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This Model Says She Was Fired for Being "Bloated"

Photo credit: Getty
Photo credit: Getty

From Cosmopolitan

Photo credit: Getty
Photo credit: Getty

The modeling industry has long been infamous for enforcing impossible body standards. But it’s still shocking to hear about it from the inside. Danish model Ulrikke Hoyer gave a unique look about what it’s like to get fired because of your body.

In social-media posts that have gone viral, Hoyer says she was fired from Louis Vuitton’s cruise show in Kyoto, Japan, earlier this week, because her body was apparently too “bloated” to walk the runway. She said she wasn’t sure she would be able to fit into the clothes and at first tried to say she was “under the weather” to avoid walking in the show. But she was hired after she went to a fitting in Paris and she ended up losing weight so she was “smaller” than when she was hired.

After she arrived in Japan for the show, though, a casting agent apparently said her face, back, and stomach were “bloated,” and allegedly encouraged her to only drink water for the next 24 hours. The next night, her agent told her she was fired from the show and was sent back home.

“What should have been a truly amazing and unique experience ended up being a very humiliating experience,” Hoyer wrote on Facebook. She said she doesn’t blame Louis Vuitton’s creative director, Nicolas Ghesquière, for the incident, but pointed out it’s a bigger problem within the fashion industry, which cuts clothing “made for people with eating disorders.”

According to The Cut, Hoyer previously modeled for Louis Vuitton in its spring 2017 show; she has also modeled for Stella McCartney and Chloé.

Photo credit: Getty
Photo credit: Getty

“I am aware that I’m a product,” Hoyer wrote. “I can separate that, but I have seen way too many girls who are [so] skinny that I don’t even understand how they even walk or talk. It’s so obvious that these girls are in desperate need of help.”

Louis Vuitton and the casting agency, Ashley Brokaw Casting, have not yet responded to requests for comment. Click through to read her post in full.

Update 5/20: Casting director Ashley Brokaw described Hoyer's complaints as "a lot of misunderstanding" in a statement to Business of Fashion, while acknowledging that the garment Hoyer was supposed to wear for the show didn't fit her properly upon fittings in Tokyo. "We didn’t have the atelier to remake anything and we didn’t have a lot of other options to try on her, although we did try some other things on her and nothing quite worked," Brokaw continued. "So it was a situation that was devastating all round.” Brokaw denied that Hoyer was told only to drink water, and to avoid eating (despite BoF quoting from emails sent by Brokaw's assistant, which described Hoyer as "puffy").

Hoyer also spoke with BoF, standing by her assertions. And her agent chimed in:

Her Paris agent, Arnaud Daian at Oui Management, told BoF that he was present in Kyoto at the time and all communication from Cheval [Brokaw's assistant] went through him. "[Alexia Cheval] called me and she mentioned that now Ulrikke must only drink water until her next fitting and that it’s time for her to take it seriously if she wanted to be in the show," he said. "They next day they texted me and said that she would not be in the show, whilst Ulrikke was waiting in the hotel for her fitting. Nobody told her anything. They made her feel terrible and nobody took the time to speak to her. It would’ve taken two minutes and they are responsible for how they make these girls feel."

"I’m still a human and I need to be treated right," Hoyer concluded. "I know by saying my story and speaking out I’m risking it all, but I don't care. Maybe this was my last job, then that’s it. I’m done with working for people that will treat me this way."

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