8 September 2006

MADRID — Skinny models are to be banned from Madrid Fashion Week for the first time, the city council said on Friday.

Almost a third of the models who were to take part in the  Pasarela Cibeles later this month have been rejected after they did not meet strict body mass index (bmi) rules.

It is the first time a major European fashion festival has turned its back on the ultra-thin waif look which has for years been so popular on the catwalks.

Spain's best-known model Esther Canadas does not qualify under the new rules which were brought in by Madrid city council. 

The rules stipulate models who are 1.75 metres tall must weigh a minimum of 56 kilogrammes.

This means the lowest bmi is 18, but Cañadas is said to have a bmi of only 14.
 
The ban is the latest stage in an on-going row in Spain over the fashion for extreme thinness on the catwalks and in the windows of High Street shops.

Last April, Cuca Solana, the organiser of the Paserela Cibeles, was called to appear before parliamentary commission for youth in connection with the controversy.

Solana had to answer criticism by the campaign group the Association for the Defence of Victims of Anorexia and Bulimia (Adaner) about models lying about their weight in order to get work.

A television programme showed models admitting they were size 34 or 36, instead of 38 - the minimum size allowed - even though they knew this might endanger their health.   

Adaner claimed models were being put under pressure by the industry and could become anorexic or bulimic.

Concha Guerra, of Madrid city council which sponsors Madrid Fashion Week to the tune of EUR 400,000 each year, said a nutritional expert would check all the models who took part.

Models whose bmi is below 16 would receive health treatment.

Jesús del Pozo, vice-president of the Spanish Association of Fashion Designers, said between 30-40 percent of the models who took part in last year's Paserela Cibeles would have fallen foul of the new rules.

Susana Moreneo, of the Spanish Society for Endochrinology and Nutrition, said: "The pressure to be thin can embitter many lives and cause many health problems, not just anorexia and bulimia, but osteoporosis."

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news