The debate over skinny models is once again rearing its controversial head. After the news that France is considering a skinny models law, Denmark on Thursday entered the arena, albeit with a somewhat different strategic approach to the problem: one that focuses more on peer pressure within the industry and less on legislative pressure.
Although in general I am enormously skeptical about any Big Brother approach to managing eating issues, which are about a whole host of complicated psychological issues that do not have a one-size-fits-all solution (I went to a boarding school where anorexia and bulimia were ever-present, and we barely looked at a fashion magazine), I think this one just might have a chance to work.
The Danish Fashion Ethical Charter is a four-page document written by the Danish Fashion Institute, Danish Fashion and Textile, the Danish textile organization WEAR, the country’s eight largest model agencies, the Danish Association Against Eating Disorders and Self-Harm, and Model Union Denmark. The charter, first introduced in 2007 but now completely rewritten and reconsidered, includes:
1. Checkups (“Model agencies that commit to the Danish Fashion Ethical Charter have agreed that all their models under the age of 25 will get an annual compulsory health check,” and if they don’t pass, they must be referred to other doctors) and an age limit (models must be 16 to work alone).
2. Food pledges (healthy stuff has to be available at shoots).
3. Compulsory wages. (Models must be paid with actual money; don’t laugh — this doesn’t always happen. Sometimes they are paid in clothes.)
4. Further recommendations (models should be taught about nutrition).
5. Penalties. More on those later.
It doesn’t include numerical definitions about what constitutes “health” (body mass index figures, for example), which is something of a step forward.
Companies and individuals that sign the charter get to use the Ethical Fashion brand on their websites to demonstrate their good faith. Also, they get to claim the higher ground.
All of which sounds very good — except, maybe, for the checkup part; though if you think about models like athletes (that is, professionals whose bodies are part of their equity), it seems less punitive and more practical — but is nonbinding, just like the Council of Fashion Designers of America recommendations on health. Still, judging by what we saw on the New York Fashion Week catwalks, it’s tough to make certain designers toe the line when their “vision” is at stake. So why do the Danish think this is going to work?
Three things:
1. Business: If you want to be part of Copenhagen Fashion Week, which is run by the Danish Fashion Institute, you have to sign the charter. And if you sign the charter and don’t abide by it, after warnings and “reprimands” you will be kicked out of the event. So if you are a fashion brand, or a stylist who works for one, and you want to be in the country’s biggest fashion showcase — which you probably do — you need to get on board.
2. Naming and shaming: But if you do get on board, and then you don’t do what you signed on to do, not only can you be kicked out of fashion week, but you will be placed on a blacklist posted online.
That would be embarrassing.
3. Plus, there’s the fact that for the last few years Denmark has been trying to carve out an identifiable space for itself in the very crowded international fashion market by being the most ethical of all fashion countries, hosting the Copenhagen Sustainable Fashion Summit (full disclosure: I was a speaker), and adding a number of “green” dimensions to its fashion week. The charter ups the ante.
In any case, according to Eva Kruse, chief executive of the Danish Fashion Institute, so far 300 companies and individuals have signed on, including the fashion label Day Birger et Mikkelsen and the public relations agency Hill & Knowlton Strategies.
“We think that the fact that the industry is taking such an active part in the charter will have a much greater impact, also in the long run, than legislation issued by the authorities and fines,” Ms. Kruse said.
What do you think?