MPs are to investigate whether very thin models should be banned from British catwalks, after a petition calling for fashion week health checks reached 30,000 signatures.
Caroline Nokes MP, who heads the all parliamentary group on body image, is to invite senior members of the fashion industry to get their views on whether legislation is needed to protect young models from feeling pressured to lose dangerous amounts of weight.
Nokes said the group would begin its inquiry in November. “Legislation should be a last resort, but I’m conscious the fashion industry isn’t responding to calls for change,” she said. “We would prefer a code of conduct, if we could feel confident it would be adhered to.”
Rosie Nelson, a 23-year-old size 8 model from Sandhurst, who has worked on shoots for Vogue Australia and Ben Sherman, started her Change.org petition to call for a law change.
“When I walked into one of the UK’s biggest model agencies last year they told me I ticked all the boxes except one – I needed to lose weight. So I did,” she wrote in her introduction to the petition. “Four months later I lost nearly a stone, two inches off my hips. When I returned to the same agency they told me to lose more weight, they wanted me ‘down to the bone’.”
In April, France passed a law preventing models with a BMI of less than 18 being hired, meaning a 5ft10in woman must weigh at least 8.9 stones. Designers and agencies found to be breaking the law can face a fine or a six-month prison sentence. The World Health Organisation guidelines state an adult with a BMI below 18 is considered malnourished, and 17 severely malnourished. The average model has a BMI of 16.
Spain already bars models with a BMI below 18 from taking part in Madrid fashion shows, and models on Italian catwalks must show health certificates under a self-regulation code.
Nelson said she was not in favour of a change that would see models rated on their BMI because it was an imperfect measure of a person’s health. “I don’t think BMI is the right measure, because many models I know are size six to eight, and very conscious of their health and fitness,” she said. “I would prefer a mandatory health check for models every three to six months, which would be an incentive for agencies to take better care of the models they work with, making sure they’re healthy.
“Most of my friends in the industry would support that. I’ve had nothing but positive comments since the petition took off and I think it makes a real difference that it’s a model supporting it.”
Nokes said she believed many others in the industry wanted change. “I’ve been contacted by other models and agencies as well who say they want to change what designers are demanding. They are the ones making samples sizes that models can’t fit into.
“There are always going to be some people who are naturally that thin but for the majority, it is not a body shape that is attainable healthily. And we have to bear in mind that many of the girls entering the industry are very young, and are very likely to want to do whatever it takes to succeed.”
In June, an Yves Saint Laurent advert was banned by the Advertising Standards Authority for featuring an “unhealthily underweight” model.
