Female Beauty

The fashion world reeled over the death of Eliana Ramos, Uruguayan model – just six months after her model sister, Luisel Ramos, 22, died shortly after stepping off a runway last Aug. 2 during a fashion show in Montevideo. The sisters were supposed to appear alongside each other on the catwalk the night Luisel died, but she collapsed before the show’s finale. Miss Eliana, 18, was found dead in her home in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, on Tuesday. While no medical report was immediately released after Eliana’s death, Judge Roberto Timbal told the online news outlet Observa that she died of a heart attack.

Other models said neither sister suffered from an eating disorder. “I’m indignant,” Lucia Brocal, a model who shared the runway with Eliana, said of local reports speculating that poor eating habits were linked to her death. “She died for the same reasons her sister did.” Erika Fallen, another model, also rejected the reports. “Whenever something happens, they try to relate it to eating problems. But she died just like her sister did,” she said.

However, the deaths drew widespread media attention in Latin America, where the fashion industry’s treatment of young women has been the subject of debate since anorexia was blamed for the deaths of model Ana Carolina Reston and three other Brazilian women in December. The world fashion industry has taken some action against anorexia and the vogue for stick-thin models, with shows in Spain and Italy banning ultra-thin models. In Madrid on Sunday, organizers of Spain’s top annual fashion show rejected five of 69 models, saying they were underweight.

One of Uruguay’s most famed designers, Susana Bernik, told the daily newspaper Ultimas Noticias that ultra-thin models are not a major issue in the country. “There may be a few who are a little too thin but that is not common,” Bernik was quoted as saying. “There are tall girls here but you don’t see the extremely thin ones like those you see in the European shows.”

The sisters’ father, Luis Ramos, is a former soccer player for Uruguayan squad Nacional, and was reportedly vacationing with his wife elsewhere in the country at the time of Eliana’s death. Two sisters, both models, have died of apparent heart attacks within months of each other, a family tragedy that came as the fashion world debates how to protect the health of painfully thin runway models. Eliana Ramos was buried Wednesday, a day after she was found dead at her grandparents’ home in the Uruguayan capital.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 17th, 2007 at 5:25 am and is filed under Career, Entertainment, Fashion, Health, Lifestyle. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.