Clinton accuses fashion industry of glamorizing heroin

Photos of holloweyed models in grim scenes are common.
They send a dangerous message, he said.

By Jonathan Peterson
LOS ANGELES TIMES

WASHINGTON President Clinton yesterday accused the U.S. fashion industry
of glamorizing heroin use as a way to sell clothes, using the platform of the
White House to take a slap at what he termed an ``ugly'' and ``destructive''
aspect of popular culture.

``The glorification of heroin is not creative, it's destructive,'' Clinton
said. ``It's not beautiful, it is ugly. And this is not about art, it's about
life and death.''

Law enforcement officials are concerned about increased heroin use,
particularly among young people. And some social commentators link this trend
to pop culture's socalled ``heroin chic'' especially in the fashion
industry, where photographic images of skinny, deadeyed models slouched
in sleazy surroundings are a mainstay of advertising campaigns.

In his remarks yesterday to the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Clinton also
announced a decline in methamphetamine use in eight Western cities and said
seizures of laboratories producing that drug were up 170 percent.

Additionally, he declared the White House had imposed ``a vigorous
crackdown'' on moneylaundering operations by drug dealers, including a new
requirement that currency exchanges and checkcashing firms register with the
U.S. Treasury. Under the moneylaundering crackdown, more businesses will be
required to report suspicious activities to federal officials and overseas
transfers of as little as $750 will have to be reported to the government,
down from $10,000.

``We know this will cut back on money laundering,'' the President said. ``It
will require some efforts. . . but it is worth doing.''

However, it was the President's unexpected venture into criticism of fashion
photography that drew the greatest attention. His remarks were prompted by a
recent New York Times article about Davide Sorrenti, a wellregarded fashion
photographer who died in February of a heroin overdose at the age of 20.

In raising the issue, Clinton recalled the dark image he held of heroin as a
boy in Arkansas and lamented signs that the narcotic seems to have been
increasingly accepted by young people and the culture that influences them.

``For most people in our generation . . . we all grew up thinking heroin was
the worst thing in the world. And there were these horrible images associated
with it strungout junkies lying on street corners in decidedly
unglamorous ways,'' Clinton, 50, told the mayors.

``But we now see in college campuses, in neighborhoods, heroin becoming
increasingly the drug of choice. And we know that part of this has to do with
the images that are finding their way to our young people.''

By some law enforcement estimates, more than 600,000 Americans use heroin,
which has gained popularity at a time when cocaine usage has declined.

Clinton made a point in his remarks to express admiration for fashion leaders
who now ``are admitting flatout that images projected in fashion photos in
the last few years have made heroin addiction seem glamorous and sexy and
cool.''

He added: ``And as some of the people in those images start to die now, it's
become obvious that is not true.''

Indeed, some fashion experts said they believed Clinton was assailing a trend
that had subsided in recent months.

The leader of the mayors' delegation applauded Clinton's comments. ``These
are young, vulnerable people,'' said Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley. ``The
industry has to understand that. They have to take some responsibility, and I
believe they will.''

The Philadelphia Inquirer, National Copyright Thursday, May 22, 1997