A few days ago we showed you a 3D Miranda Kerr editorial shot by Steven Meisel for Vogue Italia. Well, as some of you may have noticed, the outspoken healthy living advocate was holding a cigarette in some of the shots, and may even have been pregnant at the time the editorial was photographed. This isn’t the first time Kerr’s been pictured smoking in editorials, although her publicist says she’s a non-smoker off camera. 

The issue of smoking in magazine editorials is a contentious one, and when you throw in a self-styled role model like Kerr, it gets even messier. The topic taps into wider questions about whether fashion should be held accountable to standards other than aesthetic ones. We asked two people on either side of the smoking debate to weigh in.

SHOULD MIRANDA KERR ALLOW HERSELF TO BE PHOTOGRAPHED SMOKING?

Fiona Sharkie, Quit Executive Director: NO.
“Miranda Kerr’s appearance on the cover of this month’s Vogue Italia is more proof her star is rising. Among the photos featured in the editorial, two show Kerr posing with a cigarette – the second time this year she’s been featured in a fashion magazine “smoking.” 

On the face of it, this is art. The cigarette’s a prop and Kerr’s playing a character that we can only presume she doesn’t identify with. Her publicist says she doesn’t smoke and Kerr often talks about her ‘chemical-free’ lifestyle – so it’s doubtful she’d want to inhale 4,000 chemicals in one hit by taking a drag on a cigarette. 

But how many of her numerous young female fans know this image is not what she’s really about?   Kerr talks about healthy living but given she’s in the image business, these pictures override anything she could say about her real beliefs. 

Research shows when young people see cultural icons such as models and movie actors smoking, they are more likely to smoke. Just last week a woman told the Quitline part of the reason she had lit up again was watching “Mad Men” and getting sucked back into the “glamour” of it all.

Smoking rates are continuing to decline, even among teens and young people. It’s therefore surprising that despite what we know about the deadly effects of tobacco and the inherent unattractiveness that comes with it, we’re still seeing stylists and photographers using cigarettes to suggest elegance and chic.

It seems many of those on the cutting edge of fashion are sadly out of touch.”

Courtney Dawson, fashion and lifestyle blogger: YES.

“Smoking is and will always be cool. James Dean, Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly, Kate Moss, etc etc. Smoking looks cool because it's a lesser evil of all the drugs - legal or illegal, but still looks bad-ass, and the worse for you we know it is, the cooler it looks, that’s just the way it works.

Sure, there is nothing less bad-ass than tongue cancer, but Vogue Italia ain’t doing a tongue cancer editorial anytime soon.  It's not like a pregnant Miranda was fake shooting up - that would sell magazines AND look totally messed up. Even if she is pregnant, do the images show her inhaling? You can hold a cigarette and avoid getting really bad cancer, just some mild second hand damage I guess. Models don’t make people want to smoke. Smoking makes people want to smoke.
 
Is Miranda a bad person for doing risque shoots? No. Maybe she is a bad person for preaching about being a role model and health nut and THEN doing them (red latex nun get up in Numero, anyone?). That here is the only issue. If Miranda thinks it’s okay to do crazy stuff like smoking - Oh Shock! Then Miranda clearly wants to do it. Pretty sure being one of the most sought after models in the industry gives her the means to reject doing certain jobs. Miranda is just doing her thing, doing it for the art, the money and the cool. Because smoking is always cool.”

Image from Numero.