War on skinny models spreads

last updated 8 January 2015

Milan

Italy said this week it was planning to regulate its fashion industry to halt the trend toward ever-thinner models. That makes Milan, home of Versace and Prada, the first of the top three fashion cities—the other two being Paris and New York—to follow Madrid, which recently passed a law requiring that every model have a body-mass index (a measure of body fat) of at least 18. New York fashion leaders, including Vogue editor Anna Wintour, said they would try to enact voluntary weight rules, to avoid burdensome legislation. Three months ago, Uruguayan model Luisel Ramos, 22, died from anorexia, followed by Brazilian model Ana Carolina Reston, 21, last month. Reston was 5-foot-8 and weighed just 88 pounds—for a body-mass index of 13.5.