Article Scanned from Conde Nast Fashion Rocks 2008 Supplement

Looks like Japanese officials have decided that their country is too fat. Ouch!

But, really…give me a break!

AMAGASAKI, Japan — Japan, a country not known for its overweight people, has undertaken one of the most ambitious campaigns ever by a nation to slim down its citizenry.

A poster at a public health clinic in Japan reads, “Goodbye, metabo,” a word associated with being overweight. The Japanese government is mounting an ambitious weight-loss campaign.

Summoned by the city of Amagasaki one recent morning, Minoru Nogiri, 45, a flower shop owner, found himself lining up to have his waistline measured. With no visible paunch, he seemed to run little risk of being classified as overweight, or metabo, the preferred word in Japan these days.

But because the new state-prescribed limit for male waistlines is a strict 33.5 inches, he had anxiously measured himself at home a couple of days earlier. “I’m on the border,” he said.

Under a national law that came into effect two months ago, companies and local governments must now measure the waistlines of Japanese people between the ages of 40 and 74 as part of their annual checkups. That represents more than 56 million waistlines, or about 44 percent of the entire population.

Continue reading at the NY Times

Thought this was an interesting read to pass along.

Now the male models are losing weight to achieve the new boy body ideal: skinny, pale, feminine. Peter Munro reports.

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Thought this was an interesting article about Atelier and the “Gothic” style. By the way, head over to Atelier’s site to check out their new spring/summer arrivals.

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NEW YORK - American men are tired. Their image, sloppy apes in ill-fitting jeans, white sneakers and baseball hats, has weighed on them for too long. “The ugly Americans” - a term of endearment bestowed on them by the Europeans - has become unbearable. After all, that scathing epithet describes not only their behavior, but also their sartorial (one hesitates to use such a lofty word in connection with denim shirts) fiascoes. Forever optimistic and already conditioned to spending money on such basic needs like big flat-screen TVs and chrome exhaust pipes, American men are striking back.

In 1999, my heart was broken when Barneys, a premier New York department store, dropped such niche designers as Ann Demeulemeester and Raf Simons, sticking with the much safer (read: better selling) Gucci and Prada. Charivari, a chain of cutting-edge menswear boutiques that sold the likes of Comme des Garcons and Yohji Yamamoto, has folded altogether. Yet, less than 10 years later, menswear is back.

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