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Jowell wants skinny models off the Fashion Week catwalk
Last updated at 13:22pm on 12.02.07
Size sero models should be banned, says Jowell
The focus should be 'on thinness which is making the model ill', says Jowell
More should have been done by ministers to ban stick-thin models from London Fashion Week, experts claim.
More on the Size Zero debate here...
• Five skinny models barred from Madrid catwalk
• We'll have no Size 0 models, pledges Fashion Week chief
• Moss's agent breaks rank and says weight must be discussed
Culture secretary Tessa Jowell has said she wants to see extremely thin models kept off the catwalk.
But rather than legislation, she believes the fashion industry should regulate itself.
Experts last night dismissed her comments, saying designers were unable to regulate themselves and would keep using dangerously thin models.
Dr Dee Dawson, who runs the Rhodes Farm eating disorders clinic in North London, said: "We are talking about people's lives here and these people design dresses, they don't know anything about what's healthy and what's not."
She added that models at one of the opening shows, by designer Caroline Charles, were too thin.
Uruguay model Luisel Ramos, 22, died of heart failure last August after not eating for several days. In November, Ana Carolina Reston died after living on apples and tomatoes.
London Fashion Week organisers have refused to follow the example fashion bosses in Madrid and Milan and set a body-mass index limit, used to determine healthy weight, for models.
Asked whether London should have doctors checking models, Miss Jowell said:
"I think it is for the industry to make these decisions, but the short answer is yes."
She added that the focus should be "on thinness which is making the model ill, rather than simply an arbitrary measurement".
The British Fashion Council has asked designers to use healthy models aged over 16. It has also set up a taskforce to look into the issue.
A spokesman added: "I was at the Caroline Charles show and the girls looked perfectly fine."
Reader views (2)
She should spend more time concentrating on the real issues in our society rather then continually poking her nose into stories that she knows will hit the media. I would hazard a guess that obecity kills more people each year than being a skinny model. Let's concentrate on that.
- Oli, London
Again an attempt by ministers to over-regulate the life of individuals. If young ladies want to diet to a minimum weight to earn money, so what? Will Ms Jowell seek to dissuade jockeys from horseracing next?
- Roy Gilbert, Solihull, England.
