11 February 2008

MADRID - Madrid's Fashion Week will begin today, but without three British models that were sent home from the casting yesterday after failing to show the minimum body mass index (BMI) of 18 required for models to take the catwalk in the nation's capital.

The BMI minimum for Madrid Fashion Week became a requirement for the regional government, which is the event's main sponsor, before Fall Fashion Week in September of 2006, and resulted in five out of 68 models being excluded.

While the initiative to promote a healthy image of beauty was lauded by most, it caused an uproar with modelling agencies - including a proposed, but later cancelled, boycott of the Cibeles shows - which claimed that the measures were unnecessary and would only hurt the industry. It also resulted in the exclusion of two of Spain's top models, Eugenia Silva and Marta Español, who refused to be weighed.

This year, however, Dr Susana Monereo, who has overseen Madrid Fashion Week events since 2006, said the testing "has become a completely normal affair," adding that the average model's BMI has gone up. The World Health Organisation registers a person with a BMI of less than 18 as "thin," while a "normal" BMI is  18.5-24.9.

[Copyright EL PAÍS / KELLY RAMUNDO 2008]

Subject: Spanish news