A couple of weeks ago, the modelling agency’s bloggers told you all about Vogue’s new health initiative, which aims to promote healthier, more realistic body images in the pages of its magazines.

Well, as part of this initiative, all of the Vogues across the world dedicated their June issues to health. Going down the fitness route, British Vogue styled Kate Moss as an Olympian and American Vogue booked 3 Olympic athletes to model on its cover.
German Vogue, however, took a different angle. While Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model Caroline Murphy covers the health-inspired edition, inside, an editorial named ‘The Naked Truth’ has caused a stir, not least with the team at Talent Management.

Peter Lindbergh has shot some of the industry’s most “powerful women” without makeup, retouching, enhancements and, in some cases, naked. Captured in typically forgiving black and white, the so called powerful women include models Katrin Thormann, Jana Drews, Julia Stegner, Toni Garrn, Nadja Auermann, Luca Gadjus and Hanna Wahmer, photographer Donata Wenders, Fashion Editor and Stylist Christiane Arp, and actresses Karina Krawczyk and Nina Hoss.

Overall, we love the concept, and applaud the fact that Vogue Germany has done away with all that is fake to reveal some strikingly honest, natural and refreshing shots.

However, the shot of 36-year-old Hoss sees her modelling a Dior dress, accessorised with Christian Louboutin pumps and, surprisingly, a cigarette in her mouth. Over on German Vogue‘s site, loosely translated by Talent Management, the actress is quoted as saying: “For me, ‘The naked truth’ means that it is not hidden and nothing is distorted, glossed over or changed.”

If the editorial’s concept is to portray ‘real women’, then the controversial image does its job. After all, the reality is that some real women do smoke cigarettes.

Let Talent Management know what you think – is not ok to have a model essentially glamorise smoking for a health initiative-inspired editorial, or is it enough that the photos help to promote a healthier ideal by avoiding fakery and underweight models?