No more models

"Brigitte" is the fashion-and-lifestyle bible for the German everywoman. Like most mass-circulation women's magazines, its photo spreads are peopled by professional models - usually very thin ones.

At least, they were until now. Starting in the new year, that will no longer be the case, say Editors-in- Chief Andreas Lebert and Brigitte Huber.

"We are going to make a magazine for women as they are, and not as other people wish them to be," Lebert told a press conference in Hamburg.

The plan is to feature musicians, actors, politicians, and readers, to be chosen by the magazine's editors, instead of models in future editions of the magazine.

That means photo spreads will feature women "who have an identity" and not just "protruding bones," Lebert said.

The move is just the latest salvo in the ongoing ground war against overly thin fashion models. Recently, the topic has made headlines in connection to several international fashion weeks. Four large associations associated with the Berlin Fashion Week last year agreed not to use overly thin models for the catwalk or fashion ads. In Madrid in 2008, an underweight model was sent home, amid much publicity. And this year's London's Fashion Week saw a campaign for more femininity - and curves - on the haute couture runways.

But "Brigitte" editors said the magazine's new strategy of changing size-zero models for normal folks doesn't aim to declare war on the fashion industry - it merely aims to send a signal.

"There is a great deal of discomfort in the fashion industry on the subject, but no one takes responsibility," Lebert said. "Maybe one medium has to say: 'We are deciding to present ourselves differently.'"

New trendsetters: Bruni, Obama

For her part, "Brigitte" editor Huber commented that "these days, attractiveness has many faces." The days when fashion companies dictated style are over, she says; today, fashion is dictated by people like the wife of the French president, Carla Bruni, or Michelle Obama, "as well as athletes, students, and "women on the streets of the major metropolises."

In addition to making a statement about women and body image, the move may well be aimed at boosting circulation. "Brigitte" has seen a steady drop in readers in recent years, and the current bust in the ad business is making magazine publishers have to search for a new angle.

The magazine sold some 720,000 copies in the third quarter of 2009, down from 757,000 a year earlier.

jen/dpa/AP/AFP
Editor: Nancy Isenson