Fashion industry launches inquiry into health of models

The fashion industry has acknowledged concerns over thinness on the catwalk by announcing an independent inquiry into the health of models.

A British Fashion Council panel will examine whether designers and agencies are imposing dangerous physical standards on their representatives.

Sitting in judgement will be eating-disorder organisations, health professionals, model agencies, academics, designers, retailers and models. Chaired by Denise Kingsmill, who led a government inquiry into women's pay, the panel is the industry's answer to critics of so-called "size zero" models.

Last month, the Culture Secretary, Tessa Jowell, entered the debate by calling for extremely thin women to be kept off the catwalk. She asked the fashion industry to take action to stop urging unrealistic physical shapes on women.

The current controversy about thin models was prompted last summer by the death of the Uruguayan model Luisel Ramos, 22, who died in August of heart failure after not eating for several days in an attempt to stay thin. A second model, Ana Carolina Reston, a Brazilian who sufferered from anorexia nervosa, died last year.

In September, Madrid Fashion Week stoked the dispute by banning models with a body mass index of less than 18. But in February, London Fashion Week - which is owned and run by the British Fashion Council - resisted imposing a similar limit. Instead, it urged designers to use only healthy-looking models aged over 16. Debate about the issue overshadowed the commercial showcase for British designers.

The BFC said yesterday that the inquiry would be completed by late summer in time for London Fashion Week in September and would recommend practical measures to tackle any problems. Hilary Riva, the chief executive, said: "The British Fashion Council has established this panel to review current practice and issue clear guidance on model health and age so that, as an industry, we can ensure we are behaving responsibly and in the interests of those models who work in this country."

Baroness Kingsmill, the former deputy chair of the Competition Commission, said she was "delighted" the council had initiated the investigation. She promised that her inquiry would "separate fact from supposition and speculation" in an "emotive and volatile" area. The debate about the US size zero, the equivalent of British size four, was caused by celebrities dieting to a skinny size.

Marcelle D'Argy Smith, a former editor of Cosmopolitan, welcomed the inquiry but doubted the fashion industry would change. "I think the inquiry is a good initiative but I think the fashion industry isn't going to do it. I think they've been pushed into this. I think they have to make the right noises," she said.

She complained that, despite months of controversy, magazine models were still stick thin. She said: "They have got legs like my arms. Nothing has happened. If Sophia Loren walked down the red carpet today she would be laughed off."

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