Michael Kors has declared a new age limit for models, saying he would not employ models under 16 years of age. Speaking at a fashion forum, attended by Anna Wintour and model Natalia Vodianova at Harvard Business School, he called for more guidelines for models under 18.
The Great Weight Debate centered around body image and pressure on models to be super thin. In announcing that he would not employ models under 16, Kors seems to have introduced a change in the American fashion industry.
Kors said at a reception before the panel discussion, “I think super-young girls used to be the exception. There’s always been a Twiggy, or a model who is very young. But they were few and far between. Now, they’re completely common. That’s something I see as a huge problem. The fashion industry is starting to address real women again. Adults are in vogue. What a shock. This show season really was about the return of the adult in every city. . . . The emphasis in fashion is shifting toward an emphasis on real women who are women, not girls. The reality is that women who buy designer clothes are 30-plus. The visual has to match the reality. Girls dressed up in their mother’s clothes? Guess what, it’s not attractive.’’
In an interview with the Boston Globe before the panel, Anna Wintour addressed the issue of eating disorders, calling it a “code of silence.” She said, “The models were so frightened of recrimination and that they wouldn’t be booked for shoots or shows that they didn’t want to talk about what everybody knew was going on.
Creating guidelines within the industry to know what to do when they see a girl with a problem was an important first step. What we’ve been doing with discussions like this one is making sure that the message gets out there to everyone.’’
Talking about her struggle with eating disorders, Russian model Vodianova gave the most insightful comment, saying: “Their (her fellow models) sense of self-worth is handed over to a bunch of people who don’t care about their self-esteem.”
The three celebrities helped raise $150,000 for the Harris Center. The Great Weight Debate centers around eating disorders among models, who vie for a super-thin image. Another cause for concern is that, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “average American woman weighs just shy of 165 pounds.”
Spain has banned half-thin models from the runway.
