Skinny Models Fall Out of Fashion

Sept. 18, 2006 — -- They're the queens of the catwalk: beautiful, glamorous and thin -- sometimes, very thin.

But are some models so thin that they should be kept off the runway?

Some officials want to ban super-thin models from the annual London Fashion Week.

After facing protests from women's groups, Madrid, Spain, rocked the fashion world by rejecting models from its fashion week.

"I thought what a good idea. … So many young people are anorexic or bulimic," said Dee Doocey, a member of the London Assembly.

London officials say stick-thin models send the wrong message to girls.

In Madrid, 30 percent of the models didn't make the cut. Many others decided not to go.

"I'm a little bit upset because we love to go there, and we love Spain and everything," said model Davina Mulimbi.

The Madrid standards still cut a very trim figure: a 5-foot-9-inch model, for instance, has to weigh 123 pounds.

Industry Debates Weight Issue

At New York's Fashion Week, some designers said Madrid's new policy was in line with what they already did.

Michael Kors says he doesn't look for super thin on his runway.

"I like a curvy body. I like real women, you know?" Kors said. "I mean, my clothes have to translate to real life."

Models, so used to an industry where being super slender is richly rewarded, have mixed feelings.

"There are people in the industry that you know don't eat and struggle, and you know, nobody says anything about it," Michelle Boswell said.

"It's a difficult issue because you never know. You can't just look at a person and if they're skinny, she's anorexic and she's sick," another model Tiiu Kuik said.

While London authorities ponder a ban, they're getting support from Brits like author JK Rowling, who says she doesn't want her children to be "empty-headed, self-obsessed clones."

However, London Fashion Week organizers have rejected calls to ban super-skinny models.

"Outright bans and indeed legislation is definitely not a route we want to go down," said Stuart Rose, the event's chairman.

Still, it's an issue unlikely to go away, with city officials in Milan, Italy -- the fashion capital of the world -- now considering weight requirements of their own.