge some of the assumptions that the only way to be beautiful is to be thin”.

Brazilian prosecutors and organisers of Sao Paulo Fashion Week have reached a deal over claims that too few black and mixed-race models are taking part.
Under its terms, fashion brands must ensure that 10% of the models are of African or Indigenous descent.
Last year, an investigation concluded eight of 344 the models taking part in the event were black - just 2.3%.
If the organisers fail to meet the new target they could face the prospect of being fined more than $120,000
Sao Paulo Fashion Week, being held in June, attracts worldwide attention.
But when the Brazilian newspaper, Folha de Sao Paulo, drew attention to the fact that few black models were used, the legal authority responsible for looking after the public interest opened an investigation.
Easier to work abroad.
Brazil has more people of African descent than anywhere outside Africa itself.
Almost half of the population is said to be black or of mixed race.
But black Brazilian models say it has often been easier to get work abroad than in their own country.
It is a sensitive time for the issue of racial quotas in Brazil.
While there has been little visible sign of tension over race, people of African heritage make up the poorest section of society.
An attempt to create a national law to establish quotas to address this inequality has once again been delayed in the Brazilian Congress, because of a failure to reach a consensus.
Some legislators are arguing that the best way to tackle inequality would be to use social rather than racial criteria in setting targets.