Fashion company's shock tactics in the fight against size zero

The picture of emaciated Isabelle Caro, 27, an anorexic who weighs just 31 kilos (4 stone, 12lb), has been displayed on Milan billboards as the city celebrates its fashion week.

Caro, who is French and has her own blog site, said that she had suffered from anorexia since she was 13 as the result of a "difficult childhood".

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She added: "I've hidden myself and covered myself for too long. Now I want to show myself fearlessly, even though I know my body arouses repugnance.

"I want to recover because I love life and the riches of the universe. I want to show young people how dangerous this illness is."

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The campaign was paid for by Italian clothing company Flash & Partners to publicise a fashion brand for young women called Nolita and the photograph was taken by Italian photographer Oliviero Toscani.

Flash & Partners said in a statement that Toscani's aim was "to use the naked body to show everyone the reality of this illness, caused in most cases by the stereotypes imposed by the world of fashion".

Many people blame the fashion industry and the obsession with stick-thin size zero models for the rise in cases of anorexia.

Calls for action within the British fashion industry led to a full-scale investigation into the problems by a panel of experts this year.

The report by the Model Health Inquiry, which was published last week on the eve of London Fashion Week, made 14 recommendations including requiring models to pass medical checks before being allowed on the catwalk and barring appearances from those under 16.

Unveiling the report, chairman of the inquiry, Baroness Kingsmill, slammed the fashion world for allowing young girls to be exploited. "Just because modelling is seen as glamorous, [the industry] seems to think it is outside normal health and safety issues," she said. "It is time it started taking care of its workers."

But London has failed to go as far as Madrid and Milan, where the authorities have banned the appearance of ultra-skinny models on catwalks by forcing models to carry certificates proving they are healthy.

The move, which dominated Milan Fashion Week last year, followed the death of 22-year-old model Luisel Ramos, who collapsed at a show in Uruguay. It was claimed she had gone days without eating properly.

Speaking at the time, Tiziana Maiolo, Milan's city council official in charge of promoting fashion, said: "We will work together with modelling agencies, with the chamber of commerce for fashion and with doctors to ensure that the agencies and stylists do not favour this phenomenon of anorexia.

"I don't think men want to see skeletal women and I want to say to women who are fuller- figured there is absolutely nothing wrong with this. They are undoubtedly the prettiest women about and the most intelligent."

Despite this, fashion designers in Milan dismissed fashion as having anything to do with the illness. Commenting on the poster Giorgio Armani said he thought such a shocking image was 'opportune' as a way of making people face up to the dangers of anorexia, which he said had little to do with models on catwalks.

He added: "Anorexia has reasons which are not linked to fashion. Even people who take no notice of fashion get anorexic."

Designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana said: "Finally someone is saying the truth about anorexia that it has nothing to do with fashion but is a psychiatric problem.

"We have always maintained this despite all the political campaigns on the argument."

However, Italy's health minister Livia Turco backed the campaign and said: "The disturbing image of Isabelle Caro could open an original channel for communication and encourage people to shoulder their responsibilities in the area of anorexia."