Italy to ban skinny models

ITALY'S government and fashion chiefs are working on a manifesto to crack down on the use of ultra-thin teenagers on the catwalk, as pressure grows on the fashion world to promote healthier looks. After Spain barred models below a certain weight from a Madrid fashion show in September, industry leaders in Argentina and now Brazil have joined a campaign to ensure models are over 16 years old and are not excessively thin.
Powerful Milan fashion houses first resisted calls to copy the Spanish regulations, with Italian National Fashion Chamber head Mario Boselli saying in September that only "maybe one girl in a hundred" could be defined as too skinny.
But after Boselli, whose lobby represents big names like Armani, Versace and Prada, met Italian Youth Minister Giovanna Melandri this week, he agreed to work with the ministry on a self regulatory code of good practice.
"Italy has an important strategic role in world fashion so we have to send a strong signal," said Flaminia Spadone, an aide to the minister.

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The manifesto will be launched before the Milan women's fashion week in February, a major event in the catwalk calendar.
"We'd like fashion houses, modelling agencies, photographers and everyone working in the fashion world to sign the charter," she said.
"It would be voluntary but professional bodies could decide to impose sanctions on people who don't sign, preventing them from taking part in fashion shows."
Boselli said the charter might require women to undergo medical checks for body weight, though it would also take into account factors like genetic influences on weight.

The use of underweight models promoting the ultra-slim look has held sway in much of world fashion since the 1990s, and was epitomised by British supermodel Kate Moss.
But it has come into sharp critical focus since the death of Brazilian model Ana Carolina Resto last month from complications derived from the slimming disease anorexia. There are calls for a return to the slim but more curvaceous models of the 1980s, like Cindy Crawford and Claudia Schiffer.
"We won't have a specific limit on body mass index as they do in Spain," said Boselli.
But Spadone said the ministry would ideally like to follow the Spanish example and impose a limit on the body mass index, which takes into account the model's height versus weight.
She said models who came under 18.5 on the index – the World Health Organisation's definition of underweight – should be banned from working for the sake of their own health.
"In the Third World, if someone has an index of less than 18.5, they send in humanitarian aide," she said.
with additional reporting by Sophie Hardach

Italy Models

ROME —  The Italian government and fashion industry joined forces Saturday in a campaign against anorexic models, which includes attention to the "full-bodied" and a commitment to add larger sizes to collections.
The premier's office said that the self-regulating code for Italy's highly competitive fashion industry would be signed in Rome next week.
Helping to spur the war on unhealthily rail-thin models on the fashion show runways was the death from anorexia last month of 21-year-old model Ana Carolina Reston in Brazil.
"The government and fashion associations have made a strategic alliance to go down a common road in the fight against anorexia," Youth Policy and Sports Minister Giovanna Melandri said in a statement issued by the premier's office.
Weeks ago, Melandri, who stands out in the Cabinet as a fashionable dresser with a trim figure, urged the fashion industry to emphasize larger sizes for women instead of tinier sizes on the runways.
The code "wasn't stipulated with the intention of imposing something on someone," said Stefano Dominella, president of a lobby for Rome haute couture. Instead, the aim is "regulating the world of fashion, so that it doesn't get pointed out as being responsible for the dramatic facts in the news," Dominella said in the statement.