Danish model Ulrikke Hoyer took to social media with some very disturbing allegations, saying she was dismissed from Louis Vuitton's 2018 Cruise show in Kyoto for being "too big." In lengthy posts on Instagram and Facebook, the 5'10" model with a 24" waist explains that she was cast for the show in April after a fitting in Paris despite not being in her "'skinniest' show shape," but things fell apart when she hit the ground in Japan. Despite losing weight between the casting and the show, the casting director complained to Ulrikke's agent that she had a "very bloated stomach" and a "bloated face," and suggested she should starve herself for the next 24 hours. Ulrikke obliged, but got word the next morning that she had been canceled from the show because in addition to her stomach and her face, the way the dress fit her back had now become a problem. Ulrikke described the experience as "humiliating," saying:
This is not about me being canceled from a show, I've tried that before (all girls on my level have) you win some and you loose [sic] some that's the game. But I cannot accept the 'normality' in the behavior of people like this. They find pleasure in power over young girls and will go to the extreme to force an eating disorder on you. If this comes from them or some of the fashion houses I don't know as I've only been dealing with the casters (Alexia and Ashley on cc). Nicholas is super nice and treats everybody with respect and even remembers all the girls names etc. but these sizes of the show pieces are made for women to have eating disorders. Go watch the show and see for yourself, even the smallest tightest pants are loose on the models they book.
Ulrikke concludes the story saying she's grateful this happened to her as a more self-assured 20-year-old woman than a 15-year old girl, because she's sure that "[she] would then have ended up very sick and scarred long into my adult life."
The more things change, the more things stay the same.
Read Ulrikke's entire Instagram post below, and her more detailed Facebook account of the story here.
Splash image via Instagram