Inquiry targets super-skinny models

A line-up of some of the biggest movers and shakers in the fashion world, from model management to designers and supermodels began investigating the health and safety plus the working conditions of London Fashion Week (LFW) models.

While recommendations from the independent Model Health Inquiry will not be binding, they will carry weight.

"I will certainly be surprised if having asked us to do this they (the British fashion industry) do not seek to implement our proposals," said inquiry chair Baroness Kingsmill.

"It is time, in a way, for the fashion industry to grow up.

"It is a real and a very important industry and the people working within it have to be taken seriously and have to be treated well.

"It is a very important part of the global economy. People should not be looking at it as a fluffy thing to do on a Saturday morning. It is an important chunk of our leisure, retail and tourism industries."

The inquiry, due to report in September in time for LFW, "should have" a knock-on effect on retailers and branding procedures, Lady Kingsmill predicted.

Sarah Doukas, founder of Storm Model Management, British model Erin O'Connor and designers Betty Jackson and Giles Deacon are on the inquiry panel.

Charlotte Clark, co-director of INCA Productions, Paula Reed, style director of Grazia magazine, Professor Wendy Dagworthy, head of the School of Fashion and Textiles at the Royal College of Art, and consultant psychiatrist Dr Adrienne Key who works at The Priory and is a leading expert on eating disorders are also on the panel.