Christophe Billet’s holiday pictues from Burma

Dear Shaded Viewers,

I saw Christophe Billet for lunch yesterday and asked to see the rest of his holiday pictures from Burma. I find these women with the long necks to be total fashion inspiration although as  Shaded Viewer, Elemmaciltur was quick to point out,  this might be visually stimulating but the facts behind it are quite horrifying:

"Yeah, those neck rings can be an inspiration, but do you know that the long-neck tradition is a dangerous one? The first ring are set in when the girls were still babies, then the height would be increased ring by ring, hitherto increasing the length of the neck and the spine. Everything below the collar bone are pushed down, the internal organs are squeezed together. Results: Bone and body deformation. If you take out the ring, the girls could break their necks and die because the neck and the spine had been stretched so much, and the neck had always been supported by the rings all those years that muscular dystrophy was a common thing there, thus taking the rings out means that the neck hasn’t got any more support and can break very easily.

The tribes are very poor. They live mostly from their income as curiosities and photo motif for tourists. I don’t really support the idea of tourists going there and taking pictures of all those girls and women. They are still human and are not objects of curiosities….
So, what I am asking myself is what would happen if such rings are set up on models and they go onto the catwalk to show the world and promote this kind of ‘curiosities’???

Anyhow, lastly, I hope I didn’t sound too harsh on the topic. It’s just that I don’t really find it a good idea to promote such a thing. I mean, the tribe can live on with their tradition in peace…what concerns me is that if such things are getting more promotion….*gahhh* I don’t know how I’m going to put that into words…but I hope you understand me. It’s kind of two sides of the same coin isn’t it? There can be good things and bad things that come out of such promotion. ;)"

Necks

Buddahgreengold

Later,

Diane

P.S. This morning I received several mailer demon’s from posts that I never sent, some joker is using my name. If you have any doubts, please contact me first before opening the post

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Diane Pernet

A LEGENDARY FIGURE IN FASHION and a pioneer of blogging, Diane is a respected journalist, critic, curator and talent-hunter based in Paris. During her prolific career, she designed her own successful brand in New York, costume designer, photographer, and filmmaker.

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