Former Spice Girl-turned-fashion-designer Victoria Beckham is being blasted over her new eyewear campaign, which features a “sickly skinny” model. “This image is why my already tiny daughter thinks she needs to eat less,” an enraged mom wrote on Facebook under a photo featuring Lithuanian model Giedre Dukauskaite, 29. Beckham, 43, posted two Instagram shots over the weekend of the model wearing a pair of oversized specs from her Victoria Beckham Eyewear Spring Summer 2018 collection. “Victoria I adore you, but with the exorbitant prices you charge for [your] clothing couldn’t you at least buy this model a sandwich for god’s sake?” another Facebook poster complained.
A third critic fumed, “[I] didn’t even notice the glasses. The model was the focus. Sickly skinny! Beckham should be ashamed promoting eating disorders. Her young daughter is heavier than her models. Shame.” The ultrathin Beckham — who admitted in her 2001 autobiography that she has battled an eating disorder — has been criticized in the past for using “skeletal” models. The former pop star defended herself at the time by saying her casting agents were in touch with the models’ agencies to ensure all the women were in good health. She even pledged commitment to the “Healthy is Beauty” campaign, signaling she would only use models who maintained healthy weights.
“We know that all our girls are healthy,” Beckham, who has four children with soccer legend David Beckham, told The Telegraph in 2015. The designer added of her models, “They’re young, they’re thin, but that doesn’t mean they’re ill.’’ But critics were unrelenting Sunday. “There will be lots of girls and boys looking at this and sadly seeing skinny = successful,” one Facebook writer said.