British fashion industry investigates ‘size-zero’ models

23 May, 2007: The fashion industry in the United Kingdom has started an inquiry intended to put in place health guidelines for supermodels.

This follows an international controversy over super-skinny ‘size-zero’ models, reports The Guardian.

Guidelines for British employers of catwalk models will be drawn up in time for London Fashion Week (LFW) to be held in September 2007 to help them tackle “any material size-related health concerns,” a spokesman for the inquiry has said.

In examining steps to ensure the good health of the models of the London Fashion Week and how to implement, enforce and assess the measures, the panelists will study the approaches of other fashion capitals like New York, Paris, Milan, and Madrid.

The independent Model Health Inquiry, comprising model managers, designers and supermodels, will make recommendations that will not be binding but are likely to prove influential, The Guardian report said.

Lady Denise Kingsmill, who chairs the inquiry, says the fashion industry is a real and a very important industry and that the people working within it have to be taken seriously and have to be treated well.

Also on the inquiry panel are Sarah Doukas, founder of Storm Model Management, British model Erin O’Connor and designers Betty Jackson and Giles Deacon.

Erin O’Connor held discussions with other models to discuss the issue; Betty Jackson and Giles Deacon will be talking to fellow designers about the preference for thin models in the shows. Sarah Doukas has been speaking to agents of models.

The outsider on the panel is Adrienne Key, a consultant psychologist and clinical director of the eating disorders unit at the Priory hospital in Roehampton, south-west London.

Lady Kingsmill insists that the inquiry is not only about ‘size zero’ but also about health and safety within the industry as a whole. She compared her current task to her previous roles in implementing health and safety measures in the construction industry.

There are almost no regulations regarding models’ working conditions, according to Lady Kingsmill. She said the panel heard some “terrible anecdotes” from models, such as girls being taken out for late-night shoots in the middle of nowhere, and then left there, with no money for a taxi home.

The British Fashion Council, an industry body which organises the London Fashion Week, had written to designers asking them to use only healthy-looking models over 16 years old.

However, the British Fashion Council stopped short of following the lead of authorities in Italy and Spain by imposing a ban on the skinniest models.

Models in New York, Milan and Paris fashion weeks are almost always thinner than those on the catwalks in London because the major designers tend to show abroad and there is an almost subconscious belief in the business that the slimness of the models has a direct correlation to how upmarket a label or magazine is, according to Lady Kingsmill.

The key issues the committee will examine are:

* Number of hours the models work
* Diet and eating habits
* Drug and alcohol habits
* The age of models working
* The fashion industry’s preference for slim models
* Pastoral care and education available to the models when working