Controversy ignited when Fashion Week in Madrid banned the use of underweight models.
To enforce new standards, Madrid used the body mass index based on calculations of height and weight to measure the models to ensure that they were in the healthy range. If the models did not meet the healthy weight range requirements, they were dismissed from the show. More than 30% of the models were dismissed.
Allison Erwin, of Vandy Fems, the feminist organization at Vanderbilt, said “Body mass index below the lowest healthy BMI cannot be good for anyone. It is to these models’ benefit that they were taken out of the Madrid fashion show so that they can take a break from that world and get healthy.”
A debate over whether models were too thin raised London Fashion Week in the headlines, with a government minister's calls to follow Madrid's lead and ban extremely thin models from the catwalk.
"The fashion industry's promotion of beauty as meaning stick-thin is damaging to young girls' self-image and to their health," Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell said.
Stuart Rose, chairman of the British Fashion Council, which organizes London's twice-yearly Fashion Week dismissed calls for a ban as "a knee-jerk reaction," but said the debate was a legitimate one and that he would discuss the issue with colleagues.
"I think that it's a debate that will happen all in good time, and all opinions are welcome," said supermodel Erin O'Connor.
The event, which runs through Friday, has long been known as a venue for seeing cutting-edge work from creative, young British designers, while the big fashion houses tend to showcase their wares in New York, Paris or Milan.
Erwin said, “Models are supposed to be modeling what consumers are buying. I think it’s a good business step for designers to realize that healthy, normal-sized women are buying their clothes, so they should use healthy, normal-sized models so that customers can relate to them.”
Students, such as Erwin and sophomore Nicole Nash, said that the Madrid decision did not represent a solution to the problem of underweight models.
“Taking people out isn’t going to alleviate the problem,” Nash said. “The root of the problem is the current trend in fashion. The trends are going to have to change.”
“The fashion industry is there to sell clothes- they shouldn’t be selling a body type,” Erwin said.
Associated Press contributed to this article.
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