Size Zero Models

London Fashion Week ignited further controversy last week after refusing to ban 'size zero' models at their shows later this month.

The deaths of models: Uruguayan Luisel Ramos, who died of heart failure after eating nothing for days, and Brazilian Ana Carolina Reston, of anorexia, highlight this issue.

Firstly, the British Fashion Council are weak for not attempting to regulate the size of models employed by designers, claiming that such rules are not enforceable. They are putting too much faith in the designers themselves and their 'apparent' consciences.

London Fashion Week, with sponsors including Topshop, infectiously seeks, and more alarmingly influences, its prey with their dazzling seasonal collections whilst allowing them to cry with inadequacy of 'size zero' models-equal to a UK 4. Are they not shifting the nation so that women, in particular, must tailor their shapes to fit the designs, opposed to the designers catering for (and representing) us?

Such representation needs to extend from the catwalks and into the high-street stores. The average mannequin is a size 10, alarmingly smaller than the UK average woman, size 16. Not only can these inanimate figures project low self esteem onto shoppers but put pressure on customers to fit the ironically 'large' expectations designers have of us to be smaller than we naturally are. More stores, including Asda, are introducing UK size 4 garments, typically having a 22 inch waist measurement, the average size of an eight year old girl.

The designers need to open their eyes and firmly accept a high level of responsibility, if not fault, that their actions can be considered to directly affect young people in Britain and possibly highly contribute to the level of eating disorders in the UK. Their association, perhaps linked with praise, with underweight 'role' models reaching virtually all media outlets including 'pro-anorexia' websites.

Despite eye-opening efforts by Gaultier who strutted a size 20 model, Velvet, down the catwalk last October, (supposedly showing universal beauty, but can be considered to mock the whole debate if no long-term use of 'healthy' models are used) there have been more attacks on the fashion industry and their use of skeletal clothes horses, but the British Fashion Council decided against the adoption of banning models from the catwalk if they possess a BMI (Body Mass Index) of under 18.5, unlike Madrid. However, the use of models under 16 is prohibited.