Female Beauty

The Madrid Fashion Week banned models with a body mass index of less than 18, which suggests that they are unhealthily underweight, from taking part in the show. The association said Friday it wanted models at the show running from Sept. 18-22 to project “an image of beauty and health” and shun a gaunt, emaciated look, rather than a waif-like, or heroin-chic look.
The skinny-obssessed industry got a wake-up call last month when model Luisel Ramos, 22, collapsed at a show in Uruguay and died of heart failure. It was claimed she had gone for days without eating properly after being advised to lose weight.
Milan Fashion Week organisers have also followed suit, forcing models to carry certificates proving they are healthy as part of a crackdown on size-zero women on the catwalk.

Madrid city council, which sponsors the fashion week, has ordered that every model on show must have a body mass index (BMI) of at least 18. Models who are 5ft 9in (1.75m) tall must weigh a minimum of 8st 11oz (56 kg). According to the World Health Organisation, a woman is underweight if her BMI is less than 18.5, but Jes’s del Pozo, vice-president of the Spanish Association of Fashion Designers, said that up to 40 per cent of the models who took part in last year’s event would have fallen foul of the new rules.

Last year’s show, also called Madrid Fashion Week, drew protests from medical associations and women’s advocacy groups because some of the models were positively bone-thin. Fashion shows, Guerra said, “are mirrors for many young women.” The image of emaciated women posing in the latest  Christian Dior or Versace ads wrongly perpetuates that dangerously thin is in. The obsessive focus on weight control can lead to anorexia, bulimia and the danger of spreading bad subliminal messages to adolescents and teenagers.

Spain’s top fashion show is rejecting almost a third of its models because they are too skinny, based on a body mass index that measures weight in relation to height. A woman who is 5 feet, 7 inches, for instance, is considered unhealthy if she weighs less than 118 pounds. And many of these models clearly weigh far less than that. 
Said fashion writer Laura Asnaghi of the bigger-sized Elena Miro models: “They were a joy to watch. They were sensual and sexy and most of all had flesh on them, which was fantastic.”

The decision was made as part of a voluntary agreement with the Madrid government, said Jesus del Pozo, a designer who is part of the association, said Thursday.
Among the models at the show was Valentina Mezzetti, a UK size 14.
She said, “I used to be wafer-thin but then I just got fed up with eating depressing salads at the time, I put on 11kg in eight months and now I couldn’t be happier. I eat lasagne all the time and I have even found love – so it can’t be that bad having a fuller figure.”

Mr Mauro Davico, communications director for Elena Miro, said that they choose ‘real-sized’ models because most of their sales are in the UK size 14 to 16 range.
“A woman should be the size that is natural for her. The emphasis in our designs is on decollete and cleavage. They are very feminine and very sexy and, for our show, we used rounder and fuller-shaped models.” He also said, “Whether they are skinny or fat doesn’t matter.”

Another show that used fuller-sized models was PluSize, the first salon at Milan’s fashion trade fair to showcase a market that has been largely ignored in Italy, despite the fact that research shows that 58.4 per cent of Italian women wear a UK size 18 or larger.
“This was a courageous act,” said Mr Vittorio Giulini, the former president of the National Fabrics and Apparel Association of Italy, and the CEO of Liola, a fashion brand that participated in the show. “They held up their own,” added Mr Giulini of the models, who included several women wearing a UK size 24.

Ms Tiziana Maiolo, Milan’s city council official in charge of promoting fashion, said that the city hopes to convince the fashion world to avoid using overly-skinny models.
“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.”

The organisers of London Fashion Week, which begins on September 18, said that they would not be introducing a similar rule. According to the leading agency Models 1, the models with the biggest pulling power are likely to be those with the smallest waistlines. “We have changed a lot in that there have been many more requests for bigger models, but on the catwalk long dresses do look lovely on tall, thin girls,” the agency said. “Girls who model at 15 or 16 tend to be thin girls, whose mums are thin, it’s part of their genetics, and obviously they look great in clothes.”

Underweight, Normal or Obese?

• The Body Mass Index (BMI) indicates whether or not you are overweight for your height
• To calculate your BMI:
  1. Measure your height in metres and multiply the figure by itself, giving your height squared
  2. Measure your weight in kilograms
  3. Divide the weight by the height squared
• For a woman measuring 1.6m (5ft 3in) and weighing 65kg (10st), the calculation would then be: 1.6 x 1.6 = 2.56. BMI would be 65 divided by 2.56 = 25.39
• According to the World Health Organisation if your BMI is between 18.5 and 24.9 you are an ideal weight
• BMIs can be inaccurate for people over the age of 60

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 12th, 2006 at 9:42 pm and is filed under Beauty, Fashion, Health, Lifestyle. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.