Just Another Model

Tom Nicon died in Milan and now he’s part of the list. Daul Kim, Isabella Blow, Alexander McQueen—the fashion world goes through people like that. You see the name in the news, you think about how young he was, you move on. The industry understands what it does to people and does it anyway.

I found a model talking about it, trying to put the pressure into words. People think we’re young and beautiful and rich and happy. But we’re not. You show up to castings and get looked at once and you’re dismissed. You spend your whole life asking yourself what’s wrong with you. Why didn’t I get that job? You’re fighting your friends the entire time, you’re nowhere near home. The pressure is enormous. It’s not what people think it is.

That’s the honest version. Not hidden, not coded. The fashion world knows exactly what it demands and knows exactly who it destroys in the process. That knowledge doesn’t change anything. The competition, the isolation, the constant judgment—that’s not a side effect, that’s the job.

I don’t know if Tom jumped or fell. I know the circumstances that made both possible. Being beautiful in that world means spending every day being told you’re not beautiful enough. Being young means decades of that ahead of you. Being far from home means you’re alone with it.

The industry tells itself it’s creating glamour. What it’s actually creating is a machine that breaks people. Tom Nicon is just the latest one to stop working.