The fashion world was rocked last week by the death of top supermodel Daul Kim. The South Korean was just 20-years-old. At the time of writing it’s believed she committed suicide but officials have so far refused to comment.
A common fixture on the catwalk circuit and the face of numerous high profile brands, Daul was one of relatively few really high profile Asian catwalk models and was, in my opinion, one of the most stunning supers working; especially when she controversially went bleach blonde.
Since her untimely death, the press has inevitably compared her suicide to that of Kazakh model Ruslana Korshunova last year and have even made comparisons to fashion guru Isabella Blow who overdosed in 2007. Needless to say, the blogosphere is now alive with debates about how evil the fashion industry is and how they use and abuse models to the point that they feel worthless and suicidal.
It’s certainly true that Daul felt overworked and depressed; you only have to read back through her blog entries to see that she wasn’t happy. The last entry read, “Say hi to forever” and back in October she blogged repeatedly about how miserable and lonely she was.
That said, I’m not sure it’s entirely accurate to lay all the blame on the fashion industry. An interesting but macabre figure reveals that South Korea has one of the world’s highest suicide rates (11th overall globally), with a startlingly high number of deaths in the entertainment industry. Nine extremely high profile Korean celebrities have taken their own lives this year alone – a shocking figure that’s hard to comprehend happening in the UK or US, for instance.
The former president Roh Moo-Hyun leapt to his death in May and the hugely popular soap star Jang Ja-yeon killed herself in April leaving a seven page letter detailing the sexual abuse she’d suffered while working in the media. In a Guardian piece about Jang’s death they detailed other high profile Korean suicides this year [prior to April];
“Jang is one of seven South Korean celebrities to have killed themselves in the last six months.Ahn Jae-hwan, a 36-year-old actor, was reportedly mired in debt. Actress Choi Jin-sil 39, was worried she had pressured Ahn into suicide. Model Kim Ji-hoo, 23, was harassed on the net after coming out. Singer Lee Seo-hyun, 30, was also under attack on the net over sexuality. Actor Kim Suk-gyun, 30, was said to have been depressed. Transgender actor Jang Chae-won, 26, left a suicide note online.”
As an intensely intelligent and private person, the public don’t know for certain what was really going on in Daul’s life, other than that she seemed depressed through her blog entries. However she wrote equally often about her love of the fashion industry, making popular videos talking about the job she loved and endlessly documenting her adventures in fashion.
Her untimely death brings up a lot questions about the industry’s treatment of models but working out a solution to prevent this kind of thing happening again is a bit more difficult. Fashion and the media as a whole are notoriously difficult industries to work in; eating disorders, substance abuse, stress and depression are rife, but what’s the solution? Industry watchdogs are already in place and reputable agencies pride themselves on taking care of their ‘girls’.
Clearly they’re failing.
It goes without saying that modelling is a demanding career choice where health of employees isn’t a priority, but even if the right people had stepped in and spoken to Daul about her problems, would it have made a difference? It remains to be seen what the industry intends to do about supermodel suicides, but let’s hope Daul’s tragic death at least gets a discourse started on the health and well-being of overworked and often overlooked models.
Image via RyanLite