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NEW YORK - The American fashion industry has circulated guidelines to designers and catwalk organisers on how better to identify eating disorders among models intent on achieving near-skeletal body profiles but which stop short of barring severely underweight women from the catwalks.
The guidelines were adopted last week by members of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, headed by veteran designer Diane von Furstenberg and are being issued ahead of the next New York Fashion Week which opens on 2 February.
They come after the recent deaths from of two models in South America.
The measures are likely to be controversial for what they do not say, however.
Most significantly, the group has chosen not to follow the footsteps of both Madrid and Milan which last year issued minimum height-weight ratios beneath which girls will be barred from their catwalks.
Instead, the group, which also includes Anna Wintour, the editor of American Vogue, offers assorted ideas on keeping a more vigilant eye on models.
They include scheduling fashion-show fittings during the daytime instead of after dark to give them more sleeping hours, urging designers to work harder at spotting models with eating disorders and "improving the quality of backstage catering.
It is important as a fashion industry to show our interest and see what we can do because we are in a business of image," Ms von Furstenberg commented.
"But I feel like we should promote health as a part of beauty rather than setting rules." However, nutrition experts are already expressing disappointment that the Council is not following the tougher example set first by Madrid.
"Their response looks like a PR cover for a real problem," commented Lynn Grefe, chief executive of the National Eating Disorders Association.
"It's nothing we don't do already," David Bonnouvrier, head of DNA Model Management, told the New York Times.
"I hope it will be successful.
It is a serious enough issue that people will pay attention, but we cannot dictate dictate designers' choices.
There will be a conscious effort for a while to address this, but whether that will last is another issue."
Madrid stunned the industry in September when it decreed that models who fellow beneath a certain body-mass level would be outlawed from its fashion show.
Milan later took a similar step.
Concern with the problem deepened when a top Brazilian model, Ana Carolina Reston, died in November from anorexia.
She weighed barely 88 pounds at her death.
"The fashion industry is acknowledging the weight debate as a serious issue," Ms Von Furstenberg said.
"Together with medical professionals we are committed to promoting good health and helping these young girls."
- INDEPENDENT
