In Paris and New York they expect you to be thin like this,” said Anett, a 17-year-old Estonian, indicating her little finger and giving it a model-ish twirl. ‘And in Milan,” said Caroline (23) from Luxembourg, ‘people pat your tummy and say, ‘Are you having a baby’?”
But at London fashion week it’s not like that, both models agreed backstage this week. Not any more, anyway. ‘Of course you can’t have too many curves and you still have to be skinny, but in London everyone looks quite healthy,” said Hana, a 22-year-old Czech model.
If anyone from the British Fashion Council (BFC), which organises London Fashion Week, had been eavesdropping, they would have been delighted — even though the models can’t have weighed more than 44kg apiece. This message of tolerance, health and understanding is exactly what they have been trying to plug as they emphasise how far the British fashion industry has come.
In February last year the clothes at London Fashion Week were overshadowed as the BFC came under fire for not barring overly skinny ‘size zero” models from the capital’s catwalks, unlike Madrid Fashion Week, which banned models with a body mass index below 18,5. It was an especially emotive issue after two Paraguayan models, sisters Eliana and Luisel Ramos, died because of complications relating to anorexia. Criticism came from all sides, including the then-United Kingdom culture secretary, Tessa Jowell, who said all models should undergo medical checks before being booked.
In response the Model Health Inquiry was set up to examine the problem of eating disorders in the fashion business. This independent panel reported its findings in September last year. Six months on Hilary Riva, outgoing chief executive of the BFC, is adamant the body has implemented all the recommendations it could enforce: models under 16 are banned, a permanent model health panel has been set up, the actors’ union Equity has decided to accept models as members and all backstage areas are ‘healthy”, she said.
Backstage at the Bora Aksu show at the Natural History Museum in central London, recently, models were wolfing down chicken and avocado sandwiches and following them with fresh ‘designer fuel” smoothies, containing mango, strawberry and blueberry with a shot of sugar-free Red Bull. Behind the table of free food was a poster from Beat, the eating disorders charity, which featured various soothing proclamations such as ‘eating disorders are not caused by fashion models”.
There was another poster, advertising the Model Sanctuary. An invention of model Erin O’Connor, who sat on the Model Health Inquiry, this sanctuary was an apartment in central London where models could relax, eat and speak to a nutritionist or receive confidence lessons from a life coach.v
‘The idea was to create a safe and positive environment in which the models can learn, thrive and relax during what can be one of the most tiring weeks in their working year,” O’Connor said, adding that she had noticed ‘a real air of confidence and renewed vigour” among the models.
Those in the front rows had picked up on something too. ‘I’ve not seen any models yet that I’ve wanted to take home and give a good pasta meal to,” said TV Davina McCall as she left the Betty Jackson show this week. But not everyone agreed.
Susan Ringwood, head of Beat, said she had spoken to models who said things were getting worse. ‘They said the clothes were even smaller than last season,” she said.
Ringwood was disappointed no one addressed what she sees as a fundamental problem in the industry. ‘We need to challenge the aesthetic that you can be considered beautiful enough for the catwalk only if you are tall and very thin,” she said.
But Paula Reed, style director of Grazia magazine, who also sat on the panel, said this was never the intention. ‘The point was to ensure that models could be slim and healthy,” she said. ‘Is that so bad in a country where two-thirds of us are going to be obese in the next 10 years?” —