Posts Tagged ‘ death ’

Milan Fashion Week marred by model suicide

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010

The face of Burberry has leapt to his death in Milan.

Tom Nicon, 22, the French male model who has been the front of Hugo Boss, Louis Vuitton, Versace and Burberry campaigns, died after falling from his fourth floor apartment on Friday according to police reports.

Nicon was in Milan as part of the prestigious Milan Fashion Week which began on Saturday, and had attended a Versace fitting just hours before he was found dead outside his building, after his modelling agency, Success, searched for him following his no-show at a meeting.

Sources close to the model have suggested that he had been battling depression since he broke up with his girlfriend, which police described as a complicated affair. Authorities are treating the death as suicide and the organisers of the fashion shows said they would proceed as a tribute to the model.

Nicon’s death is another in string of suicides that have beset the fashion industry over recent months. In February, Alex McQueen, who this week had his ashes scattered in Scotland, took his life while in London after allegedly being unable to cope with the passing of his mother. In May, Noemie Lenoir, the French model who was the UK face of Marks & Spencer, attempted to commit suicide in a Parisian forest before being found by a member of the public. South Korean Daul Kim, 20, who had fronted campaigns for Gap, Chanel, Vivienne Westwood and Karl Lagerfeld, hung herself last year after another apparent battle with depression.