THE fashion industry has made strides in recent years to combat its reputation of fetishising waif-like models, and include more diverse body types.
But it appears for all the push towards inclusion that we are STILL seeing skeletal runway models with sunken cheeks, stick-thin legs and knobbly knees.
The debate over the issue was reignited at Paris Fashion Week at the Yves Saint Laurent runway show on Tuesday – which seemed to once again promote malnourished models as the benchmark of beauty.
This was ironically from the label who pledged in 2017 to restrict using super-thin models.
Francois-Henri Pinault, the billionaire chairman of Kering – the parent company behind the likes of YSL, Gucci and Alexander McQueen – said at the time he wanted to “inspire the industry to follow suit”.
But it appears little has changed, if this year’s show is anything to go by.
The YSL runway in particular featured oversized jackets, baggy shorts and gaping boots, which made the worryingly slender-limbed models appear even skinnier in comparison.
Some people refer to particularly skeletal models as “Paris thin”, as there’s a reputation in the industry that the models at PFW are typically thinner than in other shows.
Former Australian Vogue editor Kirstie Clements admitted that when a model had starved herself down two sizes to be cast in international shows she had achieved the “Paris thin” goal.
Kirstie wrote in the Guardian: “This dubious achievement was generally accompanied by mood swings, extreme fatigue, binge eating and sometimes bouts of self-harming.
“All in the quest to fit into a Balenciaga sample.”
It’s not the first time YSL has come under fire in particular.
In 2015 an advert by the fashion company was banned by the UK’s advertising watchdog, the ASA, for using a model who appeared to be unhealthily underweight.
And steps have been taken in the industry as a whole to allegedly prevent the issue of casting malnourished models.
Back in 2017, a new law was passed in France banning the use of unhealthily thin models from the runways.
Models were told they needed to provide a doctor’s certificate as proof of their overall health, including their body mass index (BMI) – which measures their weight in relation to their height.
But while the movement in the industry aims to help beat eating disorders and inaccessible ideals, models are STILL being penalised for being too large.
Just last week, British model Edie Campbell, 28, was told she was “too big” to open a show at Milan Fashion Week.
Taking to Instagram, the 5ft10in model, who has 24-and-a-half-inch waist, joked that by “too big”, she didn’t mean “too famous”, but she was told she was “too fat”.
Size eight to 10 model Edie didn’t name and shame the company in her social media post, which showed her tucking into a “slap up brekkie” in her hotel room.
However, it could easily apply to numerous big labels who continually push waif-like ideals on the runway.
Eating disorder charity, Beat, said it was time clothing companies changed their practices.
The charity’s head of communications, Rebecca Field, told the Daily Mail: “The idealisation of thinness that is often presented by the fashion industry can be a key factor in exacerbating the illness.
“Fashion retailers should recognise and respect the diversity in people’s natural body shapes and sizes.
“Eating disorders are serious mental illnesses with multiple causes, so pressure to fit certain size clothes would never be the sole and direct reason for someone developing one.”
The backlash comes amid an ongoing debate over models’ weight.
Magazine Cosmopolitan came under fire for “glamorising obesity” after using size-26 model Tess Holliday on their cover.
PrettyLittleThing was also accused of ‘promoting obesity’ by using plus-size models.
And at the other end of the spectrum, fellow clothing store Nasty Gal had a trio of adverts banned after their model was deemed ‘too skinny’.
Fabulous Digital has contacted Yves Saint Laurent for a comment.
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