FASHION MODELS AND WEIGHT

 

One of the most debated topics in the fashion industry deals with the models’ weight. Many argue that many models, both male and female, are underweight, and suffering from anorexia and/or bulimia. In the fashion capitals of the world- New York, London, Paris, and Milan, different approaches have been implemented to deal with this issue. We will look into some of the theories as to why the models are so skinny, and the legal ramifications of how it can be dealt with.

 

Why are models so skinny?

 

There are a number of arguments made for very skinny models. Theories are as varied as they are conflicting. One argument given is about their backgrounds. In recent years, many models come from small poor eastern European countries. Suzy Menkes, fashion writer for the International Herald Tribune, states, “…many of these girls were brought up in the post-communist years on an extremely bad diet. From childhood, they’ve not been properly nourished.” [#11] These girls don’t start off with healthy bodies. In addition, many of these models are very young at the age of only 14 and 15. These young girls will try to survive the pressures to stay thin so that they don’t have to return home. One of the models who came from a poor background is Natalia Vodianova, a popular model from Russia. She spoke up about the eating disorders of models at the Council of Fashion Designers of America and explained how the industry pressure caused her own weight to plunge. She stated that as a child growing up in Russia, food for her and her family was not plentiful, and noted that other very young girls “left their childhood behind with dreams of a better life, and for most of them, there was nothing they wouldn’t do to live those dreams.”[#22]

 

Another theory is that the girls need to be skinny because they need to be “invisible” as many designers believe their clothes stand out better when they are on a skinnier individual. Often, models are referred to as hangers, and designers feel they need them to be exactly that- walking hangers where it is the clothes that are visible, not the model. Carol White, a former model and founder of Premier Model Management, says, “designers want to show what they’ve designed, they don’t want the body to overtake it.”[#3|3]

 

The blame game goes both ways as designers blame agent and runway shows’ producers, and, in turn, they blame the designers. An unnamed agent says “the industry wants pencil thin models because weight is such a big issue to teenage girls. I myself don’t hire models unless they’re very thin. I hate to do it, but I have no choice because that’s what the magazines and advertisers who pay my salary want.” Nian Fish, who has worked in runway show production for 30 years, says that to be able to get designers to use larger models would be like “asking the New York City Ballet to use bigger dancers.”[#4|4]

 

The other theory which is diametrically opposite to the invisible theory is that the world in which models are trying to convey is one which is highly unattainable - a beauty and body that is something to aspire to, and nearly impossible to reach. These girls are to attract envy and desire. It is an industry trying to sell an ideal version of beauty and youth. You have girls as young as 14 and 15, and the attempt to market “innocence”. “You’re not going to buy an outfit because you saw a saggy-breasted woman wearing it”, says an unnamed casting director.[#5|5]

 

And yet another theory that has been purported is that many clothing designers are gay males and prefer women who look like boys. "The fashion industry is 70 per cent gay men, and their opinion far outweighs the 30 per cent of women and straight men," says an unnamed international stylist. [#6|6]

 

Whatever the reasons might be, the truth is that models have long been skinny. But their weight became a hot topic after two Latin American models died of anorexia. At the time of the 21-year old Brazilian model Ana Carolina Reston’s death, she had a Body Mass Index of 13.4. She was one of a number of models who had died within months of each other due to anorexia-related diseases.

 

Why has this happened? The reason that’s churned out most often concerns the fashion industry and the alleged conspiracy between gay men and loony stylists to impose their distorted, misogynistic view of female beauty on the rest of us. Ergo, fashion people make you anorexic; ergo, Vogue makes you ill. That’s an incredibly simplistic take. But if fashion isn’t to blame, who is?

 

Well we are. The fashion industry hasn’t changed; we have. It is a fact of life that models have always been thin and young. The difference is that, until recently, people understood that models were working women doing a job, that they made sacrifices, most obviously when it came to not eating very much, and were richly rewarded for it. Nobody in their right mind wants to be these women: they admire them in the pages of a glossy magazine and admire the clothes they wear, and then forget about them and get on with their lives. Models occupy the same rarefied stratosphere as movie stars. Women used to be able to separate real life from airbrushed fantasy. We can’t any more".

 

Truly well said. A lacking element of our society is taking responsibility for one’s actions. Why do we blame the industry?

 

Blaming the fashion industry for what is a societal problem is demonstrably not working. We need to look a little more closely at ourselves and ask how we’ve become so insecure as to believe in starvation as an indicator of beauty, and how we seem to have entirely lost touch with the idea that people’s interiors are more important than what’s on the outside.

 

After all no one forces models to accept the ridiculous weight and size restrictions imposed on them. There are a million and one ways of earning a living. We do not have to model to earn a living. In the alternative, if models would like to see changes of the unspoken requirement, they should mount up a campaign and protest these unhealthy and inhumane standards. They cannot honestly expect the industry to make those changes without bringing pressure to bear on it. Societal and revolutionary changes occur as a result of people's taking a stand and rejecting the status quo.

 

Body Mass Index (BMI) is an index calculation based on height and weight. The U.N.’s World Health Organization defines a BMI below 18.5 as underweight and recommends an index between 18.5 and 25.[#7|7]

 

As it will be discussed further, only Spain set a BMI limit of 18, and Italian designers agree to health and age guidelines for runway models. The other important fashion centers decided to take a less restrictive approach and tried to set certain guidelines for models’ well being and were reluctant to impose “severe” weight requirements. 

 

The action taken by international fashion centers to safeguard model health

 

The organizers of Madrid’s Pasarela Cibeles reached a voluntary agreement with the city’s regional Government to turn away models with a BMI below 18. Doctors attended the events to check the models. According to the Association of Fashion Designers of Spain, 30% of the models who had previously appeared on the Madrid Fashion Week catwalks were ineligible under the new ruling. However, there is no hard evidence about the number of models being banned.[#8|8]

 

In Italy, Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana, which organizes the Fashion Weeks in Milan and Rome, agreed to a self-regulation manifesto with the Italian Government. Those signing the manifesto vow not to use models younger than 16-years-old and require models to provide medical certificates attesting that they are healthy, based on evaluations devised through the study of eating disorders, including BMI levels. The manifesto states: “We commit not to use models in shows or photo-shoots whose medical certificates prove that they suffer from an eating disorder.”[#99] The designer Raffaella Curiel barred 15 models from her show in Rome because they were below French size 36 to comply with the new code. Designers have the responsibility for checking medical certificates but enforcement procedures are not yet clear – the only reference to non-compliance is that the Director of Camera Moda will “take measures.”[#1010]

 

As opposite to Italy and Spain, France has taken a different approach regarding model health regulations and recommendations. Chambre Syndicale announced in October 2006 that it would not set guidelines for minimum weights for models appearing on Paris catwalks. “We must inform people but above all not regulate the sector more than it already is. Regulation is something that weighs down the atmosphere,”[#1111] said Didier Grumbach, head of the Chambre. France already has strict Government regulations in place controlling child workers; and models appearing in France must be employed through French-based agencies. Unlike in other fashion centers, Paris catwalk models are not self-employed and pay high levels of contributions for state benefits. Ahead of this year’s French Presidential elections, the Health Ministry announced that it was setting up a working group on body image with the aim of establishing a charter that would end the use of excessively thin models in advertising. [#1212] France has been under a spotlight concerning eating disorders since the anorexia-related deaths of several South American models in 2006, including Brazilian top model Ana Carolina Reston. (See e.g. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/11/17/nmodel17.xml,http://www.nbc11.com/health/10345797/detail.html) In addition, a draft law has been proposed in France, which would punish “incitement to excessive thinness” in magazines, on websites, and in other media. The draft law proposes up to 3 years in jail and a £36,000 fine if the incitement provoked the death of an anorexia sufferer. The draft coincides with the French fashion industry’s efforts to promote a healthy body image among models.[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/10/wfra110.xml] On April 15, 2008, Parliament’s lower house adopted the bill, which goes to the Senate next. Didier Grumbach, the president of the influential French Federation of Couture, criticized to legislate body weight and said: “Never will we accept in our profession that a judge decides if a young girl is skinny or not skinny (…). That doesn't exist in the world, and it will certainly not exist in France.” [http://www.pr-inside.com/french-lawmakers-adopt-bill-that-could-r539042.htm] True enough, this political intervention in the fight against anorexia and bulimia is the most extensive in the world. So far the effort to promote a healthy body image has been the official BMI limits used in the fashion shows in Milan and Madrid.[http://politiken.dk/udland/article495666.ece]

 

In London, the BMI limit is not imposed, but instead, the British Fashion Council (BFC) makes a series of recommendations including a ban on girls under 16 from doing runway work. The head of the BFC is concerned about the BMI and similar weight requirements, feeling that many models who do not meet certain requirements may turn to work in London. Perhaps then, not surprisingly, there would be a threat of boycott by some models and designers. In March 2007, the British Fashion Council (BFC) asked Baroness Denise Kingsmill to chair an independent inquiry into model health and make recommendations on practical action to tackle concerns identified during the course of the inquiry. The Model Health Inquiry was prompted by a growing concern about unhealthily thin models showcasing designer fashions on the catwalks during the major international fashion weeks held in Milan, Paris, New York and London. Baroness Kingsmill said the panel would “investigate the scale and seriousness of any health problems associated with models in the British fashion industry and separate fact from supposition and speculation in this emotive and volatile area.”[#13|13]

 

One approach suggested to improve model health is to ban all models with a BMI below a certain level from appearing on the catwalks. The panel considered this carefully and listened to a range of expert views. However, they do not believe a focus on BMI provides the way forward. The panel’s expert advisers on eating disorders have stated that BMI is not an accurate method of determining health, particularly in a physically atypical group which models represent, and its use may worsen eating disorders among models. Dr Adrienne Key said the very process of forcing models to undergo a BMI test could encourage pre-assessment water-loading and post-assessment purging behavior, including vomiting and the abuse of laxatives and diuretics.[#14|14]

 

The Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) formed a health initiative in January 2007 to respond to concerns about unhealthily thin models. The message from the CFDA is that designers share a responsibility to protect women, very young girls in particular, within the business. Therefore, the fashion industry should begin a campaign of health awareness as well as create an “atmosphere that supports the well being of these young women.”[#1515] The CFDA expressly stated the initiative was “about awareness and education, not policing” and it would not be recommending medical examinations to permit models to work. To initiate the program, the CFDA launched a health debate during February’s 2007 New York Fashion Week but there has been strong criticism that the industry’s response does not go far enough and political moves to introduce regulatory action. [#1616]

 

The CFDA program to prevent the use of too-thin models in fashion shows includes the following recommendations: (i) educating the industry to identify the early warning signs in an individual at risk of developing an eating disorder, (ii) requiring models with eating disorders seek treatment, (iii) developing workshops for the industry (including models and their families) on the nature of eating disorders, how they arise, how we identify and treat them, and complications if they are untreated, (iv) not hiring models under the age of sixteen for runway shows; not allowing models under the age of eighteen to work past midnight at fittings or shoots; and providing regular breaks and rest, (v) providing healthy food backstage, and (vi) promoting a healthy backstage environment by banning smoking and underage drinking of alcohol.[#17|17]

 

As the CFDA itself states that the initiative is not policing, Steven Kolb, CFDA’s executive director, believes more people will get involved by educating, not by enforcing a ban. However, some medical trade groups criticized the CFDA for not creating a ban on super-thin models, saying that if a paycheck is determining how a model must look, then no amount of education or awareness will help.[#18|18] The skinnier you are, the better chance of work you get.

 

The question remains why the CFDA did not try to implement a ban as Spain and Italy did.

Designers such as Diane von Furstenberg argue that those regulations would be too restrictive and could not be enforceable globally.[#19|19]

 

Moreover, legal issues could arise if the industry attempts to regulate via BMI, especially in the area of discrimination.  The Americans With Disabilities Act ("ADA") ensures that employers are not refusing to hire a prospective employee who could perform that job just because of his or her mental or physical disability.  In order to receive the protections from the ADA, the employee must prove that he or she suffers from a permanent or long-term disability that limits at least one major life activity.  The employee must communicate such disability with the employer otherwise the employer can not be held liable for failing to reasonably accommodate the employee at work.  Beck v. University of Wis., 75 F.3d 1130, 1134 (7th Cir. 1996).  Reasonable accommodations means being sufficiently flexible with the employer's rules and regulations, company policies, work schedules, and facilities for example, in order to enable a disabled employee to work.  Id. at 1135. 

 

In this context, “[u]nless it could be proven that body weight was a physical requirement of the job, it could be problematic to implement similar policies in the U.S [that discriminate against models via BMI].”[#20|20]  There are cases on record where courts have stated that anorexia is considered a disability and is therefore protected under the ADA.  At the same time, one Illinois court found that bulimia, another common disease plaguing underweight models, is not a disability because it is neither permanent nor long-term.  Therefore, employees with bulimia are not protected under the ADA.  Erjavac v. Holy Family Health Plus, 13 F. Supp. 2d 737, 748-49 (N.D. Ill. 1998). Although none of these cases concern models or the fashion industry, “there’s no reason the precedent couldn’t apply” states Patricia Slovak, partner with Schiff Hardin and current chair of the American Bar Association Section of Labor and Employment Law.

 

If it can be argued that the implementation of the BMI requirement can give rise to legal issues, then there can also be legal ramifications if an industry does little or nothing to protect its own workers, as these models’ lives are put in danger by the pressures to be very thin.

 

The New York City Council has also considered regulating the weights of models allowed to walk during its fashion weeks. In February 2007, Council member Gail Brewer proposed a BMI level of 18.5. Under such a regulation, designers would not allow models with BMIs below 18.5 to walk in their shows. The number 18.5 was derived from the World Health Organization’s definition of normal weight. Also in February 2007, Assemblyman Jose Rivera introduced a similar resolution in the New York State Assembly.1 Assemblyman Rivera proposed the creation of an advisory board for eating disorder prevention standards and guidelines aimed at models and actors under the age of 18.2 The proposed state board would have consisted of health experts and industry representatives, who would have reported to the state Labor Department on the appropriate restrictions on such issues as employment, weight requirements and enforcement of those requirements.3

 

Has anything changed?

 

After all these debates about models’ health issues, the question is what became of the international designers' grand promises to replace the look of starvation with a glow of health on the catwalks.

 

Aimee Liu serves on the advisory board of the Academy for Eating Disorders (AED). In February 2008, a few of her AED colleagues called on CFDA president Diane von Furstenberg, CFDA Executive Director Steven Kolb, and Nian Fisch, chair of the CFDA Health Initiative, for an update on their implementation of the Initiative. They have yet to receive an answer. "Their failure to respond underscores that the CFDA health panel was all for show - just lip service and empty promises," said Cynthia Bulik, past-president of the AED. "If there's no accountability, there's no action."[#21|21]

 

In Europe, model Marvy Rieder, whose marVie Foundation aims to create a healthier working atmosphere for aspiring models, has noticed that designers are showing clothes even smaller this year than last. One model who dropped to a European 34/36 (equivalent to a U.S. 0) in order to qualify for the Milan shows was told she still was "too fat”. Furthermore, Reider says “agencies often do not agree on the strict measurements made by the designers but they don't want to be put out of business so they tell the girls to lose weight if they want to do the shows."[#22|22]

 

Among 14 recommendations made by the Model Health Inquiry chaired by Baroness Denise Kingsmill, the British Fashion Council has chosen to implement just four: London Fashion Week will ban models under 16; no more backstage drugs, smoking, or champagne; models will be allowed to rest between shows at a staffed apartment; and maybe by next September's Fashion Week, the Council will begin model health certification. A fed up Susan Ringwood, chief executive of the British eating disorders charity Beat, says, "we want the fashion industry to put its words into action, to just get on with it."[#23|23]

 

Some critics argue that another young life will be lost before or during the NY shows, but not even that will wake the people up.[#2424] During fashion week last month, the New York Times published an article on the same health dangers for male models.[#2525]

 

 

It is worth mentioning that the appearance and especially weight issues are not unique to women models but related to men models as well. In the recent few years, not only that men models were downsized but it can also be said that the man model of our time is an urchin, a wraith or an underfed runt. Nowadays, designers prefer the skinny guy look under the excuse that skinnier guys make the clothes look better. That is just the way it is now – that is what the fashion world dictates now. Clothes become tighter and tighter, and guys become younger and younger, skinnier and skinnier .In contrary to the past models, today models look like that they have never seen the inside of a gym. The idea of bulking up the body seems retro now when men starve themselves in order to look good in clothes.

 

As indicated in the “The Vanishing Point” by Guy Trebay, in 1994, the sample size, which was an appropriate size for a normal 6-foot male, was 40. Six years later, by the year of 2000, the typical sample size became 48, and nowadays it is only 46! This downsize minimizing process is totally unconnected to the men sizes and growth in the reality of the modern American culture. According to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Americans are taller and much heavier today than 40 years ago. The report, which was released in 2002, showed that the average height of adult American men has increased from 5-8 in 1960 to 5-9 ½ in 2002. The average weight of the same adult man had risen dramatically, from 166.3 pounds to 191 pounds.

[The Vanishing Point by Guy Trebay -

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/07/fashion/shows/07DIARY.html?_r=1&oref=slogin]

 

 

"In a world where real women wear an average size 14, why does the fashion industry mount such resistance to more substantial models?[#26|"26] Articles abound on the subject, and even more during fashion week. Yet for all the lip service the issue is getting, nobody seems ready to embrace any real change. The designers continue to blame the agents who continue to blame the public. But it is the young men and women, the young girls and boys who, because of a refusal by an industry to take real action, that suffer.

 

 

 

References

1 Emily Nussbaum, "The Incredible Shrinking Model," The Guardian.co.uk, Sept. 9, 2007.

2 Id.

3 Liz Jones, "Have model agencies finally dumped skinny models?, "The Daily Mail, Feb. 4, 2008.

4 "Bad and Beautiful: Inside the Dazzling and Deadly World of Supermodels", Ian Halperin

5 Fleur Britten, "Demand for 'virgins' holds sway over health trend," news.com.au, March 3, 2008.

6 Id.

7 BMI classification, http://www.assessmentpsychology.com/icbmi.htm

8 "Fashioning a Healthy Future," The Report of the Model Health Inquiry, Sept. 2007.

9 Id.

10 Id.

11 Id.

12 Id.

13 Id.

14 Id.

15 CFDA, Council of Fashion Designers of America Health Initiative.

16 "Fashioning a Healthy Future," The Report of the Model Health Inquiry, Sept. 2007.

17 CFDA, Council of Fashion Designers of America Health Initiative.

18 Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan And Rachel Dodes, "U.S. Fashion Council Issues Health Guidelines for Models," The Wall Street Journal, Jan. 12, 2007.

19 Eric Wilson, "Doctors Fault Designers’ Stance Over Thin Models," The New York Times, Jan. 9, 2007.

20 Liza Casabona, "Policies On Models Can Lead to Weighty Legal Issues," WWD, April 30, 2007.

21 Aimee Liu, “There’s No Accounting For Fashion,” Huffington Post, Feb. 20, 2008.

22 Id.

23 Id.

24 "NY Fashion World Makes Lame Recommendations," mamaVision, Jan. 12, 2007.

25 The Vanishing Point, Guy Trebay, The New York Times

26 Gaining: The Truth About Life After Eating Disorders, http://www.gainingthetruth.com/newsletter.htm