Looovvveee stumbling upon bad news unexpectedly. Not really. I was searching for some new blogs to follow on the Beutiful Magazine tumblr page (follow, follow!) and saw this story. Ananda Marchildon Holland's next top modelTwenty-five year old Ananda Marchildon, a former winner of Holland’s Next Top Model, is accusing the modeling agency Elite Models over firing her for having hips that were two centimeters too wide. She has been dropped in her second year with the agency out of her three-year contract and filed a lawsuit against the agency last week. Ananda claims that the bookers expected models to have at the most, a hip width of 90cm and because she was two centimeters over that measurement, she was let go. The model reports that a booker told her she had ‘a nice face, [but] a fat arse,’ and that she ‘never had it in her to become a top model because she was unsuitable for catwalk work.’ Elite’s response to the lawsuit indicates that Ananda’s figure might have been an issue when trying to book her for work. Their lawyer told nymag.com ‘It was impossible for Elite to find [Marchildon] modeling jobs since she wasn’t in the required shape.’ The lawyer explained further that the couture labels that the agency provides models for create sample garments in one size only, an issue that is beyond an agency’s control. Elite is also claiming that Ananda was never signed with them in the first place – that she was signed to a smaller agency when she won Holland’s Next Top Model and that the smaller agency used its affiliation with Elite to help generate exposure for her. Meanwhile, Ananda has been stripped of her Holland’s Next Top Model title and has only been paid 10,000 euros of the 75,000 euros that was part of her prize. This is a really unfortunate bit of news about the mistreatment of models in the industry. Models do get taken advantage of, abused and to top it off, pressured to conform to the most insane standards. The fashion industry is SO particular that something as small as a 2cm-too-large hip width becomes a major issue. It is not necessarily the agency’s fault, either – the agencies conform to the fashion industry and if designers are only making sample sizes in extra smalls, then agencies must find models that will fit into them. It’s so unfortunate and discriminatory and honestly, disgusting. It is no wonder models have eating disorders. Hopefully, Ananda wins the case against Elite and gets what she deserves.

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