Two Parisian luxury fashion companies have written a charter that will regulate the health of runway models in the industry including banning super-skinny models from shows.
Kering, owner of brands like Gucci, Balenciaga, Yves Saint Laurent, and more has teamed up with LVMH, the parent company of Louis Vuitton, Givenchy, and Marc Jacobs, released a joint statement on Wednesday detailing the ways they would work to regulate the well-being of models.
“Our groups strongly believe that it is our ethical and social responsibility to ensure the well-being of all models working with our Houses,” the charter reads. “Therefore, after consulting industry professionals, we have jointly developed guidelines, which go beyond the legal requirements, in order to ensure that fashion models are aways provided with proper working conditions.”
The lengthy set of guidelines include:
- Models have to explicitly consent to nudity and can not be left alone with a photographer or someone linked to the production while nude or getting dressed before or after a show.
- Brands commit to banning size 32 (equivalent size 0) for female model and casting agencies are required to present women models who are “respectively size 34 or over.”
- Models must have access to food and drinks that comply with dietary restrictions
- Models must also have access to a therapist/psychologist during working hours
- Models have to be able to file complaints with agencies, casting directors, or brand employees
The charter, which will be enforced via a monitoring committee, comes after a new French law requires fashion models to obtain medical certificates from doctors to prove they are healthy enough to work.
And just this year, both Kering and LVMH have come under fire for mistreatment of models. In May model Ulrikke Hoyer claimed she was dismissed by Louis Vuitton casting assistant after being told she was “too big” and was instructed to only drink water for 24 hours. And in February of this year Balenciaga fired two casting directors after they were accused of mistreating models.
So will it actually work? As The Fashion Law points out, the CFDA announced in 2011 that models walking in New York Fashion Week had to prove they were at least 16, but then that year a 15-year-old model walked several shows. But while Kering and LVMH could potentially ghost on their own agreement there are at least, in this case, French laws in place to ensure that models are healthy enough to work.
