I don’t know much about fashion.

I don’t truly care to know. I can’t imagine spending much of my precious time on this planet worrying about what the latest styles are. There are so many more interesting things to think about and interesting people to talk to.

Plus, I hate shopping. Shopping makes me want to eat, specifically chocolate, and drink, specifically decaf mochas.

So when New York has fashion week, I pay little attention to it, except that this year I noticed the NY Times had many articles on it. As I have a slight addiction to the NY Times, I opened up an article and saw models strutting down the runways in various…fashions.

One model seemed to be wearing a poorly sewn quilt. Another was in dizzying polka dots. There were models dressed as presents and others who sported fabric with amoebas and what appeared to be blood clots on it.

Some wore shorts with stilettos and suit jackets.I find this particular style ridiculous. If you’re going to get dressed up, get dressed up. If you’re going to be casual and wear shorts, then don’t wear four inch heels, a tie, and pearls. Just me. But I don’t get it.

There were a couple of see – through white dresses. Wearing a see – through white dress in public is my nightmare come alive. One of the latest styles appears to be knee pads. Another is a flowing tail.

But that is not here nor there, nor that or this.

What bothered me was the models.

They were so, so thin.  I could see collarbones poking out, ribs and sternums sticking through skin, knobby knees, sunken cheeks, gangly arms, emaciated legs, fragile shoulders.

Can I say this without trying to be hurtful? They looked absolutely awful. It made me feel slightly ill for them, and for their families, to look at them.

If my daughters were that thin, I would commit them to the best anorexia/bulimia clinic I could find in this country. I would keep them there for months until they gained at least thirty pounds, and this problem was under control.

Why are designers using these young ladies? Because tall, slender people show their clothes the best. I get it. They are not looking for an average sized American woman with hips and a bust.

But how can these designers justify using girls who are not eating healthily, many of whom quite clearly are suffering from eating disorders? You do not get this thin, you cannot get this thin, without having a problem, without dieting down to nothing. Your food intake? Diet pop and carrots.

By using models who are emaciated, it encourages other young women to get this emaciated, too. This isn’t healthy. This isn’t right. This doesn’t look good. This isn’t what our daughters should strive to look like, and yet so many girls in our country struggle with anorexia and bulimia and want to be this sickly, scary thin.

Fashion week?

It was mildly amusing to look at the clothes.

It was tragic to look at the models.