Isabelle Caro dead at 28

Isabelle Caro, a Marseilles born actress and model who became an international symbol for her struggle with anorexia, has died after spending about two weeks in hospital with acute respiratory disease. She had recently returned to France from working in Tokyo.

Anorexic since 13, in 2006 Isabelle fell into a coma when her weight dropped to 25kg. She fought the eating disorder and announced early 2010 that her weight had risen to 42kg.

In 2007, after a 21-year-old Brazilian model died anorexia, photographer Oliviero Toscani produced an ad campaign endorsed by the Italian Ministry of Health featuring a naked Isabelle on billboards with the slogan “No Anorexia”.

The campaign, ran in Milan during that city’s fashion week, intended to raise anorexia awareness within the fashion industry but proved controversial with designers.

Giorgio Armani, for example, challenged the connection between anorexia and the fashion industry saying, “even people who take no notice of fashion get anorexic” and designers Dolce and Gabbana said that anorexia is a psychological ailment that has “nothing to do with fashion.”

The Italian government banned the billboards after complaints they commercially exploited the illness.

As I’ve mentioned on this blog before, anorexia is about a compulsive need to take control over one’s caloric intake when other things in the person’s life seem out of control. It’s not about a desire to look thin.

When she was featured on Jessica Simpson’s show The Price of Beauty her interview brought Jessica to tears.

28 years old Isabelle was just 32 kilogrammes (70.5 pounds) when she died, scrawny even for her 1.65 metres (5.4 feet) height.