No models under 16 for Montreal's Fashion Week
Organizers of Montreal's Fashion Week have banned models under the age of 16 and say they will withdraw models from shows that appear to be struggling with eating disorders.
At least six women were dropped from the show as a result of the new rules.
In a statement issued last week, organizers said they were "making every effort to ensure models whose body mass index appears low or could indicate a problem with anorexia, be withdrawn from shows and directed to professional help in the areas of nutrition or eating disorders."
Chantal Durivage, co-president of Sensation Mode, organizers of Montreal Fashion Week, says the health of young women is at the forefront of the decision.
"We are spearheading this campaign because the health of our young people is important to us and we wish to make a positive contribution to the challenges of public health," Durivage said in a statement.
Dr. Howard Steiger, chief of the eating disorders program at Douglas Hospital, helped push for the new rules for Fashion Week in Montreal.
"I'm not saying these images cause eating disorders, but they contribute in a major way to people thinking they have to be thinner," Steiger says.
Organizers of the industry event, which runs from Oct. 9-11, hope the ban will generate similar measures in other Canadian cities.
"We are intent on having measures that foster this objective in place by 2008, in major events like the Montreal and Toronto fashion and design festivals as well as Montreal Fashion Week," Durivage said.
Fashion industry debate
The policy shift has further fueled the debate over women's health and age appropriateness in the global fashion industry.
Last month, the British Fashion Council banned models under the age of 16 from walking the runways and said models participating in next year's London Fashion Week will have to provide a medical certificate attesting to their good health.
The move followed the starvation-related deaths of South American models Ana Carolina Reston, 21, and sisters Louisel and Eliana Ramos. All died in the past year.
Last year, super-skinny models were banned from Madrid Fashion Week. The ban covers girls with a body mass index of below 18 -- 18.5 to 25 is considered to be healthy according to United Nations standards.
In February, organizers of a top fashion show in Spain rejected five out of 69 fashion models as being too thin and decided to not allow women to walk if their BMI was below 18.
In Milan, considered by most to be the epicentre of Italian fashion, models must now carry medical certificates to prove they are healthy.
The Council of Fashion Designers of America has also issued voluntary guidelines to curb the use of overly thin models.
Last month, organizers of the Gold Coast Fashion week in Australia came under fire for allowing model Maddison Gabriel, who turned 13 in mid-September, to became the face of the festival.
Montreal Fashion Week organizers are taking gradual steps to ensure that models who are sick or emaciated do not parade on catwalks here.
The first move is to bar girls under 16 from the runway in this week's edition of the spring/ summer show.
But there is no ban on skinny models, and there will be no pointing the finger at, or firing of, models who appear very thin.
"We are not medical professionals,'' said Jean François Daviau, co-president of Sensation Mode, which produces the shows. "It's a complicated problem.''
"The first step will be to observe,'' added Chantal Durivage, Daviau's wife and partner in Sensation Mode.
To that end, organizers have asked for advice from the Douglas Mental Health University Institute, whose communications director, Marie-France Coutu, will make resources available should a model appear obviously ill.
There is no formal collaboration so far with fashion week: "Our mission is to get the message out," said psychologist Howard Steiger, who directs the eating disorder program at the institute.
"We have tried to sensitize the fashion industry to the problems inherent in overly thin models,'' he said.
"We're still talking about an industry that exploits thinness in its marketing and encourages the overvaluation of the pursuit of thinness.
"And any time you're doing that, you're talking about creating a pressure that will cause vulnerable people to be susceptible to eating disorders.''
The bar on girls under 16 is based on the assumption that they are more impressionable and that it takes a certain maturity to make wise decisions about dieting and health, Steiger said.
He emphasized that cultural pressures do not cause eating disorders. "Clearly, we're talking about an activation of vulnerabilities in susceptible people that are both biological and psychological."
It is bulimia, not anorexia, that seems to increase in societies that encourage people to be thin, Steiger added.
In recent years, models on catwalks in Europe have become increasingly emaciated, some with a skeletal silhouette thinner and scarier than even the heroin-chic look of the '90s.
Most observers say the problem of extremely emaciated models is not so relevant here.
"I don't think it's a huge problem here,'' said Durivage. "Again, we're not professionals, so let's observe."
Said designer Marie Saint Pierre: "I use models that are healthy and in good shape.''
She added that is the case for most designers in Montreal and Toronto. Saint Pierre said she is concerned on a philosophical level, and for the young women from eastern Europe who seem to become victims of the fashion industry as they arrive by the busload in Milan or Paris.
But Saint Pierre wishes the subject had not been raised at this time. Last week, fashion week organizers issued a press release saying they were spearheading the campaign to raise awareness about the issue of models' health, particularly in regard to eating disorders.
"This one season we should talk about fashion, not models,'' Saint Pierre said.
At least six women were dropped from the show as a result of the new rules.
In a statement issued last week, organizers said they were "making every effort to ensure models whose body mass index appears low or could indicate a problem with anorexia, be withdrawn from shows and directed to professional help in the areas of nutrition or eating disorders."
Chantal Durivage, co-president of Sensation Mode, organizers of Montreal Fashion Week, says the health of young women is at the forefront of the decision.
"We are spearheading this campaign because the health of our young people is important to us and we wish to make a positive contribution to the challenges of public health," Durivage said in a statement.
Dr. Howard Steiger, chief of the eating disorders program at Douglas Hospital, helped push for the new rules for Fashion Week in Montreal.
"I'm not saying these images cause eating disorders, but they contribute in a major way to people thinking they have to be thinner," Steiger says.
Organizers of the industry event, which runs from Oct. 9-11, hope the ban will generate similar measures in other Canadian cities.
"We are intent on having measures that foster this objective in place by 2008, in major events like the Montreal and Toronto fashion and design festivals as well as Montreal Fashion Week," Durivage said.
Fashion industry debate
The policy shift has further fueled the debate over women's health and age appropriateness in the global fashion industry.
Last month, the British Fashion Council banned models under the age of 16 from walking the runways and said models participating in next year's London Fashion Week will have to provide a medical certificate attesting to their good health.
The move followed the starvation-related deaths of South American models Ana Carolina Reston, 21, and sisters Louisel and Eliana Ramos. All died in the past year.
Last year, super-skinny models were banned from Madrid Fashion Week. The ban covers girls with a body mass index of below 18 -- 18.5 to 25 is considered to be healthy according to United Nations standards.
In February, organizers of a top fashion show in Spain rejected five out of 69 fashion models as being too thin and decided to not allow women to walk if their BMI was below 18.
In Milan, considered by most to be the epicentre of Italian fashion, models must now carry medical certificates to prove they are healthy.
The Council of Fashion Designers of America has also issued voluntary guidelines to curb the use of overly thin models.
Last month, organizers of the Gold Coast Fashion week in Australia came under fire for allowing model Maddison Gabriel, who turned 13 in mid-September, to became the face of the festival.
Montreal Fashion Week organizers are taking gradual steps to ensure that models who are sick or emaciated do not parade on catwalks here.
The first move is to bar girls under 16 from the runway in this week's edition of the spring/ summer show.
But there is no ban on skinny models, and there will be no pointing the finger at, or firing of, models who appear very thin.
"We are not medical professionals,'' said Jean François Daviau, co-president of Sensation Mode, which produces the shows. "It's a complicated problem.''
"The first step will be to observe,'' added Chantal Durivage, Daviau's wife and partner in Sensation Mode.
To that end, organizers have asked for advice from the Douglas Mental Health University Institute, whose communications director, Marie-France Coutu, will make resources available should a model appear obviously ill.
There is no formal collaboration so far with fashion week: "Our mission is to get the message out," said psychologist Howard Steiger, who directs the eating disorder program at the institute.
"We have tried to sensitize the fashion industry to the problems inherent in overly thin models,'' he said.
"We're still talking about an industry that exploits thinness in its marketing and encourages the overvaluation of the pursuit of thinness.
"And any time you're doing that, you're talking about creating a pressure that will cause vulnerable people to be susceptible to eating disorders.''
The bar on girls under 16 is based on the assumption that they are more impressionable and that it takes a certain maturity to make wise decisions about dieting and health, Steiger said.
He emphasized that cultural pressures do not cause eating disorders. "Clearly, we're talking about an activation of vulnerabilities in susceptible people that are both biological and psychological."
It is bulimia, not anorexia, that seems to increase in societies that encourage people to be thin, Steiger added.
In recent years, models on catwalks in Europe have become increasingly emaciated, some with a skeletal silhouette thinner and scarier than even the heroin-chic look of the '90s.
Most observers say the problem of extremely emaciated models is not so relevant here.
"I don't think it's a huge problem here,'' said Durivage. "Again, we're not professionals, so let's observe."
Said designer Marie Saint Pierre: "I use models that are healthy and in good shape.''
She added that is the case for most designers in Montreal and Toronto. Saint Pierre said she is concerned on a philosophical level, and for the young women from eastern Europe who seem to become victims of the fashion industry as they arrive by the busload in Milan or Paris.
But Saint Pierre wishes the subject had not been raised at this time. Last week, fashion week organizers issued a press release saying they were spearheading the campaign to raise awareness about the issue of models' health, particularly in regard to eating disorders.
"This one season we should talk about fashion, not models,'' Saint Pierre said.