Big fashion houses want “a girl no one has used before,” British modeling agent Carole White told the Guardian earlier this year. Supply and demand also feed on each other in more toxic ways. If only the girls being supplied weren’t so thin, they could make bigger clothes! In any case, while casting directors and magazine editors blame the designers for making such small sample sizes, designers blame the agents, Barry says. But this argument falls short, he points out, when you consider the hundreds of thousands of dollars fashion houses spend on runway shows. Barry says designers claim that making smaller sizes allows them to save money by cutting back on the fabric and labor involved in creating expensive couture items.
