The fashion industry has once again received calls for it to use models of a healthy weight, in the hope of tackling the problem of eating disorders.
The Women’s Equality Party have announced the launch of its #NoSizeFitsAll campaign, which aims to tackle the growing number of women and girls suffering eating disorders by going to the root of the problem – tiny sample sizes from fashion designers.
The campaign will shine a spotlight, for the first time, on the link between the clothes that designers make for fashion shows, and the unhealthy images of women seen on catwalks, billboards and in magazines.
The #NoSizeFitsAll campaign is also calling for the British Fashion Council to ensure designers showing at London Fashion Week show two different sample sizes in every range, one of which must be a UK size 12 or above. They are also calling for a change in the law to ensure models are of a healthy weight; a commitment from UK fashion publications to include one plus-size spread in every issue; and the inclusion of body image as a mandatory part of PHSE.
The campaign has already been advocated by plus-sized model and mental health advocate, Jada Sezer, who models for L’Oréal; and Rosie Nelson, who started a petition last year after being told by a major London agency to ‘get down to the bone’.
Sophie Walker, leader of the Women’s Equality Party, said, “Fashion designers are creating sample clothes that normal-sized women can only fit into after weeks of starving themselves to the point of malnutrition and fashion agencies are paying their models to be unwell.”
“This collaboration is in turn affecting women and girls across the country whose response to such pervasive imagery of extremely thin ‘role models’ is to seek to imitate their unhealthy appearance.”
“This has created a public health problem that is costing our economy up to £1.3 billion every year, to say nothing of the health and happiness of much of our population. WE aim with this campaign to bring an end at last to the idea that there is only one kind of body and one size of fashion for all.”
“We will ensure the fashion industry no longer gets away with using unhealthy and unsuitable models.”
The #NoSizeFitsAll campaign comes at the same time as the launch of the All Woman Project. Created by British model, Charli Howard and Clémentine Desseaux, the project aims to promote that all women are ‘real women’, regardless of their size, sexuality and race.
The campaign has already recruited some big names in fashion including plus sized models Iskra Lawrence, Denise Bidot, Barbie Ferreira; musicians Leaf and Victoria Brito; androgynous model Elliot Sailors; and activist Shivani Persad.
