France is trying to revamp the model’s body image, one far-too-thin model at a time. Members of The French Fashion Federation, the National Union of Modeling Agencies, and the French Advertising Standards Authority got together to discuss the ever present issue of unhealthy models. Rather than imposing more laws on the French fashion world, these organizations want to launch a campaign to promote healthy body images and encourage models get regular medical check-ups.
Now before I go on my editorial rant, I just wanted to state something. I don’t know much about French health regulations but I know that in the US doctors encourage ALL people to get regular medical check-ups. Growing up, the end of August was usually spent going to the doctor for annual physical exams because of state and school regulations. France is very advanced country so I’m going to assume that they have similar, if not, the same regulations regarding all people, not just models.
The problem with trying to change a model’s weight isn’t typically up to the model but up to the designer. Traditionally, a model is simply supposed to act as a hanger for the clothes she is modelling so having a model gain weight might jeopardize her contract with an agency or designer.
Valerie Boyer, deputy for France’s UMP party, is trying to have all pro-anorexia paraphenelia (including bloggers like these) made illegal. But that seems like an impossible task to tackle.
For more info on France’s plan of attack on the super skinny model, please check out NYMag.com.
