Elite Model Look 2011 Winner Comes Under Fire...
Miss Très Skinny: 15 year old Julia Schneider from Sweden, Winner of "Elite Model Look 2011"
Ladies and Gentlemen, meet your new Top Model of THE WORLD!!!!! Well, meet the new winner of the 28th Annual Elite Model Look Contest. She is 15 year-old (yes, I said fifteen!), Julia Schneider. She stands 1.79 meters (5'10") and hails from the small town of Gävle in Sweden and yes, she's beautiful.
Neon Divas: Elite Model Look 2011 contestants
Elite Model Look is like the "Miss Universe" or "Miss World" of international model contests. Past contestants have included Heidi Klum, Giselle Bundchen, Linda Evangelista, and Alessandra Ambrosio. None of these Supermodels actually won the contest but were "discovered" as a result.
Gown Gorgeous: Finalists in the Elite Model Look 2011 in their black evening gowns
For this year's contest, Sweden's Julia Schneider (far right in photo above) beat out over 60 aspiring young (VERY YOUNG) models from all over the world, at the Finale held in Shanghai China on Tuesday night. A highlight of the show, included a special performance by none other than...
Miss Kylie Minogue (Love her!)
Some of the Finalists Included:
Angola: 17 year old Elsa
Brazil: 15 year old Ariane
Chile: 16 year old Lieve
France: 16 year old Josephine
Netherlands: 14 year old Lieke
Now, let's get to the Controversy and the Winner:
Size 00: Elite Model Look 2011 Winner Julia Schneider
Immediately, after being "crowned" the new "Elite Model Look" winner, poor Julia and the contest organizers/Elite Model Management have come under fire because of the fact that Julia is very, very skinny. As soon as she won, various websites and blog commentators were thrown into a tizzy discussing her very teeny tiny frame--even for model standards.
Here's a taste: the Montreal Gazette's Lens blog said "Sweden's Julia Schneider looks more like a "model" of anorexia than anything stylish that the fashion industry should be putting on a pedestal as a standard of emulation...Skeletons are meant to jump out of closets not on to fashion runways. Why are only male models generally allowed to have adult's body shapes?" Well, first, I have to disagree with the last part (regrading male models), since the new male model is just as waif-ish as Julia! Has she seen the 16-year-old size 26" waist boys modeling in the latest Menswear Milan Fashion Week's??
Face of a Supermodel: Elite Model Look 2011 Winner Julia Schneider
But, yes, I do agree that even for "model standards", she does look--dare I say it--too skinny. Granted, she is still only 15 years old and therefore has not even "developed" as woman, and possibly, this is just her "natural body type" and she doesn't eat Swedish Meatballs back in her country. With all that being said, the question still remains, should this kind of a girl--with such a double 00 size--be "crowned" as the Ideal Vision of a Top Model? What do you guys think?
Click Below for video of the "Crowning" of Sweden's Julia Schneider "Elite Model Look 2011":
