Posts with tag BMI

There was an uproar in the fashion world in fall 2006 when Madrid and Milan fashion weeks turned away models without a healthy BMI. Since then, a debate has erupted over why America hasn't taken a cue from its European counterparts and imposed a minimum weight restriction on models appearing in fashion shows. Recently, a new voice has joined the party and he has some personal insight into the problem.

Former Halston designer Bradley Bayou had witnessed the industry's sample sizes shrinking, and he went along with it. His oldest daughter constantly tried to lose enough weight so that she could fit into his designs and look as pretty as the models he dressed.

Bayou was unaware that his daughter suffered from an eating disorder (and that he'd been contributing to it) until she entered therapy after a breakdown that had landed her in the emergency room. It was then that he realized the impact that the skeletal fashion models have on women across the world. This was three years ago, and Bayou isn't about to stop spreading his message: Fashion Can Kill.

On the Today Show this morning, representatives from the CFDA announced new industry-wide guidelines for models. The decision to make these regulations was spurred by last season's controversial crackdown on underweight, unhealthy cat walkers in Europe. While the American guidelines are not technically rules, the CFDA says they are the first attempt towards responsible self-regulation in the fashion industry. The CFDA says that it can't fully assume the responsibility for something as complex as eating disorders, but they do hope to begin campaign of awareness with these new standards.

The new guidelines include:

• educate models, parents, designers and agencies on the early warning signs of eating disorders
• models must seek help if they have an eating disorder
• those with eating disorders cannot model without a doctor's approval
• supplying healthy meals, nutrition and fitness education backstage and on shoots

Well, there you have it. The fashion industry decides they need to take action and what do they do? They come up with the flimsiest set of regulations imaginable, all of which are voluntary and none of which have any enforceability.

I mean come on -- fitness and nutrition education? I'm so sure that a bunch of underage girls who barely understand English are going to pay attention to some nutritionist when they have the option of doing a line of blow in the bathroom or popping a handful of amphetamines with their diet coke.

Way to bunt it, CFDA!

Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour isn't exactly known for her empathetic spirit. She is, nonetheless, doing her part to seem like a responsible force in the fashion world by hosting a symposium to discuss the options for tackling the problem of underweight models.

Wintour, who has voiced her opposition to government regulation of the industry, seems keen on working toward a self-regulating set of standards for normalizing the modeling world.

I have to be honest though, the "symposium" smacks of an insincere public relations stunt. If you look at the models this old hag has chosen for Vogue's editorial spreads, you can tell that she is just as committed to the rapidly diminishing waistline as she is to fawning over Proenza Schouler's spring collection.

Call me a cynic, but I seriously doubt that Anna Wintour has had anything resembling a change of heart. (Does she even have a heart?) My guess is that all of this is out of simple self-preservation, not a genuine concern for public health.

With the recent death of Ana Carolina Reston, fashion insiders and politicians have once again set their sights on the size 0 model. A recent partnership between the Italian government and the fashion industry has established a "common plan of action" that will force unhealthily thin models to gain weight or get out of the business. The coalition will promote (but not mandate) the use of models with a body mass index (BMI) of 18 and up, the internationally recognized standard for health.

But are there any models out there with a body mass of 18? Well, according to an article in The Independent, there are a few models out there who have what it takes to pass the BMI test. They are:

Elise Crombez
Model for: Prada
BMI: 20.1

Cindy Crawford
Model for: Versace
BMI: 19.2

Kate Dillon
Model for: Gucci
BMI: 23.7

So here's some advice for all the little Coca-Cola Light drinking waifs in Milano: go grab yourself some gelato and scarf down a few Parma ham sandwiches. You're in Italy, darling, live it up! Who knows -- it might just help your career!

Not that he's any sort of litmus test for normalcy, but Karl Lagerfeld seems to think that the hoopla about skinny models is full of bunk. Citing the existence of something he calls "skinny bones", Lagerfeld suggested that the models who did not pass the BMI test in Madrid were not necessarily unhealthy, even if the UN says they are. Skinny bones, eh? Never heard of that one before.

But then again, there is a lot of stuff that Karl Lagerfeld does that I've never heard of before. For instance, he "vampires". (What is "vampiring" you ask? Well, it's feeding off the creative energy of others.) And don't even get me started on the Karl Lagerfeld diet! Composed largely of things like drinking Diet Coke and moving as little as possible lest he get hungry, Lagerfeld is not exactly the picture of good health, even if he did manage to lose 93 pounds.

In the wake of BMI-based bans on dangerously thin models first in Spain, then in Milan, a British television station has plans to show Super-Skinny Me: The Race to Size Zero, a documentary that will follow the efforts of a group of female journalists to drop down to a British size 2 (US size 00). The documentary will be aired some time early next year.
Recent studies in the UK have found that the average dress size of a woman is 14, equivalent to a US size 10. However, according to a spokesperson for the television station, "the super-skinny American fad is spreading to the U.K. and question whether it is spawning an extreme, collective eating disorder." The goal of the documentary is to "highlight the dangers of aiming for a super-skinny look, and expose the serious health risks of extreme weight-loss methods."

Though there are plans to have medical support and expert guidance through every stage of filming the documentary, Britain's Eating Disorder Association is worried about the potential health effects on the journalists who will be participating.

Yep, I am pretty certain that there will be negative effects on the women who drop to a size 00.

Forget about Madrid's ban on super-skinny models! Milan just passed a law that all runway models who plan to walk in the Fall 2007 shows this coming February must be accompanied by a medically certified clean bill of health. City officials say that the regulation is intended to discourage eating disorders, particularly anorexia.

While I salute the city of Milan for taking a stand on this matter, I doubt that this medical certificate idea will have any impact. If a model must have a medical certfication to walk, what would prevent her from just buying one from a corrupt doctor? If anything, these medical certificates are just going to create even more corruption in the Milanese fashion industry.

What do you think? Will requiring models to have a medical certificate make any difference?

When I read Sarah's account of Madrid's ban on models with a BMI of less than 18, I started wondering what that number actually meant in comparison to some of the world's top models. (BMI is Body Mass Index, a measure of weight proportionate to height.) Of course, any person's BMI is a moving target, so all reports of celebrity BMI should be taken as speculative unless made by the celebrity herself while in a startlingly confessional mood. Likewise, the standard healthy-BMI level is a matter of opinion, with some authorities asserting a low ideal of 18-24, and others offering a more relaxed range of 22-26.

No matter the exact range, the reported BMIs of several style icons fall at or below reasonable standards of health, and there is question that 30 percent of the models in the Madrid show flunked their BMI tests -- too skinny. Here are five other reported BMIs:

• Twiggy: 14.7
• Kate Moss: 16.8 (or 15.7)
• Nicole Richie: 17
• Paris Hilton: 16
• Elle MacPherson: 17.3
• Heidi Klum: 18

Part of me wants to commend Madrid for taking a hard stand against this extremely unhealthy standard of beauty. And yet part of me shrugs my shoulders and says, "So what?" After all, for any real change to occur in the fashion industry, designers, stylists, and magazines are going to have to be on board. And that's going to take a lot more than one show's BMI enforcement.

What do you think? Will the fashion industry ever come around?