Designers preparing to reveal their latest collections at this month’s London Fashion Week have been made to sign contracts prohibiting the use of models who are younger than 16.
Those aged 14 and 15 have been banned from the catwalks of the event for the first time. The move pre-empts the final report of the Model Health Inquiry, which will be published on Friday, the day before Fashion Week starts.
It comes after a year of controversy surrounding the fashion industry’s use of super-thin women to advertise clothes, and the deaths of three “size zero” models from South America. The contract that designers have been asked to sign by the British Fashion Council, which runs Fashion Week, also demands a zero-tolerance attitude towards illegal substances and smoking backstage. It requires that any evidence of drug-taking be reported to the police.
The fashion council has written to producers and casting agencies informing them of the policy and insisting that they confirm their support of it, Simon Ward, the head of operations at Fashion Week, said. He added: “The whole model health issue has been around really for the past 12 months. Now we have a report coming out, it seemed right to match that in writing with the contract.”
The decision to stop the use of younger models is in line with the key recommendation from the Model Health Inquiry’s interim report, which was released in July.
The inquiry, established by the fashion council and led by Baroness Kingsmill, said that teenagers of 14 and 15 were particularly at risk of developing eating disorders, and called for the practice to end. It also expressed concern that “it is profoundly inappropriate that girls under 16, under the age of consent, should be portrayed as adult women”.
The interim report attracted criticism for deciding against recommending a ban on models below a certain body mass index, which was introduced at Madrid Fashion Week. The panel said it felt that pre-show “weigh-ins” for models would be demeaning.
Mr Ward said that there would be no minimum weight restriction at Fashion Week, but added that the fashion council would consider carefully any new recommendations that arose in the Model Health Inquiry’s final report. “It is inappropriate to go charging ahead one way or another until we see what is in the report,” he said. “Where there is hard and fast stuff \ which can be delivered, we have acted.”
Another proposal that is likely to feature in the final report is for a union for models, an idea favoured by Erin O’Connor, a panel member and model. In particular, models should be given health checks and screening for eating disorders, the report will say, although campaigners against eating disorders have criticised the inquiry for failing to address the impact that the fashion industry has on the public.
Some of those involved with Fashion Week have expressed frustration with the recommendations. Laurie Kuhrt, chairman of the Association of Model Agents, described the idea of a union as “quite unnecessary”. He told The Sunday Times: “What these people don’t realise is that agents look after models as if they were their mum or dad.”
Mr Kuhrt added that his association had first suggested a voluntary ban on models under the age of 16 at Fashion Week, but said that agents should still be permitted to encourage younger teenagers to work on portfolios of photographs outside of school term-time.
Mr Kuhrt attacked what he described as a relentless campaign to vilify models and accuse them of being anorexic. He said: “What some people need to realise is that some of God’s children are born very tall and very thin. They are scouted for throughout the world. It is not as if we get people together and starve them to death.”
