Here is Kate Upton, this month's Sports Illustrated Swimwear Issue's covergirl, modelling in The Victoria's Secret Catalogue.
The lingerie model, Kate Upton, is a US size 4.
That is probably the size that your and my 12 -year old daughter would wear.
But Miss Upton is still considered rather “plus” in the mad and bad world of high end modelling.
When NY Mag’s The Cut asked the show’s casting Director, Sophia Neophitou, whether Upton’s growing success would result in her clinching a spot on the much coveted Victoria’s Secret Runway, the answer was unamibiguous.
A firm “no.”
…and not a very nice, “no,” either: “We would never use” Ms. Upton for a Victoria’s Secret show, Ms. Neophitou said by telephone last week from London.
Her look, said Ms. Neophitou, is “too obvious” to be featured in what has become the most widely viewed runway show in the world.
“She’s like a Page 3 girl,” Ms. Neophitou said, referring to the scantily clad voluptuous women featured in The Sun, a London tabloid. “She’s like a footballer’s wife, with the too-blond hair and that kind of face that anyone with enough money can go out and buy.”
So she’s not the right kind of good looking for VS.
But isn’t Sophia Neophitou just …. ugly?
She’s pure poison.
Why, do you think it is so necessary, for a casting director to be quite so unessarily unkind?
She must have known she would be quoted and must have known that her comment would have gone viral.
Why would anyone say such a deliberately hurtful thing?
Her comment is not constructive, objective or professional – it’s just viperous.
I have come up with just a few reasons she might have felt entitled to respond in such a way:
#1) The powers that be in the fashion world, mostly, do not see the young women who model as “people” merely as “product.” They feel nothing to send them off to abusive and sleazy photographers and agents when they are young and vulnerable. They do not care if they are malnourished, if they smoke to keep their weight down. They’re either what they’re looking for, or not. Kate Upton’s (or anyone else out of her little “in group’s,”)feelings mean nothing to Ms Neophitou.
#2) That the awful Sophia Neophitou has been feted and celebrated to a degreee that she has no need of humanity, humilty or good manners. She is celebrated for her aesthetic sensibility and she feels fully entitled to express her feelings, without an empathetic edit, whenever it suits her.
#3) Sophia Neophitou has studied at the school of “nasty” and wants to be the next Simon Cowell, when the next modelling talent show rolls around.
#4) Sophia Neophitou is a stylish bitch, of which the world has always had a surplus. And of which the fashion world has more than it’s fair share. She is merely behaving true to her archetype.
#5) She didn’t think at all because she is both thoughtless and cruel.
Aspire to be a model, chicks. Put your daughter on the runway. Just make sure anyone who does venture into that particular arena has developed a skin that looks like satin (Sophia Neophitou doesn’t want anything that can be bought!) and works like double glazing.
Fashion is a murky pool with lots nasty creatures in it’s depths.
Via The Cut.
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Well Ms. Upton, if it is any consolation, I’ve never heard of Sophia Neophitou, but I have heard of you.
Thank you Vanessa!!!!! I generally don’t comment on these types of things but this was unavoidable. Neophitou’s comments are so completely out of touch as to be laughable. I applaud your response!!!
Sophia Neophitou should be fired immediately. Every year fashion execs talk about how awful it is that women are starving themselves to death to try and look like what the fashion industry puts out on runways and in the pages of all of the major fashion magazines.But they do nothing about it and they continue to hire nasty bitches like Neophitou who have a warped sense of body image. Neophitou should visit some New York hospitals that have young girls who have starved themselves to the point that their bodies are too weak to walk. This woman’s comments like the comments that Karl lagerfeld made about Adele are exactly what is wrong with the fashion industry. Great job Vanessa
A couple of weeks ago, I saw a couple of photos that compared VS models today to the likes of Tyra Banks and Heidi Klum. It seems VS has taken a different direction in having stopped celebrating the curves of a woman’s body. It was the one show where it felt like women were being celebrated. And I know that a lot of my American friends loved the brand because of this.
It really is a pity…
“A face that anyone can go out and buy?” Does she think everyone lives in Essex?! Sies, shame and I hope she gets a bad batch of botox and her face is stuck in an expression that shows her true ugliness.
Sophia Neophitou is ugly inside and out. I have spent thousands and thousands of dollars at Victoria’s Secret over the years, and I will not go back until they get rid of this mean spirited awful person. No reason for any of her comments.