Healthy models in Europe

Healthy models present the Elena Miro collection at Milan Fashion Week Fall-Winter 2008-09. Photo Credit: Insidefoto/PR Photos

Continental Europe is taking a much healthier approach to fashion than the United Kingdom, which continues with the trend of young and thin in fashion, while even the ethical compulsory health checks for models have been abandoned by London. The Spanish fashion industry has strict guidelines forbidding models with a body mass index (BMI) of below 18, from walking the runway. A BMI of 18 approximates to a weight of 56 kilos on a girl with the height of 1.75 metres. The Italians too have guidelines banning models younger than 16; in addition requiring models to posses a health certificate declaring that they are not anorexic.

While the Italian guidelines were not binding on agencies and designers, last year the designer Raffaella Curiel banned 15 models from her show in Rome because they were too skinny. "I was forced to fire 15 models who were too skinny and for the others I still had to tighten the clothes," Curiel was quoted as saying by the Corriere della Sera daily.

"I absolutely don't want models who are too skinny," she later told RAI TV. "They are a bad example for young generations."



There was an incident at that same event where an anorexic model fainted during a practice walk on the runway. Raffaella Curiel then had to provide improvised first-aid by making the girl eat a ham sandwich!

However not all fashionistas in Italy were happy with Raffaella's decision to drop skinny models from walking for her collection. Fellow designer Lorenzo Riva, at that same show, said: "You cannot have curvy women in haute-couture shows. The models are naturally slim."

Famous Italian model Bianca Balti said, "It is idiotic to link Anorexia with the ready-made size 38 (size 10 US)." She was criticising the one-size-fits-all rule of the Italian fashion industry, which prohibited naturally slim models from getting work.

The Italian fashion manifesto also carries a promise from designers to add larger sizes to their collections. However the only designer to implement this code is Elena Miro, who specializes in clothes for sizes 14 and over. Her line include a wide range of women's clothing and lingerie. However Elena Miro has been using plus-sized models like the German Barbara Brickner for the last four years....before these guidelines came into force.