E! is pointing out that the new crop of Victoria’s Secret models are rather tiny when compared to their predecessors from just a few years ago. While I don’t think that the new models are too thin in comparison to high fashion models, they’re skinnier overall than they used to be. I think they look like they’re healthy though and not emaciated. Still, it would be nice to see women that are more realistically fit instead of aspirationally thin for the most part. Victoria’s Secret is a brand to make everyday women look sexy, not a high fashion brand for the elite. Here’s what E! wrote about it:

Millions of fans (or those who merely enjoy seeing half-naked models in fancy undies) tuned in to watch the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, but while you were drooling in front of your television sets, we had to wonder if some of those angels were drooling for a cheeseburger.
Seriously.

This isn’t exactly new news.

Back in April, Candice Swanepoel and her thin frame made headlines when we learned that her contract with the lingerie company was in jeopardy due to her dramatic weight loss (which she later commented on).

But watching the show, we can’t help but remember the days when models like Tyra Banks, Heidi Klum and Gisele Bündchen took over the catwalk with their curves. Don’t get us wrong, they still made us question our meal choices, but they were also voluptuous. And now, it seems like the wings on these newbies are literally going to whisk them away.

[From E! Online]

I don’t know. I mean Tyra and Heidi are somewhat more curvy than that current models, but Gisele was just as waif-like. I don’t see any curves on her. I looked up the 2006 and 2005 shows, and there were several other women that were maybe a smidgen larger than the current crop of models. They had hips but were still extremely fit. They really worked those outfits too. Here are a few I found. I’m not saying that it’s some big scandal or anything. They’re models, they’re always going to be skinny. I liked it a little better when they looked like they did in 2005. That’s something I can relate to a little more.

Look at Tyra Banks in 2005. I can’t stand her but she looks hot here:

Heidi Klum is super fit and tiny but she’s got some hips on her. Maybe those are just her bones, though. This is from 2008.

Gisele in 2005. She’s about the same as the current models.

Isabeli Fontana in 2005. Hot!

Selita EBanks, 2005

Fernada Tavares, 2005

Caroline Trentini, 2005

Heather Marks, 2006

Marija Vujovic, 2005*

Alessandra Ambrosio in 2005

For comparison, here are some of the current models.

Alessandra Ambrosio, 2011

Miranda Kerr, 2011

Candice Swanepoel, 2011

Chanel Iman, 2011

Doutzen Kroes, 2011

Adriana Lima, 2011

I think this is Lindsay Ellingson, 2011

Caroline Winberg*, 2011

Maryna Linchuk*, 2011

*Thanks to Mu for help with the model IDs! Photo credit: WENN and Fame

A couple of weeks ago, Victoria’s Secret model, Adriana Lima, caused some controversy by claiming she didn’t eat solids for nine days prior to a VS runway show and just subsisted on protein shakes. The 30 year-old mother of one also said that she didn’t drink anything 12 hours before the show because, as the article explained “No liquids at all so you dry out; sometimes you can lose up to eight pounds just from that, she said.” Only now Lima is saying it’s all a “misunderstanding,” but she didn’t really elaborate or claim she was misquoted or anything. Lima showed ET Canada a piece of cake she was supposedly eating (although she didn’t actually eat it from what I can tell) and she claimed that she ate healthy and exercised, pleading “Those teenagers out there, don’t go starving yourself or only drinking liquids. Don’t do that please!” Here’s more:

Adriana Lima wasn’t too pleased to hear that reports of the extreme diet Victoria’s Secret Angels must adopt in order to prep for the annual fashion show were swirling around the media.

The Telegraph wrote in an article that Lima testified to being on a pre-show nine-day liquid diet consisting of protein shakes and egg powder, after which she was banned from drinking water for 12 hours leading up to the show. They also reported that Lima worked out twice a day for the three weeks before.

However, Adriana is insisting that the details of the “crazy diet” are just a “misunderstanding.” She spoke with E! Canada to set the record straight. She even showed E! Canada her piece of coffee cake prior to the show, saying, “I have my Starbucks coffee right there… it was a misunderstanding.”

Like anyone whose body is her source of income — or who poses in her skivvies for all to see — the model says she’s conscious of her figure. She admits, “You can’t eat everything, of course… I eat healthy and work out a lot.”

The new mom also hopes to set a good example for others, saying, “Those teenagers out there, don’t go starving yourself or only drinking liquids. Don’t do that please!”

We’re glad Adriana is trying to be a healthy role model, and we’re relieved to hear those extreme diet rumors were one big confusion.

[From Huffington Post]

She probably wasn’t misquoted, she probably does only drink protein shakes for over a week and it’s likely she doesn’t drink 12 hours ahead of time either. There was a lot of debate in that post as to whether that was healthy under a doctor’s supervision (some of you said it was and that it was similar to medically supervised liquid diets) or whether it was unsafe and dangerous. I tend toward the “unsafe” camp, but I’m not a supermodel and I enjoy and need to eat on a daily basis. It would make me sick to eat less than 1,200 calories a day.

Someone schooled Lima that she needs to clam up about the way she prepares for a show and retract her statements about it, so she did. In her mind, it’s probably perfectly normal and likely isn’t half as extreme as the things other models do to lose weight.

Most photos credit: WENN. One photo credit Diane Cohen/Fame Pictures

Adriana Lima is a 30 year-old Brazilian model and the mother of a two year-old daughter. Like so many other models and celebrities, Lima dropped the weight fast when she had her baby. She drew ire when she said that it was “easy” to lose the baby weight on one hand, while admitting that she didn’t eat any carbs and often worked out twice a day. That wouldn’t be “easy” for most people, but we don’t have her job or her money and no one pays us for being “hot.” In a new interview ahead of tomorrow’s Victoria’s Secret show, Lima reveals that she goes to even more extremes to bare almost all on the runway. She drinks only protein shakes for nine days ahead of time and doesn’t drink water for 12 hours before a show so she’s sufficiently skinny and “dried out.” That sounds like torture to me. Plus she still works out twice a day.

What does it take to get the body of an Angel?

Egg powder, twice-daily workouts and no solid food.

Brazilian beauty Adriana Lima told the Telegraph just how much strenuous dieting and sacrifice to look effortlessly perfect for the annual Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.

The 30-year-old model, who said she’s been working out with a personal trainer every day since August, has doubled her regimen now that the show is coming up on Nov. 29.

She lifts weights, she boxes, she jumps rope — and starting three weeks ago, she’s been doing it twice a day.

She also sees a nutritionist who measures out exactly what she needs to stay healthy but also keep her svelte. She drinks a gallon of water a day.

Then, nine days before the show, she says goodbye to solid foods and drinks only protein shakes. She is allowed to stop drinking that daily gallon of water and just drink normally until 12 hours befor the show.

Then, no liquids allowed at all.

No liquids at all so you dry out; sometimes you can lose up to eight pounds just from that, she said.

Sources close to the process of getting ready for the $10 million production say the models train like Olympians for their big moment on the runway.

“Adriana works really hard at it. It’s the same as if you were a long-distance runner,” said Sophia Neophitou, chief stylist for this year’s show. “They are athletes in this environment — it’s harder to be a Victoria’s Secret model because no one can just chuck an outfit on you, and hide your lumps and bumps.”

Despite the constant workouts, and missing tasty foods, Lima, a 30 year-old mother, said that it’s all worth it.

“It opens up so many doors, everyone knows your name, the whole world knows you now,” she said. “Any model in this world would love to be an Angel.”

[From The Daily News]

If I didn’t eat solids and worked out even once a day I would pass out. I need to have snacks at the gym because when I work out too hard I get dizzy from low blood sugar. Most other people can handle it, but I can’t give blood either or I’ll faint. It baffles me that there are people who can drink only protein shakes, work out twice a day, deny themselves water and still function. There’s something abnormal about it, and of course it’s also totally unhealthy and unsafe. But Lima is skinny, and she obviously thinks it’s worth it. What a great message to send to young women. Being a VS model “opens up so many doors” so it’s totally worth it to not eat for over a week! Lima isn’t even the tiniest VS model and those models are comparatively healthy when matched against high fashion models. It makes you wonder what those poor girls are doing to stay thin.

Photo credit: WENN.com

The Victoria’s Secret show was last night in New York, and CB asked me to cover it. I’m not really sure why VS shows are that big of a deal, but I guess “models in panties and wings” is some kind of huge deal. The biggest name on the runway was Heidi Klum, of course, who looked stunning, and was perhaps the most covered up. Heidi told Page Six that she didn’t offer the younger girls any advice, saying “I didn’t have to tell them anything. To be honest, they all seem cooler than I was my first time, so they’re fine.” Since there are a lot of pictures to get through, I’m just going to make some notes of some the most extreme highlights and lowlights (additional photos in the gallery). First, Heidi, looking cute:

Now, for Fergie, who performed with the Black Eyed Peas. This is a bad picture of her, but it’s nice to see a girl on the VS runway with nice, thick thighs. I kind of think Fergie was one of the prettiest girls on the stage:

Next, Chanel Iman, who is dangerously thin in my opinion. If you look like this from behind, I don’t want your body.

Another too-thin girl was Miranda Kerr. Why does VS hire girls with zero hips? It’s like strutting a 12-year-old boy down the runway in panties.

I love Doutzen Kroes. She’s got such an amazing, athletic, healthy figure. And that face! God, she’s gorgeous. I love her.

All in all, it was a good night for Victoria’s Secret. The show will air on CBS on December 1, and I’m sure it will bring in high ratings.

Fergie (in green, with the thighs), Heidi Klum, Behati Prinsloo, Doutzen Kroes (in pink, with white feathers), Miranda Kerr, Chanel Iman and Alessandra Ambrosia at the Victoria’s Secret fashion show in New York on November 19, 2009. Credit: WENN

For most of us, the idea of being filmed and photographed for public viewing in our underwear would land somewhere between public speaking and dying as grisly death as the things we’d least like to do. But for a Victoria’s Secret model, it’s all in a days work, and so is the dieting that goes with it.

Although she looked simply stunning at last year’s Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, supermodel Karolina Kurkova has come under harsh criticism for her fuller-than-usual figure over recent months. The 24-year-old was unfairly blasted by the Brazilian media for her “cellulite and love handles” after walking in Sao Paulo Fashion Week in June, and was then harshly dubbed “too fat” by fashion critics following the lavish lingerie show in November.

Kurkova has told Tarts in the past that her diet is comprised mainly of fresh vegetables, salad and protein. But for several weeks leading up to last year’s Miami show, an inside source said that the supermodel cut carbs altogether, and worked out for hours in an effort to keep up with other super-slim Angels Heidi Klum, Adriana Lima, Miranda Kerr and Marisa Miller.

“She was exhausted and didn’t get down to where she wanted to be,” said the pal.

Apparently her weight woes may have more to do with a medical condition than with just a lack of willpower. According to an insider, Kurkova joins the ranks of 27 million Americans who suffer from the thyroid disorder hypothyroidism, which interferes with the body’s metabolism.

Fox

Fox adds that Karolina was kept off of press materials leading up to the show, in case she didn’t shift the weight.

I can see that, from Victoria’s Secret point of view, Karolina needs to be looking slim and cellulite free in order to have inspirational appeal and sell the underwear. They want people to be talking about how great their knickers look, not how fat the models are. ‘Fat’ being a subjective term. A fat model is actually a skinny adolescent in the real world. However, Karolina looked anything but fat at last years show.

If it is indeed true that Karolina keeps to a strict diet and models while battling a thyroid condition, she should be given a medal. Or at least be made head angel.

Karolina Kurkova is shown at the Victoria’s Secret fashion show on 11/15/08. Credit: WENN