Wafer-Thin Models May Still Rule Fashion Ramps

Backers of London Fashion Week have rejected government’s call for a ban on wafer-thin models. Marks and Spencer chief executive Stuart Rose, chairman of the British Fashion Council said, “Outright bans and indeed legislation is definitely not a route we want to go down."

Britain's Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell had urged organizers of London's Fashion Week to ban "stick-thin" models from catwalks.

The British Fashion Council (BFC), which runs the London Week, responded to Tessa Jowell's demand by stating that designers are free to plan and organize their shows however they want to. "The BFC does not comment or interfere in the aesthetic of any designer's show."

Rules in Spain now require models with a specific body mass index (BMI) - a ratio of height to weight. Models who have a body mass index of below 18 are not allowed to appear at the shows.

Jowell wanted London to follow suite. She said,”The fashion industry's promotion of beauty as meaning stick thin is damaging to young girls' self-image and to their health. The fashion industry is hugely powerful in shaping the attitude of teenage girls and their feelings about themselves.”

Rejecting Jowell’s call, Rose said "Are we going to ask people to walk through detectors for BMI and say I'm sorry you're rejected? That would be quite difficult. Body Mass is just an indication. It is just a guide. You cannot use it as an absolute. We just need to be reasonable, educate people, give them the facts and let them make up their own minds."

BMI of between 18.5 and about 25 is recommended by United Nations health experts, but some of the models fall well below the lower limit. Ms Jowell said that "stick-thin" models pressurized girls to starve themselves, hence there was a need to ban them.

The growing trend for super-slim, also called "size zero" models has created a furor. The mayor of Milan, Letizia Moratti, has also sought a similar ban for Milan Fashion Week. She has called such models "sick" looking.