We gaze at them in awe as they strut down runways, and admire their impeccable bodies in magazines and billboards across the world. From the outside, they seem to have it all: a glamorous lifestyle, money, ravishing clothes and a privileged glimpse into the extravagant world of fashion. Yet aside from those obviously famous models, few of us outside the fashion clique really know anything about these gorgeous creatures. They remain nameless mannequins, with little purpose other than to bring to life the threads which we all admire and desire.
Our judgmental indifference may be justifiable–after all, it is unrealistic for those like you and I to be expected to place a name to each and every pouting face we see. What cannot be accepted, however, are the consequences of such indifference, consequences that in extreme cases can lead to suicide. While at first, many young adults are drawn to the glamour of the fashion industry, enticed by the easy money and globetrotting life, they soon discover that it involves long hours, grueling schedules and horrifically strict diets. These young boys and girls, coifed and dressed to appear like men and women, find themselves thrown into the deep end of the industry, where competition to reach the top is ruthless and fierce. For some, the pressure is too much to bear, and, like Hayley Kohle (above), decide that the only way to get off of the ride is by jumping out of it. In Hayley’s case, it was a seven-storey jump down to the streets of Milan below.
Earlier this month, this 26-year old Canadian beauty was found dead below the balcony of her apartment in Italy’s fashion capital, where she had been living for a year. She had begun her career in 2000, and had travelled the world from New York and London to Milan and Athens. Kohle’s flatmates, five Russian models, reported that she had jumped to her death after telling them she was going outside to smoke a cigarette. Last night, on Italian TV, reporters from the programme Chi L’Ha Visto interviewed her former neighbours, who spoke of a quiet yet gentle girl who hardly spoke, ‘one of the many solitudes that lived together’ in that same seventh-floor flat. When Hayley fell to the ground, a neighbour rushed outside to find her lifeless body being photographed by passerbys with their mobile phones. ‘When the ambulance left, it was as if nothing had punctuated the night…everything was as it was before, as if it hadn’t happened.’
On the same night as Hayley’s death, yet another star of the modelling world died at the age of 20. Randy Johnston’s death was reported only 4 days later, and the details surrounding his passing are ambiguous, leading to speculations as to the cause of his death. A former face of Dior Homme and Levi’s, this fresh-faced Ford model appears in the current issue of i-D alongside Lara Stone.
And of course, some of us will recall the highly publicized death of Ruslana Korshunova earlier this year, when she plummeted from her ninth-story pad in lower Manhattan. Dubbed ‘fashion’s muse of the moment’ by The Sunday Times of London in 2005, this ‘fairytale’ beauty once graced the cover of Vogue Russia and walked the global catwalks of designers such as DKNY and Marc Jacobs. Her death, too, was ruled as suicide– ‘I think she just gave up’ remarked her ex-boyfriend, Artem Perchenok. ‘She kept her problems bottled up. When a job would go bad, she would take it out on herself.’
Such deaths speak of the rot which hides beneath the glossy veneer of the fashion world. A dark side
which is only revealed to those who work within it and who have no choice but to learn to live alongside it. The soaring popularity of programmes such as America’s Next Top Model reflect the conception that working as a model is the ultimate dream of many, but perhaps it is time to rub off some of that glitzy shine and speak the truth. Chase your dreams, but make sure you learn to walk in those heels before you run.
Top images courtesy of FashionCult.gr
I realize this article was written quite some time ago, but I feel it should be revised out of respect for my close friend, Randy Johnston. Randy absolutely did NOT commit suicide and had no intentions of doing so. There were no implications of this in the immediate public reports of his death- the author of this article fabricated “insinuations” in the interest of her article’s theme. It’s been difficult for me to read any articles commenting on Randy’s death, and when they are slanderous or untrue in any way I feel I need to say something. If you want to write anything about him why not do a little research to find out what type of person he was rather than leaving him as another “pouting face” to make unwarranted judgments about?