KEY POINTS:
A poster featuring a cartoon of a scantily clad girl doing drugs and having sex is set to hit the streets this month - and fashion designer Lucie Boshier is making no apologies for it.
The poster, headed, "The fashion industry: Lining up the kids", is the 25-year-old Auckland designer's way of displaying her disgust at the use of young models on the catwalk.
She said she was stung into action after a 12-year-old was used at Australian Fashion Week last September. "Designers are using children - prepubescent girls - to model women's clothes, and they look terrible on them," said Boshier. "It makes women feel inadequate and it makes me feel sick."
It's the second time the opinionated designer has launched a controversial poster. The first, featuring a cartoon of a naked couple having sex surrounded by burqa-clad women, was launched before New Zealand Fashion Week last year.
Top New Zealand designer Trelise Cooper said she would expect nothing less of the "feisty" Boshier. "Lucie is a great designer and a real personality and this is how she does things.
"And I'm with her on this issue - 12 years old is too young to be on a catwalk." Cooper wouldn't comment on the poster until she saw it but said it sounded controversial. "I agree with her message but that doesn't mean I condone the poster and what's on it - but I haven't seen it yet."
Designer Annah Stretton, who often uses her daughter Sam, 19, in her catwalk shows, said the poster sounded "a little outrageous. I've never seen anything as extreme as her posters but they do get her point across, I guess. It's just her way to express how she feels and it works - look how much media attention she gets for herself."
Cooper and Stretton said they would never use models under the age of 16, and prefer to work with 19 to 25-year-olds.
"I understand her message because I don't think there's any need at all to use girls as young as 12, or younger," said Stretton.
"There are plenty of girls who are older and are amazing in the clothes - why would a parent take away a child's youth by submitting her to a world which should be reserved for adults?"
Boshier was looking forward to the unveiling of the poster, which will appear around Auckland from February 15.
"We have to make bold statements if we want to make a difference and not worry about offending people who are scared of change," she said.
"I hope it makes people think because it's the designers, model agencies and photographers who are doing this to kids."
