Report: British Vogue blasts skinny models

LONDON, June 13 (UPI) -- Alexandra Shulman, editor of the British edition of Vogue, has reportedly scolded fashion designers for foisting overly skinny models on her publication.

The Times of London said Saturday it got a look at a letter that Shulman sent to a large number of designers in Europe and the United States taking them to task for sending them "minuscule" garments that, in turn, require the magazines to hire emaciated size zero models for photo sessions.

Shulman wrote that Vogue frequently has to retouch photos in order to make the women, whom she said had "jutting bones and no breasts or hips," look larger, the newspaper said.

"We have now reached the point where many of the sample sizes don't comfortably fit even the established star models," the letter said.

Shulman said Vogue and other magazines were basically stuck with the tiny garments sent over by the designers because of the lead time required to get their publications on the stands in conjunction with the release of the latest fashion connections.

The letter was cheered in Britain by anti-eating disorder advocates and critics of the fashion industry's premium on ultra-thin models.