Eye: LVMH & Kering Issue Joint Statement Banning Too Thin, Too Young Models

Eye: LVMH & Kering Issue Joint Statement Banning Too Thin, Too Young Models

French luxury titans LVMH and Kering issued a joint statement on Wednesday, announcing their intention to curb use of ultra-thin -- typically called size 0 -- models on runways and in ad campaigns,writes Bloomberg. 

The Paris-based companies said they’d implement stricter guidelines for the treatment of models, including increasing minimum garment sizes for fashion shows as well as requiring them to have medical certificates attesting to their good health. Models below the age of 16 will be banned from showing grown-up fashions, while those ages 16 to 18 will need to be chaperoned, the companies said in a joint statement Wednesday.

“Certain subjects rise above any competition,” Antoine Arnault, chief executive officer of LVMH-owned shoemaker Berluti and eldest son of group chairman Bernard Arnault, said in an interview. “There have been problems in all houses with the way fashion models work, with their well-being and even their psychological safety. A lot of the models are very young, and they don’t have the necessary experience to cope with certain situations. They will be looked after.”

The joint strategy between the two conglomerates -- a decision that impacts luxury brands including LVMH's Louis Vuitton, Dior, Celine, Givenchy and more and Kering's Gucci, Saint Laurent, Balenciaga, Stella McCartney, Bottega Veneta and more- reflects growing concern over teenage eating disorders. 

I cannot believe this is happening, eight years after Ralph Lauren fired Filippa Hamilton for being too fat -- as a size 4 -- and the downsizing of models worldwide became a bitter fight in fashion. When I said yesterday on FB that I would be returning to this debate in my writing, I had no idea this move by two corporate giants in fashion was about to be announced.

The world of social media is so much more influential now, than eight years ago. When model Ulrikke Hoyer made waves in May 2017, after arriving in Kyoto to be told that she was "too bloated" and "too big" to wear the clothes and should only drink water for 24 hrs., Ulrikke went public and told her followers about the event, shared on Models.com.