KEY POINTS:
The organisers of New Zealand's Fashion Week are taking an independent stand in the international debate over which models are too thin to do their jobs.
Various international fashion weeks have issued guidelines and rules about how skinny is too skinny for the catwalk.
Fuelled by scathing media attention and the recent deaths of three South American models, apparently from complications of anorexia, the pressure has been on European fashion insiders to resolve the problem of unhealthily thin models.
The Australians weighed in this week with organisers in Sydney announcing they would join the Spanish, Italian, American and British events in issuing healthy weight guidelines for models in time for the April-May runway shows.
And at the fashion shows held last week in Melbourne a nutritionist was reportedly on hand to observe the selection of models and to advise on any concerns relating to weight.
But the organisers of New Zealand Fashion Week have no plans to follow suit.
Pieter Stewart, managing director of Fashion Week, said such strict policing would not be necessary.
"I see it as the responsibility of the individual designers who they employ as models," she said.
"However they [the designers] and I would definitely endorse any initiative that promotes and supports the health and welfare of models.
Sara Tetro, director of 62 Models and Talent, which provided the largest number of models to runway shows at New Zealand Fashion Week last year, said she would be happy to look at any guidelines.
"Up until now we haven't had any problems or complaints and nothing like this has been brought to our attention. Because if anyone gets too far below their natural body weight they don't look good - they get that gaunt look, they get shadows under their eyes - and we need girls to look good."
Although it might not always appear that way to the general public, both Tetro and Stewart said that New Zealand models tended to be larger than international models.
"Unlike in other markets, our advertisers and clients and the New Zealand public seem to prefer more realistically sized models," Tetro said. "Which means girls that work here are a much more realistic shape than girls in almost any other country."
"International guests have commented that our models are actually heavier than those around the world," said Stewart. "We don't have a problem with underweight models."
Even so, eating disorder experts would like to see the local fashion industry make a more rigid commitment.
But they said it was not correct to accuse the fashion industry of causing anorexia.
"The issue of eating disorders is certainly too complex to be solved by anything as simple as obtaining bigger [sized] catwalk models," said Glynn Owens, professor of health psychology at Auckland University.
"Eating disorders are more likely to reflect a host of other underlying problems and cultural values tend to direct the problem rather than causing it."
However, as Dr Charles Fishman, a psychiatrist and director of the New Zealand Eating Disorder Specialists Centre in Auckland, said, "guidelines can be pretty fluffy things. There should be a more concrete definition".
Dr Fishman said he would support something like the tough Spanish rule, which bans models with a BMI of less than 18 from runway work.
"It would be a very simple thing," he said. "They could just get a letter from their GP. It would be like the authority a prize fighter has to get before entering the ring."
"This issue is just part of a context in which we idolise scarily emaciated women," said Dr Maree Burns, co-ordinator at the Eating Difficulties Education Network, also based in Auckland.
"It's part of a bigger issue - I think it would be nice to have fashion reflecting more diversity in shape and size in general. But I think for [Fashion Week] to have some guidelines is a great idea. It would be even more fantastic if there was some agreement about an actual benchmark."
Reports from fashion editors overseas agree that the ongoing coverage of the debate has made some difference.
While most models still look thin, in Paris, Milan and London designers seem to have sidelined any terrifyingly undernourished looking girls to avoid being seen as the employers of the unhealthy or to have their clothes overshadowed by headlines of a different kind.
Whether it remains that way, and whether size 14 figures will ever become more prevalent on high fashion runways, is another question altogether.
Shaping up
* Overseas fashion industry groups have done everything from instituting guidelines and distributing booklets on healthy eating backstage at shows, to banning younger models and ensuring there is plenty to eat backstage.
* In Spain and Italy models with a body mass index, or BMI, of less than 18 have been banned from catwalks. The BMI measures whether your weight is appropriate for your height. Between about 18.5 and 25 is optimal.
* In Madrid medics even check on girls backstage and reports suggest that 30 per cent of the models who have previously worked at the event have been turned away.
