Italy launches model license
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Runway models in Italy will require a modelling license in order to appear on the world's most glamorous catwalks in an effort to combat the ongoing battle with size zero models deemed too thin to be healthy. After Spain, Italy is the latest country to publicly combat unhealthy disorders and the growing influence of ultra-thin body types. Models booked for the Milan ready-to-wear shows will need a license to walk the runway next season, if Italy's Chamber of Fashion has anything to say about it.
The license will be issued by a committee ranging from nutritionists to city officials, and act as a 'guarantee' that the model is healthy before she treads on the catwalk and is photographed. The license is just one of the issues of the "ethical code of self-regulation" that was presented to the press on Monday by the Camera della Moda and the mayor of Milan, according to WWD.
The growing concern for underweight models perpetuated by an industry that celebrates thinness is being reverberated around the world, with well-known designers such as Giorgio Armani and celebrities such as Cameron Diaz, also a former model, to speak out against fashion houses using too thin girls with the message that that to be beautiful means being thin, even underweight.
The new rules stipulate that models should be aged 16 or older (Kate Moss was discovered when she was 14 and others as young as 13 have graced the major brand's catwalks.) To ensure optimal health, the code plans to comply with a Body Mass Index of 18.5, set by the World Health Organization. However, the Italian code takes into account geographical and ethnic factors that may define different body types.
The ethnic-geographic consideration had been overlooked by Spanish fashion industry officials, who last season banned superskinny models from the Madrid runways. Madrid was both ridiculed and praised when it gained headlines around the world by drawing attention to the connection between fashion and the risks of eating disorders by reinforcing the World Health Organization's Body Mass Index. But the Italian code points out: "We cannot limit ourselves to numerical parameters or preset formulas. For this reason, a personalized analysis is necessary."