Here’s the skinny on models

LONDON: The London Fashion Week, scheduled to start on Monday, has been forced to cancel its opening photocall after being criticised for not banning super-skinny women from its catwalks.

Earlier, organisers of the Madrid Fashion Week turned away overly skinny models from their catwalk, setting a precedent that the biggies of fashion — London, Milan and Paris — are under pressure to follow.

Britain’s Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell has urged the organisers of the London Fashion Week to follow the tone set by Madrid. “It’s not an issue for regulation. However, it is an issue of concern for young girls who feel inferior when compared to the stick-thin young women on the catwalk.”    They see beauty in those terms,” said Jowell.

JK Rowling, the creator of Harry Potter, also lent her voice to the protest against the “skinny obsessed world”. Rowling said she did not want her daughters to grow up to be “empty-headed, self-obsessed clones.”

The rules established by the Spanish authorities meant models with a body mass index (BMI) of below 18 were not allowed to appear. UN health experts consider anyone with a BMI -- a measurement of body fat based on weight and height -- of 18.5 or below to be underweight.

But the British Fashion Council (BFC), organisers of the five-day event, said in a statement, “The BFC has cancelled the photocall on Sunday because it is unwilling to add any more impetus to the publicity surrounding this complicated issue. The BFC does not comment or interfere in the aesthetics of any designer’s show.”

The Milan Fashion Week -- which brings together names like Versace, Armani, Gucci and Prada -- follows on the heels of London, and then it is the turn of Paris. The mayor of Milan, Letizia Moratti has already said she will seek a similar ban.

Spain realises that it has opened the floodgates with its rule due to which almost 30 per cent of the models had to be turned away, but the organisers are happy with their decision. “The restrictions could be quite a shock to the fashion world at the beginning, but I’m sure it’s important as far as health is concerned,” Leonor Perez Pita, director of the Madrid fashion show.

However, those within the fashion industry feel that Madrid has exaggerated the issue. “With those rules, we would have to turn away 80 percent of the models. Naomi Campbell wouldn’t be able to walk down the catwalk, she’d be too thin,” said Riccardo Gay, head of the model agency that used to represent Campbell in Milan.

There are those like Jo Elvin, editor of Glamour magazine, who advise caution. “One person’s skinny is another’s slender,” suggested Elvin. “Even Kate Moss does not look to me like she is emaciated; she just looks naturally thin,” she added.

Cathy Gould, of New York’s Elite modelling agency, believes that the fashion industry was being used as a scapegoat for weight-related illnesses. “I understand they want to set this tone of healthy, beautiful women but what about discrimination against the model and what about the freedom of the designer?” she asked.

Sarah Doukas, Kate Moss’s agent said her agency Storm did not employ thin women. “It’s useless to talk about body mass indices. Who knows what that means apart from the doctor?” she said. But the leading agency Models 1 accepted that the models with the biggest pulling power were those with the smallest waists. “Recently there have been more requests for bigger models, but on the catwalk long dresses do look lovely on tall, thin girls,” said the agency.

Lisa Armstrong, fashion editor of The Times, however, disagrees. “Why do casting agents persist in using 15 and 16 year olds to sell clothes to women in their 30s and more?”

The organisers of London Fashion Week have already said they would not be introducing a similar rule to that of Madrid this time, but the pressure is mounting.