Nothing has changed despite efforts to end the fashion industry’s idealisation of super-skinny models
The fashion industry’s national organisation inked an ethical charter two years ago aimed at protecting the health of models.
Praise was heaped upon the industry for attempting to steer away from the undernourished, skinny ideal that has long been the branch’s maligned trademark.
But a new study conducted by the national society against eating disorders and self-mutilation (LMS) shows the industry has largely ignored the document’s contents. LMS had hoped the Danish Fashion Institute’s initial co-operation in drafting and signing the charter would make a dent in the physically and psychologically damaging trend.‘We’ve been forced to acknowledge that the fashion industry hasn’t learned much in the past two years,’ LMS president Anne Minor Christensen told Berlingske Tidende newspaper.
Despite the fashion institute taking part in drafting the charter, there was still strong resistance within the industry to follow the guidelines, said Christensen.
As a result of its findings, LMS was now proposing that all models undergo a complete annual physical examination. In addition, all digitally manipulated photographs should be clearly marked as such.
Christensen said LMS wanted ethical council created with representatives from interest organisations, politicians and the fashion industry itself, to work on changing society’s attitudes toward body shape ideals.
Designer Antonie Lauritzen, who was once herself a model, believed the industry was having to carry the lion’s share of responsibility for promoting the too-skinny ideal.
‘The fashion industry has always had the power to manipulate the masses and determine the ideal body, all the way back to the days of the crinoline,’ Lauritzen said.
‘It’s the designers who decide how we dress and look, so we therefore have to make clothing that fits people the way the are and not ones where they have to live up to a standard.’
The LMS research estimates up to 75,000 people in Denmark – primarily women and girls – suffer from eating disorders.
