Isabel Marant Thinks Casting 15-Year-Old Models Is Ridiculous, Too

Isabel Marant is as good at delivering a great soundbite as she is at designing impossibly chic knits (which, obviously, she's very good at). And, since we love a fashion figure who isn't afraid to tell it like it is, we greedily pounced on her new interview with the Observer.

Firstly, there's the matter of her recent H&M collaboration, which sold out within minutes and is now fetching huge amounts of money on eBay. "[I'm] not so surprised because my label is more approachable than some of the other labels they have done collaborations with," Marant explains. Care to name names?

She's also hip to the fact that casting fresh-faced models isn't perhaps the best way to reach an audience of sophisticated (read: adult) female shoppers, but that's the way fashion works.

"Sometimes we give an image of life that will never exist, using models who are 15 and pretending they are 35 or 40, and when you are 35 or 40 you want to look like this when you will never be able to," she admits. "So, there's a bit of a disconnect."

Unfortunately, she says she won't be using "real models" anytime soon. "I can't — most of the girls [the model agencies send] are 15 years old," she says. "I try to use girls who have personality. When they walk in a room, I'll think: 'Ah! There's something to this girl.' It's more a way of moving or being that means something to me."

Okay, great, but we'd love to see a bit more resistance to the teen model trend. Dare we say it's time to put your money where your mouth is? (Observer)